After the comparative restraint of Ned’s place, Annelies Clarke‘s home hits you as the Las Vegas of Fiveways. With stained glass marquetry panels everywhere from the front door to the fireplace, and the chandeliered ceiling painted as the sky, I’m not sure whether this is Caesars Palace or the Bellagio. Her pictures of Venice near the front door show that great technique of catching intricate reflections in rippling water, and her Weathergirls (representing figures of Arctica, Antarctica, Amazon and Amazonia) are big, bold and detailed. But it’s difficult to concentrate with so much other stuff about the place. Do you want a gargoyle head, a teapot designed to look like nuts and bolts or a ceramic penguin wearing a Venetian mask? Then rush to Rugby Road. (Oops. I don’t think Santa’s coming this year.)
Over at Nicola Jackson’s in Balfour Road, I’m told that things get busier and busier as the weekends pass. I’m pleased to see Nicola has carpet, a rarity in stripped-floor Brighton, though here it isn’t actually Art as it is elsewhere on the trail. While Nicola creates handmade paper and prettily bound sketchbooks, five of her eight exhibitors specialise in ceramics. These range from the simple tableware of Kaori Tatebayashi to substantial stoneware pieces (displayed appropriately in the lovely, sloping garden) by Jenny Lathbury, Moira Faulkner and Chris Lewis.
Things get zanier at Rod Clark’s at 23 Osborne Road, where the carpet-as-art makes its appearance. The inspiration here is graphic design. Not only a wool rug imitating a Pantone colour card, but Astoturf rugs incorporating images such as Wembley Stadium and the White Horse of Uffington, displayed here as wall hangings – lawn on the wall. Sophie Joyce’s pictures, inspired by toothbrushes of the likes of Lady Penelope, are camp and vaguely reminiscent of the packaging art of Damien Hirst.
Outdoors, there are beautiful, round, polygonal sculptures in stone by Will Spankie.

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