Entertainment Swindon

The annual community based art event, Swindon Open Studios which started over 20years ago informally with just a few artists inviting family and friends over and sending them on to visit other local artists has grown to an event with 140 artists at 57 different venues across the town this year. The free community art event that invites the public into artists studios, homes and pop-up exhibitions over the last two weekends in September each year is just around the corner, and to get people in the mood for this fantastic event, one of Swindon Open Studios team chats to two of the SOS2025 featured artists.

The fantastic variety this year is illustrated by Ken White and Carmen B Norris.  Ken is a Swindon-born and bred artist from humble beginnings, who spent four years at Swindon’s College of Art and Design. Carmen has a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from New Jersey City University, USA. That’s the beauty of Swindon Open Studios (SOS) – people who love all things colourful and creative can connect with artists and craftspeople from all walks of life, who have followed very different paths. Like musicians, while some are qualified others are completely self-taught, but all create beautiful work.

83-year-old Ken White has participated in every Swindon Open Studios since 2004. Famous for designing the Scarlet Lady emblem for Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airlines, in the 1970’s he painted many murals around Swindon and in 100 Virgin airport lounges worldwide. His large “men in caps” oil paintings reflect the four years he worked at Great Western Railways as a “rivet hotter”. Like many Swindonian’s, he followed in his grandfather’s and father’s footsteps. Unlike them, he committed his keen observations to canvas. His paintings evoke an industrial heritage long since lost, but if you lived in Swindon before the “Railway Works” shut in 1986, his atmospheric pictures call to mind the famous hooter which blasted out as shifts began and ended, with thousands of men pouring into the streets on pushbikes and on foot. Is this Swindon’s answer to L.S. Lowry?!

Ken’s studio is everything you would expect a traditional artist’s studio to be with paintings hanging all over the walls, stacked in rows and remnants of 65 years of oil paints dripping over an old cabinet. He tells fascinating stories and according to Rhona Jack, who writes for SOS, “For years I was in awe and wanted to meet this famous man who is like “art royalty” to me. I was really nervous, but found Ken to be warm, welcoming and very easy to talk to. Visitors will love meeting the man behind the murals and spending time with him!”

While Ken’s larger oil paintings sell for £thousands in London, he is offering Swindonian’s special rates. Affordable hand-tinted giclée fine art prints are also available so people can enjoy a little piece of Swindon history forever!

In contrast, Carmen B Norris is an abstract, mixed-media artist whose vibrant, colourful artworks will brighten the rooms of any home. As often happens with artists, her creative flair began as a child who loved making clothes for her Barbie dolls and borrowed “How to Draw” books from the library. Fascinated with shiny coloured papers, she began creating abstract collages.

The influence of her second degree in Textile Surface Design (Fashion Institute of Technology, New York), is very evident in the unique pieces she creates today. 

Swindon Open Studios continues to grow, this year, over 140 artists in 57 venues are taking part during the last two weekends of September. Ken’s studio is in Old Town and Carmen is at The Hub in The Parade, central Swindon.

See https://www.swindonopenstudios.org/sign-up for a chance to win a £50 voucher to buy artworks. See www.swindodonopenstudios.org to plan your visits, or pick up an A5 brochure or the new A3 guide available in libraries, cafés and pubs from early August.

SOS is actively looking for commercial sponsorship for 2026, so if you are interested in supporting this amazing event, check out their website www.swindonopenstudios.org