Art in Essex

Essex's art scene is more varied — and more surprising — than its reputation suggests. Colchester, Britain's oldest recorded town, is home to Firstsite, one of the East of England's flagship contemporary galleries; the Thames Estuary towns of Leigh-on-Sea and Southend have long drawn painters to their light and their faded-seaside character; and the rural north of the county shares the soft Stour Valley landscape that shaped Constable and Gainsborough just over the Suffolk border.

Use this guide to find artists across Essex — in Colchester, along the estuary at Leigh-on-Sea and Southend, on the Tendring coast around Frinton, and in the historic towns of the north — alongside the galleries showing their work and the exhibitions coming up.