Sussex Artists' Co-op

For some people, art is not just a hobby or an interest but a fascination. Whether it is the calligraphy of bare winter branches against a leaden sky or the texture of dream shapes or the expression of a child with a new toy or an idea for doing something familiar in an unfamiliar way - something about that calls out, grabs you, sticks to you, until it is not a question of looking at it but seeing it. Seeing it and picking up the tools: brushes, watercolours, pastels, camera, carving tools, potter's wheel, knitting needles, rug hooking tools, needle and thread - whatever - to get what you have seen into a form that will convey to someone else the essence of that vision.

It really doesn't matter whether the one with the fascination has studied at a famous art school - or at any school. It doesn't matter, really, whether the one who hurries to the table or the bench or the easel is a "great" artist. Art is a universal medium. It is our strange culture which tries to convince us that genius is what matters and the rest of us should be content to stand on the sidelines and applaud.

Art is the struggle to see what is the essence of an image or idea and make that live in your work. That is what is so challenging, bringing you back again and again to the wrestle with the conversion of something in your head into a form that will express the vision. Even the great artists will admit that there is a struggle between the vision and the realisation of the vision. Aristide Maillol and Pierre Renoir, in old age, were discussing their ambitions. Maillot spoke of sculpting a nude according to his conception of the ideal figure. "And mine," said Renoir, "is to be able to paint a white napkin." Even Renoir's white napkin, truly seen, can be a challenge.

The members of the Sussex Artists' Co-op work in a great diversity of mediums, from folksy to sophisticated, and at many levels, from those with academic or other training to those who explore a new field and find enjoyment in the challenge. To paraphrase Ananda Coomaraswamy, we are not special kinds of people, but each of us is a special kind of artist.