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Dorset Art Weeks 2026 One of the delights of visiting artists’ studios is the opportunity to leaf through their sketchbooks. They are a window onto a private world, an artist’s safe space where they feel uninhibited and free to paint, draw, plan or scribble without being confronted by the large empty space of a canvas or piece of paper. DORSET ART WEEKS, a celebration of artists working in their studios and exhibiting in public venues across the county, will be taking place from 23rd May to 7th June 2026. And there will be plenty of opportunity to delve into the intimacy of artists’ sketchbooks. THE SLADE CENTRE in Gillingham (venue 1 and 2) will be showing a retrospective of painting, sculpture and printmaking by BRIAN BISHOP. Very sadly, Brian died suddenly in 2025 so this is a wonderful opportunity to really engage with the range of his work. Brian worked with colour making constructions and three- DORSET ART WEEKS 2026 • 2 dimensional works on 2D supports sometimes using collage. His understanding of colour was instinctive, although he never thought of himself as a painter, rather someone who constantly explored saturated hues, layering them to achieve an investigation of their properties in geometric forms. The use of colour extended to 3D ribbon forms which established a dancerly position in space. Working extensively in sketchbooks, and some of these will be on show, he explored his ideas, fi nally reaching a point at which he could start to transfer them onto paper, board canvas or into space. In the accompanying gallery at the Slade Centre, GROUP 7 will be showing recent work, including more work by Brian who was a long-term member of the group. There are plenty of new artists taking part this year. OLIVE WATKINS (venue 22) is an Irish artist who is heavily in fl uenced by Japanese culture. She visits Japan annually and her layered compositions, quirky portrait heads and street scenes using oil paint, collage and mixed media, are informed by her photography. POLLY PENTREATH graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2019 and is showing oil paintings alongside her mother, sculptor, LAURA PENTREATH. (Venue 269) Polly’s still lives and Dorset landscapes are fl uid and painterly reveling in saturated RACHAEL WILLIAMS (VENUE 81) ANNABEL BEASLEY (VENUE 69 + 88) HUGO GRENVILLE (VENUE 217) *EVOLVER_149_SB.qxp_Evolver_2025 14/04/2026 20:09 Page 20