Portobello Art Walk

I told you we headed to the beach recently. Well, just like we did two years ago on another wonderful sunny day, we stumbled upon the Portobello Art Walk. This is a delightful event where many of the myriad of artists who live in Portobello open up their studios for a walking tour. It's such a delightful little town, this can be managed in a few hours of happy meandering.That said, when we bagan the tour after a lovely lunch with friends Penelope and (her son) James, the tide was in and I wondered how an artist had managed to affix this enormous metal octopus onto the tide marker.No matter, we had studios to explore... Each is charming in its own way, from stand alone studios behind houses to flats with barely enough room to move. But they are all the homes of massive creativity, both inside and out. Some are quite business-like and stream-lines, some are just explosions of stuff. The average skill level is fairly high, from better-than-average to full-on professionals. I loved this view out a studio window into the garden...where I found this installation.And this installation of cut-outs and wall shapes. (I believe these were in the studios of Jane Rutherford and Mark Haddon.) And this sculpture of "Feral Boys" spilling down Teresa Gordon's entrance way staircase was fantastic!And I adored Paul MacPhail's photographs. What I really enjoyed were the bits and bobs the artists had decorating their spaces for inspiration. Like these found objects on a metal beam.Or this bird-feeding station with a ceramic bird.Or this amazing glass and ceramic studio that housed some impressive equipment.Stan enjoyed the artists' assistants that we often came across, like this tom cat.It would seem that the ArtWalk happens on the most beautiful day of the year, each year, as it's now pulled us to Portobello twice. By the time we reached the end of the day, the tide had rolled out revealing how that octopus had been affixed to the tide marker. Lovely!Perhaps next year, we'll just plan to go on purpose!