Ever fancied trying your hand at art but felt somewhat fake by painting with watercolours in your kitchen?

As part of the Phoenix Gallery's Watch this Space exhibition, members of the public will be encouraged to contribute to, and possibly even become, art.

Seven local artists will be opening their collective studio space for public scrutiny.

You'll be able to walk round the studio, talk to the artists as they work and contribute as they develop a collective work in progress.

It could be said that by removing the artist-audience barrier, an artistic statement is made by questioning the role of an artist.

When is an artist an artist? When they're in their studio, what will that make the audience, who influence the art? Artists themselves?

If that seems a tenuous statement, the public's role will go even further towards contributing to the pieces.

One artist will be making sculptures and will ask to take casts of the perusing public, another will be weaving pieces which the audience are invited to contribute to.

Bus tickets, handkerchiefs, ties, could all be woven into the fabric of the piece and turn the art into a genuinely public piece.

Local artists Robert Anderson, Darren Calder, Angela Carter-Rhodes, Chris Cook, Dinah Sheriff, and June Nelson were all selected from applicants on the Phoenix Studios waiting list.

Combining the mediums of weaving, drawing, sculpture, painting, installation, mixed media, and of course, public influence, the Watch This Space exhibition looks to question the way in which people apply labels.

So if you've never thought of yourself as an artist, don't worry, you may already be one!

Admission is free. For further details, call the Phoenix Gallery on 01273 603700 or email info@phoenixarts.org
Preview by Jon Falcone, features@theargus.co.uk