Art in Woodstock - Artist Alison Parry at Creative Art Gallery

WOODSTOCK is staging a celebration of the visual arts, which will take place from October 23 to 28, and involve most of the shops, hotels, and galleries in town.

Even the local garage and the old school is taking part.

Artist Alison Parry, pictured, who works at the Creative Art gallery, in High Street, is particularly excited about the celebrations, as several of her atmospheric abstract works will be on display in the gallery. They will be hung alongside several very colourful paintings by the highly acclaimed, award-winning artist Peter Wileman, vice-president of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He will be at the Creative Art gallery from 1pm to 4pm on Saturday, October 27, to talk about his work.

Other establishments, such as the Marlborough Arms hotel, will be staging talks. On Thursday, a panel discussion on The Artist's Ego will take place there at 7.30pm, and on Friday, at 7.30pm, Tom Kemp will be asking What's The Point of Art?, while Nick Owen discusses photography.

There are also artist's workshops throughout the week, including a drawing workshop with the popular children's book illustrator Korky Paul, who will be inviting children aged eight to 14 to join him at the town hall from 2pm to 3pm on Thursday, October 25. Those who know Korky's work or have watched him interact with a group of youngsters don't need to be told this workshops will probably prove to be one of the highlights of the the celebration.

A drop-in workshop with sculptor Anne Carrington for children aged from five to 16 will take place in the Woodstock Museum gardens from 11am to 4pm on Saturday. For children who enjoy landscape painting, George Mogg will be staging a morning workshop for children aged five to eight, and an afternoon workshop for older children at the Marlborough School, on Sunday, October 28.

On walking around the town, visitors will discover that there are works of art in virtually every shop window - making Woodstock a great place to visit next week.