IT took a trip to picturesque Venice to inspire a noted artist’s exhibition celebrating the “many female forms”.

Sarah Lucas, one of Britain’s most celebrated artists, is set to bring her exhibition Big Women to Colchester’s Firstsite gallery next year.

It will showcase work by leading female artists.

Recalling her 2017 trip to the canals of Venice, Ms Lucas said: “I can’t put an exact age on when we stop being ‘Miss or ‘Señorita’ and start being ‘Madam’, or ‘Señora’, but by the time you’re in your mid-fifties you’ve definitely arrived.

“We got talking about what great fun it can be to be a Señora and talked about the concept of Señora with our women friends and it proved to be a very uplifting idea.

“Even as an idea it has the power to shift one’s outlook on life – in a positive way.”

The initial result of those conversations was a group exhibition in Vienna.

The show explored a number of themes and questions relating to womanhood.

Inspired by its impact, Lucas and her colleagues began to follow up with a corresponding exhibition, purely featuring British women artists.

Big Women boasts an array of sculpture, painting, film and fashion, promising “an endorsement and a celebration of women’s achievement in the creative field”.

“So much emphasis in our culture is on youth,” said Ms Lucas.

“When the media wants to arouse our sympathy, it’s all about children.

“The fashion and advertising media concentrates on young female beauty.

“The older woman is often overlooked, irrelevant, without currency.

“We live in an increasingly ageist society and this affects women disproportionately.

“Big Women aspires to be thought provoking, funny, serious, attractive and fun.

“God knows we need it in these times dominated by male aggression, politicking, greed, war and pig-headedness.”

People of a certain vintage may recognise the show’s title, as it is inspired by a popular TV drama made in the 1990s.

Big Women followed the progress of a group of feminists during the 1970s, after they established a book publishing company.

The television show was itself based on Fay Weldon’s novel, Praxis.

Lucas’ own experiences have informed the show.

She said: “When I was at college, the contemporary art scene was male-dominated.

“I left art school in 1987.

“Freeze (organised by Damien Hirst) happened in 1988. It made a big splash, but predictably it was the male artists who were approached by the commercial galleries.

“Congratulations to them, of course, but nevertheless it was a depressing moment and really a wake-up call for me.

“Then it did start to change – quite quickly. Women of my peer group started to be visible and we’re still visible. So that’s something to celebrate.”

As part of the exhibition, Big Women will also include a festival/fete day complete with bands, DJs, food and drink.

Sally Shaw MBE, director of Firstsite, said: “At Firstsite we always go big or go home.

“So this exhibition is perfect for our massive building, and to fill it with artwork from all these exceptional women artists will be incredible.

“There will be every kind of art form you can imagine, with so much to experience - with pieces that make you think and others which will make you laugh as well.”

She added: “Big Women celebrates the many female forms, the transformations women experience all through life, and how these changes provide freedom of expression.

“Those big ‘body events’ – in particular, the momentous shift which occurs in body and mind during peri-menopause and the menopause presents so many challenges.

“It requires a great deal of strength and resolve to ride all those changes – and all kinds of inventiveness and imagination – especially as women are often just expected to ‘get on with it’.

“This amazing group of artists show how growing older can be liberating, and something to be revelled in.

“Anyone who is worried about getting older or being past it needs to come to this exhibition – it will prove to you how much fun it can be.”

Ms Lucas is one of the country’s most significant contemporary artists, with her work taking in sculpture, photography and installation.

Her work is known for its irreverent humour and the use of everyday objects, such as furniture, food, tabloid newspapers, tights, toilets and cigarettes.

In the 1990s she placed herself at the heart of her work in a series of photographic self-portraits.

The exhibition will run from February 11 to June 18, 2023.