A UNIQUE new art gallery opens in a lay-by next week, when four artists open the (small) door to the 1969 Musketeer Sprite caravan they've transformed into Herefordshire's newest art space.

Palace Projects is the brainchild of four artists working locally, painters Clare Woods and Bernadette Kerrigan and their husbands, sculptors Des Hughes and Richard Hughes.

"We've always wanted to do a project together," says Bernadette. "What I wanted to do was find a space we could use, and the whole thing about the caravan is that it's a mobile space and it can be quite temporary. We can also offer it to lots of other artists to see what they do with it."

"What we have tried to do is leave it as we found it," she says, going on to explain that the caravan, destined for scrap and bought on eBay, has had no work done on the exterior. "We went to sand it and then decided that it's perfect as it is in its own sorry way."

The interior, however, has been transformed into a gleaming, pristine (and compact) gallery space, which, for its first two appearances, will feature work by the Palace Projects four. "We started it as a sideline," Bernadette admits, "but it's slowly taken over."

The first two venues will be the lay-by on the A49 at The Callow, and the Sidney Nolan Trust near Presteigne. "We've got two events this year and two planned for next year, and we know lots of people who would like to do a project. It's not curated at all, it's really organic and word has just spread."

Clare, whose work includes two large and very striking pieces commissioned for the London 2012 Olympic Park, has made a painting in five panels that now forms the floor of the caravan, a piece that visitors can walk on. Acclaimed sculptor Des Hughes, recently long-listed to produce work for Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth, has created a hanging piece while Richard, also an award-winning sculptor, has made a stained glass window and Bernadette will be showing a self-portrait of herself at the age of eight. "Mine is the smallest piece in the exhibition," she says.

The same work will be shown at both this year's venues - the lay-by on September 13 and 14, and at the Sidney Nolan Trust on September 20 and 21.

Bernadette reveals that what prompted the idea of a caravan for the project was seeing an abandoned caravan in a lay-by on the Hereford to Worcester road. "It made me think of the idea of a dream that's never realised - the dream of being able to take to the road at a moment's notice in a caravan." By chance, the vehicle they sourced was the first model to be marketed as the way to live that dream.

The major aim of Palace Projects is to introduce people to contemporary art by internationally renowned artists. "Galleries can be intimidating places for people," says Bernadette. "I have been going to galleries for years and still find it intimidating sometimes, but once you're through the door and someone smiles at you it's fine. We want to get people engaged and understanding that they don't have to say anything about the art. Just enjoy it.

"Once people realise that they're walking on the art, they begin to recognise that it's not scary. Art is what you make of it it," she says. "It's your interpretation that matters and people often don't understand that. If you can show art and allow people to enjoy it in a comfortable place, it's a good start.

Having imagined that Palace Projects would be something that would stay in the background, a counterpoint to their day jobs, all four have found it taking over slightly.

"It's taken us back to something we all enjoy again," says Bernadette. "Being an artist becomes a job after a while but this, for the four of us, has been something we have thrown ourselves into."

See Palace Projects in the lay-by on the A49 at The Callow on September 13 and 14, and at the Sidney Nolan Trust on September 20 and 21.