CO LCHESTER and Tendring Open Studios starts this weekend with more chances to get a look at how artists work.

Currently in its 18th year, the Open Studios provides the unique opportunity for the public to visit artists and craftspeople and have a look around their studios.

There is also an opportunity to talk to them directly about what they do as well as purchases or commission unique works directly from the artist who created them.

More than 60 artists in various towns and villages across the area are taking part this year over the next four weekends.

They include Mersea painter and printmaker Elizabeth Morris, Colchester painter Sally Pudney, Feering printmaker and textile artist Ben Goode-Adams, and Wivenhoe ceramicist Pru Green, owner of the town’s Sentinel Gallery.

This weekend there will also be a chance to see the work and meet-up with the number of artists who are based at Cuckoo Farm Studios to the north of the town. They include ceramicist Pam Schomberg and book binder and restorer, Colin Brown.

The Open Studios runs until the weekend of October 1 to 2 and for more information on the other artists taking part, their open times and locations go to the Open Studios website at colchesteropenstudios.org

Alternatively, people can pick up a printed brochure from locations around Colchester and beyond.