IF Porlock residents have spent the last 12 months of lockdown meaning to get creative, but just haven’t got around to it, now is their chance – for the next two months the village is providing a free art gallery for aspiring artists to display their work for all to see.

‘The Great Big Art Exhibition’, the brainchild of firstsite.uk, is a national initiative to encourage people of all ages and abilities to try their hand at a range of crafts and to be part of the largest exhibition ever staged – and Porlock is the latest village to join.

“All you have to do is sharpen your pencils, dust off those paints, or dig out wool, fabrics and scrap materials to create sketches, paintings, models and sculptures. These can then be displayed in your windows or garden,” said the initiative’s Porlock organiser, Jan West.

“The ‘exhibition’ will run from now until April and there will be different themes to follow”, Jan said.

“When I heard of this initiative I thought, I’ll give that a go. I then contacted some friends and neighbours with the details in the hope of persuading them to take part, too.

“As so often happens in Porlock, people are always willing to take up a challenge and I really look forward to seeing the results over the coming weeks.

“What I really like about this project is that it provides another way of sharing and connecting within a household and further afield in these difficult times. You also don’t have to be a skilled artist – you just have to be willing to try out ideas and let your imagination run wild.”

Jan advises budding artists to check with firstsite.uk for news of future themes and to find out how to upload photographs of their artwork to be part of the national exhibition.

for the full story see this week’s West Somerset Free Press.