This year, Australia’s largest open studios event, Margaret River Region Open Studios, invites visitors into the creative worlds of over 160 Western Australian makers, including Leon Pericles, Lauren Wilhelm, Rebecca Cool, Lesley Meaney, Ian Daniell, John Miller, Mary-Lynne Stratton, Rachel Coad, and Christian Fletcher.
From hobbyists to emerging and professional artists, kilns will be firing, lathes turning, oil paints daubed on palettes, printing presses cranking, fabrics stretched, precious metals tempered, glass blown, and mosaics cut as they throw open their studio doors from 9 to 24 September 2023 and invite in art-inquisitive visitors to have a peek into their creative environments and artmaking techniques.
Myles Happ throwing pots, 2022. Photograph: Jodie Berry. Courtesy the artist and Margaret River Region Open Studios, Western Australia
“This year, we have artists opening their studios from Busselton to Augusta and in an exciting array of artforms. . . drawing, glass, jewellery, mixed media, mosaics, painting, photography, pottery, ceramics, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, upcycling, and woodwork,” says Deputy Chair Jacquie Happ.
For the first time, Margaret River Region Open Studios will host two Art Ambassadors: renowned Queensland painter and sculptor Michael Zavros and Perth-based designer and champion of art and design Andrew Thornton Hick. Zavros will make his first trip to Western Australia to attend the first week of the sixteen-day event.
A new website, with profiles of each participating artist, allows for an Artist TrailMaker feature where visitors can map a trail of their favourite artists, art forms, or locations. Spring is the perfect time to visit the Margaret River Region – road trip the quiet back roads to discover studios in homes, hobby farms, converted water tanks, beach shacks, industrial sheds, sea containers, shearing sheds, bush blocks, a “Sheila shack,” and more.
