ALMOST 1,000 artists are gearing up to throw their studios open to the public for Oxfordshire Artweeks.

The painters, sculptors, designers and potters are busy putting the final touches to their work.

More than 500 exhibitions and events will take place to celebrate the county’s talents from next Saturday until May 27.

Artist Clare Goodall, from Bayswater Road, Oxford, is looking forward to one of the highlights of her year.

The 49-year-old said: “Artweeks brings everybody out in the open and makes you realise how much creativity is going on.

“It gives you something to really work for, and it is inspiring for us as artists to see how others work and talk to people. It’s a real boost for everyone.”

She will be displaying her series of bird-themed colourful mosaics, and demonstrating how she makes them, at the Wellbeing Clinic in Windmill Road, Headington, over the course of Oxfordshire Artweeks.

Eight-year-old Charlie Maunder is the youngest contributor, exhibiting his drawings and prints of cars and machines at the Phoenix Picturehouse in Walton Street, Oxford.

Award-winning silverware and jewellery designer Stella Campion, who is displaying her work at the city’s Cowley Road Studios, has exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Festival director Esther Browning said: “We are excited once again to see so many new artists taking part.

“It is lovely to have fresh work from youngsters as well as people who have built up successful careers. Oxfordshire Artweeks is a career- maker for many.

“A reasonable number of artists use this to see if people really like their work – they build up their following from it, it’s often their first step on the ladder. And it’s often the only chance people get to see the artist.

“You can go and look at art in galleries but you can’t necessarily actually talk to the artist, ask what inspired them and find out how or why they did their work to really understand it – which you can at Oxfordshire Artweeks.”

The annual festival is in its 31st year.

For three weeks the public can visit studios across Oxfordshire.

The first week focuses on Oxford itself, where nearly 200 art spaces are inviting people in.

During the second week South Oxfordshire takes over as the host, with exhibitions from Faringdon to Thame.

In the final week, North Oxfordshire is displaying work from the historic market towns of Bicester and Banbury and into the Cotswolds.

To find out what is going on, where and when, go to artweeks.org