As Oxfordshire Artweeks enters its second week, and dozens of exhibitions pop up in every neighbourhood, there’s a chance to see a refreshingly real picture of Oxford through the locals who know it inside out.

Take the Abingdon Road – you’ll be surprised by the bulk of creative talent hiding away there. At Edith Road Workshops, which house a series of art studios and six talented artists, you can meet Sarah Spackman whose exquisite contemporary still-lives demonstrate her keen powers of observation in her paintings of small everyday objects, from fruit to flowers. “The more you look the more you see,” she says.

She paints on board or linen primed herself using a renaissance recipe of egg, rabbit skin, glue and linseed oil. The oils Sarah uses are hand ground and contain a huge amount of pigment to give a rich colour and bold freshness.

Working in a neighbouring studio using silver and coloured golds, Valerie Mead designs and makes delicate contemporary jewellery inspired by her interest in architecture, man-made artefacts and most recently the sea.

Look up, at the wall’s seascapes by photographer Gordon Stokes conveying the escapism evident in Cornwall or the Outer Hebrides, their composition and style influenced by impressionist and abstracted paintings rather than other photography.

Further down the Abingdon Road on Lake Street, the South Oxford Community Centre is showcasing a wide range of art over two floors including a series of watercolour pencil drawings by Jim Robinson.

Titled ‘Oxford under wraps’, the pictures hint at the city’s contemporary narrative. Look closer and spot the quirky underbelly of the city and in these details you can read the story of our living city today.

Another artist exhibiting there is Imogen Foxell who combines art and lexicography in a series of light-hearted drawings which illustrate wonderful new or obsolete words from the Oxford English Dictionary. These include bioastronautics, to pulchrify, and wayzgoose.

Enjoy David Riley’s reductive abstract digital images and constructions in bold colours and patterns which he produces in series. David develops his artwork balancing both the value of the idea and the artistic value of the final outcome.

And with a selection in both SOCC and in her own exhibition just a stone’s throw away on Gordon Street, Artweeks newcomer Sophie Basilevetch is inspired by traditional words and myths from around the world, and the animals who star in them.

She captures the essence of these stories in bold, colourful linoprints and is a perfect example of the undiscovered talent right you can reconnect with right here on your doorstep.

  • Artweeks runs until May 28, with a particular focus on Oxford City from May 12-20. For details of venues, see artweeks.org