Art in the East Neuk: Pittenweem Arts Festival 2012

This was my second year visiting the Pittenweem Arts Festival (www.pittenweemartsfestival.co.uk) and I love it - it makes a great day out and is a great showcase for Scottish artists. Pittenweem is one of the prettiest of the fishing villages in the East Neuk of Fife area and for a week each summer it becomes THE place to be. This is the festival's 30th year. It takes place from 28 July to 5th August 2012 with a whopping 120 artists in 90 venues. These venues range from proper year-round galleries to churches, schools and halls to people's living rooms, sheds and garages. Some famous artists are invited to exhibit such as John Byrne of Tutti Frutti fame and ex-husband of actress Tilda Swinton this year. The majority of artists simply turn up. Here's a picture of the festival brochure, featuring a John Byrne picture:

The venues are actually as much of a draw as the art itself as you get to see inside places you wouldn't normally be able to - such as venue 39, Rock Villa which literally sits on some rocks in the harbour. Some of the venues are the artist's own residence, such as venue 44 which is on the picturesque West Shore, by a beach. A really chilled out place and home of artist Heather Cunningham (www.west-shore-art.co.uk), who creates some lovely local paintings, inspired by her East Neuk surroundings. Her pet cat Lily made us feel right at home! Couldn't resist buying this painting called "High Tide at the Gyles" - the Gyles is at the east end of the Pittenweem harbour - which will be proudly hanging on the walls of Rose Cottage very soon:

I'm also a huge fan of another East Neuk artist - Susie Lacombe of Crail, who does eye-catching limited edition linocut prints and original collages of local scenes and animals (Crail Gallery, 23 High Street, Crail; www.crailgallery.com). She was at the bustling venue 26 on Mid Shore with talented black and white cermaics-maker Susan McGill and local painter of boats, fish etc Malcolm Cheape (the venue was Malcolm's home). Here's one of Susie Lacombe's prints that I bought recently:

And at venue 23 also on Mid Shore I was as impressed and inspired as I was last year by Fife scientist turned artist Paul Bartlett's collages of birds and animals. Very life-like and beautiful! Here's one of them in  the festival brochure but they are much better in real life when you can see all the impressive detail:

To keep our energy levels up we bought some delicious chocolate from The Cocoa Tree (www.thecocoatreeshop.com), a chocolate shop and cafe on High Street (Pittenweem's main shoping street). Check out their Pittenweem Chocolate Company Ginger Crunch - just yum!

The only thing I was slightly disappointed about was that there was no exhibition on the pier at this year's festival - the life-sized metal animal sculptures on the pier last year were a real crowd-pleaser (when else would you see a camel looking out to the Isle of May?!). Here's a photo I took of one of them:

Can't wait to go again next year!

p.s. There is lots of space for parking in the festival car park (donation of £1), a shuttle bus service (we just walked - it's not far) and festival programmes cost £3.50 from a stall outside the car park. There is no cash machine in the village but you can get cash over the counter at the Post Office on High Street or get a cash machine in the neighbouring East Neuk village of Anstruther. Bus number 95 connects the East Neuk villages and runs approximately hourly.