AS Swindon Open Studios entered its second weekend, art lovers have been busy getting to the bottom of what does – or doesn't – tickle their fancy.

The massive celebration of art has seen works displayed at more than 50 venues across the town.

Here are some of our favourites you should visit before the artists pack up their canvases tonight.

‘It started with a bottom sculpted in lard’

Mia Willis began painting male bottoms at university.

“It started off as a bit of a joke,” 24-year-old Reading University graduate Mia said. One project had seen her sculpt a man’s torso out of lard, the figure’s back literally dripping onto his bottom.

She said: “I don’t know where the idea came from. It just happened. Being at university, the creativity is all there – and everyone is egging each other on.

“It spiralled.”

But when she started doing more research into the history of the male nude in art, she realised she could be on to an interesting theme: “It’s a very stylised form. It has been since Michelangelo’s David. Compare his sculpture to, say, pictures of David Beckham and the similarities between them are there.

“I wanted to show studies of actual male bottoms. There’s such an ideal of the male form – as much as there is with the female body.”

Grange Park resident Mia estimates she has painted around 20 bottoms, all of them belonging to life models, including one seven metre-long canvas at university that she cheekily christened Mind the Gap.

Balloon sculptures tell of mental health challenges

When Lori Rogers saw the miniature black hot air balloon created by a member of her TWIGS class she was blown away.

“It’s really powerful,” she said of the black balloon adorned with beautiful ornaments. “It says everything you can’t always articulate about how people with mental health feel. There are two sides to the illness.”

TWIGS, a community garden based in Cheney Manor, host the regular art class for those suffering from mental health problems.

As part of Swindon Open Studios, the group has taken over the nearby Olive Tree Café with their work – themed around Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days.

Lori said exhibitions like open studios helped boost the TWIGS artists’ self-esteem. The works are available to buy.

Bichon welcomes you – but global warming sculptures wow you

You can hear John Maskalaniec’s Bichon Frise dog before you can see her. Despite the barking, she’s perfectly friendly – sitting on John’s lap as he’s photographed in his Wroughton studio.

The 68-year-old painter and sculptor’s work is informed by his concern for the state of the planet.

Taking pride of place in his garden on St John’s Road is an eight foot high work created from four interwoven car exhausts, brightly painted and topped with spitting fire.

Inspired by Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, John said it also hinted at society’s potential loss of earth’s paradise if people continue to burn fossil fuels at the current rate.

“I remember when I was 11 or 12-years-old sun bathing in the summer holidays. It would take all day to get a bit burned or tanned. This was back in the early 60s,” he said.

“Now, you can lie out there for half an hour and you’re burned. Nobody’s going to tell me there’s not a change in the climate.”

For full venue details, visit: www.swindonopenstudios.org.