PICTURES: Three-day art exhibition in Polstead attracts record numbers of visitors

Record numbers of visitors came along to Polstead’s three-day art exhibition over the bank holiday weekend.

Held in the barns of Maria Martens Cottage, all 13 artists taking part in the annual event sold work, and the show broke previous attendance records.

It has been running for 21 years. Organiser Dylan Pym, who specialises in making furniture from English hard woods, described this year’s event as fantastic.

He said: “It was a fantastic exhibition; we had lots and lots of people here.

“We had some great demonstrations going on, including metal working. One was a metal sculpture of marsh harrier standing on a post. The forge was going, there were sparks flying and everyone was laughing. It was really great.”

Work on show included steam bent, hand made furniture, ceramics, enamel signs, paintings, sculpture, hand made felt designs, glass art, and wood turning.

Mr Pym said the exhibition has a history of supporting a new artist each year, and giving them an opportunity to put their work on show and for sale for the first time.

“This year we had a great new artist called Kieran Smith aged 23 who is from Polstead Heath,” said Mr Pym.

“He does brilliant work, massive portraits, and he studied fine art at the University of East Anglia.

“This is a way for new artists to promote themselves without having to pay commission costs.

“It’s part of the ethos of our exhibition – to bring on new talent by doing this each year,” he added.

Hundreds of people attended the show which ran Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

“When I started doing this 21 years ago, there wasn’t much on in terms of events over the August bank holiday weekend,” added Mr Pym..

“Now there’s a lot going on everywhere.

“The weather certainly helped us this time,” he added.