As Cambridge Open Studios prepares to throw the doors open again this month, we highlight a few of the many talents taking part
This year is a poignant one for Cambridge Open Studios, as it marks another milestone year but also reflects on the recent loss of its founder, Julia Ball. What a fitting tribute to her, though, as this much-loved free event goes from strength to strength!
Since 1974, the July Open Studios exhibition has grown exponentially, now encompassing hundreds of artists that specialise in a wide range of disciplines, including painting, jewellery, printmaking, ceramics and pottery, glass art, digital art, drawing and illustration, woodwork and furniture, sculpture, textiles, photography, book art, lettering and calligraphy, mixed media and collage.
It’s business as usual this year – but with some exciting developments and new participants across the Cambridgeshire area – as local creatives open up their studios and galleries for the public to immerse themselves in art over the four weekends in July. For the first time ever, there will also be a young artists’ showcase in the newly refurbished learning studio at the Fitzwilliam Museum, helping nurture the next generation of talent in the county.
More than 350 artists are taking part in 2025, and here is a choice selection to whet your palette…!
1. Bea Lukowska
A self-taught artist with a background in architecture and buildings conservation, Bea Lukowska specialises in landscapes, architectural pieces and urban scenes, with a particular passion for capturing historical buildings situated in picturesque countryside settings.
She enjoys experimenting with various tones and techniques in the process of creating a 3D effect, using pencil, charcoal, coloured pencils, watercolour and ink on paper. “The creative process gives me a sense of freedom, autonomy and inner harmony, and it has a soothing influence on me,” she enthuses.
New for this year’s Open Studios, Bea explores the city through the medium of watercolour, under the theme: Heritage of Majestic Cambridge.
70 Pym Court, Cromwell Road CB1 3FB
2. Maree and Paul Allitt (aka mapmap)
Handmade in their Cambridge studio, Paul and Maree Allitt’s slab-built porcelain ceramics are decorated using stencils and coloured slips. In the final firing, some areas are glazed, creating a deliberate interplay between matte and gloss surfaces and giving each piece a tactile richness.
This year at their studio, visitors have a chance to purchase some of the ‘perfectly imperfect’ or experimental ceramics. “We hope that, when people take a piece home and put it on their mantelpiece, it will give them a little joy in passing,” they say.
St Barnabas Press, 9 Belfast Yard, Coldhams Road CB1 3EW
3. Susan Abbs
Susan Abbs will present her latest series, Breaking Through, which marks a new stage of resilience, re-emergence and renewed energy following her recovery from cancer.
Dramatic and monochromatic, the paintings are created in oil on metal – this interacts with light, shifting with the viewer’s movement to evoke change and transformation. While abstract, the work is rooted in a sense of place – not necessarily physical, but emotional and psychological.
“These works are about moving forward – those moments when something opens up, clears or gives way to a new beginning,” says Susan.
36 Kinnaird Way, Cambridge CB1 8SN
4. Kate Green
Kate Green is an abstract mixed-media and multi-disciplinary artist who, in her own words, “really loves a bit of colour!”
Using refined patterns, free gestural expressionism and repeated layering, Kate seeks to represent and communicate things unseen, telling stories in colour and sharing emotions. “From intricate microscopic cells to the sweeping expanse of space and crashing waves of the sea, I’m excited by the extravagant dimensions and intimate details I see in creation – a joyfulness in the very act of creating that I aim to reflect in my own work,” she explains.
Exhibiting from her garden studio across all four weekends, Kate plans to provide materials and inspiration for visitors of all ages so that they can get creative too!
65 Akeman Street, Cambridge CB4 3HE
5. Roxana de Rond
Roxana de Rond is a freelance artist and children’s book illustrator whose pictures are often set in Cambridge, showing everyday events infused with a little humour while also reflecting a sense of contentment.
Her images include many of Cambridge’s pubs, cafes, green spaces and colleges, and are sold as cards, prints and originals online, as well as at various events, including Open Studios. She also creates bespoke images, either for individuals or businesses, and is always happy to chat through an idea.
This year, you can see Roxana’s work and studio (which she says will be ‘unusually tidy, for the occasion!’) on the first, second and third weekends in July.
13 Brunswick Terrace CB5 8DG
6. Maureen Mace
Maureen’s paintings are about colour, detail and ideas, influenced by her love of medieval art and telling stories that can be magical and surreal.
Built out of many layers with lots of tiny details, Maureen’s oil paintings take time to produce, and she often works on two or three at the same time. Her tree series includes gold leaf, plus thousands of individually painted leaves with objects nestling among them. Many of her paintings are made into prints and greetings cards, which can be bought at G David Bookseller, her website or Cambridge Open Studios.
An avid sketcher, Maureen loves going out to draw on the streets of Cambridge or in the museums to get ideas for her paintings – you might even have seen her!
309 Milton Road CB4 1XQ
7. Alison Hullyer
Milton-based professional printmaker Alison Hullyer is celebrating her 30th consecutive open studio this year! Her prints and oil paintings are inspired by plants, birds, landscapes and the coast. For Cambridge Open Studios 2025, she will be showing a selection of work from her archives, as well as new prints, cards, coasters and tea towels – some of which you might even have seen in local National Trust shops.
Visitors to Alison’s purpose-built garden studio will be able to see the etching press, art materials and sketchbooks used to create her hand-pulled prints, which are available both framed and unframed. She will also be on hand to explain her various printmaking techniques, such as drypoint and collagraphy.
Smallstone, Hall End, Milton CB24 6AQ
8. Neil Warmsley
Neil Warmsley has always exhibited his sketchbooks during Open Studios, demonstrating how the germ of an idea evolves into a painting. Visitors often find themselves fully absorbed in the back catalogue of his decades of sketchbooks! As well as these, at his studio this year you can see oil paintings, drawings and a new glass-painting project.
It’s the natural world, in particular trees, that forms the main subject matter of Neil’s work, much of it inspired by years spent as a gardener.
“Though everything I create starts with an observational drawing, my paintings are composed from different drawings from several locations to create a vision of the world as I would like it to be – much like
a gardener creates a garden,” he explains.
22 Derby Road, Cambridge CB1 7DU
9. Andrew Luetchford
New to the Cambridge Open Studios line-up for 2025, at artist Andrew Luetchford’s studio you’ll find paintings, drawings and prints of work spanning the last 20 years.
Using mostly oil paints and monotype printmaking techniques, Andrew finds his processes and materials often lead to other possibilities and styles, allowing room for spontaneity and an intuitive approach to making an image.
“Much of my work possesses a kind of ambiguity, although my ideas are generally inspired by the physical world (and particularly the human form), music and the past,” he explains.
Everyone is welcome at the studio over all four weekends in July, to enjoy a wide range of artwork or simply take a few moments of quiet in the garden.
42 Laxton Way, Cambridge CB4 1FN
