Time on the brush

Time on the Brush is a working gallery tucked away near Tewkesbury where you can actually watch artists at it rather than just gawp at finished pieces behind velvet ropes. The space feels lived-in - paint-splattered floors, half-finished canvases, the smell of linseed oil. You'll see painters and mixed-media artists in their element, and the work tends toward contemporary figurative and abstract pieces that hang well without being precious about themselves.

It's worth a visit if you're the sort who gets energised by watching someone work, or if you're after original art that hasn't been marked up four times by a gallery middleman. Kids will tolerate it for maybe twenty minutes unless they're genuinely interested in the creative process - it's not interactive in the modern sense. The real audience here is serious art buyers and practitioners who understand that watching artists work is half the point.

Access details aren't entirely clear from the listing, so ring ahead before you make the journey. If you're camping at Tewkesbury Abbey Caravan and Motorhome Club Campsite just down the road, it's an easy diversion. Same goes for Millavon Holiday Park - both are basically on the doorstep. Pair it with a wander around Tewkesbury Abbey itself and you've got a proper half-day's outing. The gallery works best as part of a broader Worcestershire trip rather than as a destination in itself, but the chance to see artists actually painting beats most tourist-trap galleries by miles.