Pretty as a picture

I've been asked by Kelly, the council's arts officer, to be part of the team of judges selecting pieces of art for the Open exhibition to take place shortly in the Gibberd Gallery.

I arrive at two, and meet my fellow judges - Julian from the Harlow Art Trust, Colin from GlaxoSmithKline (sponsors of the Gibberd Gallery) and Roman, the artist working on the Market Quarter redevelopment.

There are a lot of submissions, all propped up against the walls of the gallery. Kelly gives us two colours of post-it notes (yellow for yes, pink for no) and we all wander round casting our votes for each piece. The unanimous yes-es are included, the unanimous no-es excluded, and we have a lively debate about the pieces on which our opinions are split.

Every artist can submit up to three pieces of work, and we try not to select all the pieces of any one artist, to give as many local artists as possible the chance to be included. The range is wonderful - amateurs, professionals, abstracts, still lifes (or should that be 'still lives'?), portraits, landscapes, drawings, oils, acrylics, fabrics, and a small collection of sculpture.

It's a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, and a real credit to the artistic talent of Harlow and its residents. Do pop in and have a look at the exhibition when it opens for four weeks on 31 May.