THIS year’s Art in Woodstock festival, celebrating the visual arts, takes place at the end of this month.

The festival, from Saturday, October 25 to Sunday, November 2, will showcase work by visiting professional artists and local talent.

Exhibitions during the eight-day event will feature a variety of work from fine art, abstract and contemporary work, to sculpture and installations throughout the town in a host of venues.

Churches, hotels, restaurants, shops, the Oxfordshire Museum and town hall will all open their doors to become showcases throughout the nine-day festival.

Now a firm fixture in the town’s calendar, the festival will be showing work for sale and for exhibition.

There will be a public art space in the Market Place for adults and children to enjoy, with an artist demonstration each day, art workshops in the museum and the local schools exhibition in the town hall as well as speaker evenings throughout the week.

This year’s invited artists include Jason Hicklin, Jo Chance, Susie Moxley and Martin Beek, among others.

Martin Beek, Jason Hicklin, Nasir Hamid and Isla Miller will be exhibiting at the Oxfordshire Museum, in Park Street.

Although not an official theme, several of the artists have submitted pictures of trees, including Woodstock artist Rod Craig, one of the founders of the festival, who said: “All of the inspiration for my tree images has been drawn from the beautiful Woodstock water meadows or Blenheim Park through the seasons.

“The Oxfordshire countryside around Woodstock has the most incredible trees and the changing seasons are a constant source of inspiration – the water meadows with their beautiful colours in spring and summer, the spectacular autumn leaves in the park and the skeletal forms of the Blenheim ancient oaks in winter.”

The opening ceremony will be at 1pm on Saturday, October 25, outside Woodstock Town Hall.