WINSFORD artist Derek Johnson and town mayor Cllr Steve Smith, visited Winsford’s French twin town of Deuil-la-Barre, to help promote the town in an art exhibition.

Cllr Smith, along with his consort Mark Smith and Cross Hatch Gallery artist Derek Johnson, attended the Bleu Festival, with Derek submitting art to display alongside work from Portugal, Germany and Hungary.

Cllr Smith said: “Derek got very involved in the event and was an advocate for Winsford talking to hundreds of visitors to the exhibition about our great town and putting Winsford on the map internationally.

“Working with Derek we are going to continue this artistic link with all towns up until March next year with various art projects.”

The two-day event was held on Saturday, October 8 and Sunday, October 9, and saw artists from the various European towns that are linked with Deuil-la-Barre showcase work and give speeches about them.

Derek said: “The idea was to bring people from the various towns together by holding an exhibition.

“It was a really good two-day event. It was such a lovely idea that the French town came up with and nice to see such a variety of work from artists from different countries as well.”

Deuil-la-Barre has a population of more than 20,000 and is located just north of Paris in France. The twinning link with Winsford was established in 1993.

Winsford has also developed an informal ‘friendship link' with the German town of Neider Eschbach, near Frankfurt, which is itself twinned with Deuil-la-Barre.