Twenty local fine artists will be opening their studios again this weekend for the sixth annual West Bay Open Studios. This free event allows the public a rare glimpse into the creative process and perhaps make a purchase or two. You can download a map to the studios and set your own course over one or both days. You can visit one, five or all twenty of the studios, get a chance to meet the artists and hear about their work.

You’ll find paintings, sculpture, calligraphy, glass work, photography, wood-turned objects and jewelry. The studios are in East Greenwich, Warwick, Exeter, North Kingstown and Saunderstown, but the founding artists – Margie Ball, Alice Benvie Gebhart,  Jane Rollins, and Nancy Gaucher Thomas – all hail from EG and nearby Warwick.

“We all enjoy the opportunity to work in collaboration with other artists, building an artist community where we learn from one another,” said Ball, an East Greenwich painter. “We all feel we benefit from sharing our work, studio space, ideas, and processes with interested visitors from all over New England and beyond.”

And, too, it becomes a chance to reconnect with some patrons who make this a regular part of their autumn.

“It’s been very gratifying to see people return year after year,” Ball said.

The studios will be open Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. You’ll find more information, including a map, at their website here (http://westbayopenstudios.com/).