SEPTEMBER MEETING

Our first session in this academic year was exploring catalogues of exhibitions, past and

present, that had impressed members (or not!).

Margaret visited Bath Library to view paintings by local artists - too numerous to show here!

Andrea was very taken with Rolf Harris and Moish Shokal,

both seen in Liverpool

Barbara showed us

Hans Tisdale

Jan had visited the

Pushkin Museum in Moscow

and saw Degas’ Blue

Dancers amongst other

famous paintings.

Wendy went to see Anthony

Gormley’s figurines at

Barrington Court:

The Field for Somerset.

Pam told us about an art

exhibition at Lower Cockhill

Farm nr Dimmer and the

etchings of Will Vaughan.

Denise brought along a

catalogue of Brancusi

sculptures and also

paintings by the “other”

John Piper.

Glennis gave us many examples of exhibitions she

had visited - here is the bronze statue erected

in the Bomber Command Wellington Memorial

Arch

Jenny told us of the Watercolour Exhibition at

Tate and chose The Blue Rigi, Sunrise by JMW

Turner.

Val was impressed by David Hockney………...

……. and Nancy was distinctly unimpressed by the

Independent review of the Pre-Raphaelite

exhibition at Tate which stated they were an

avant garde movement. Nancy argued they were

not as they were going back to the old ways as a

rebellion against the Royal Academy.

We all felt that exhibition catalogues were now becoming very expensive and in future we

would have to rely on postcards - if we can find the particular paintings we admired on show!

OCTOBER MEETING

Anton continued the exhibition catalogue theme with a

presentation on the Highgrove Florilegium, Garden Museum in

London. Anton explained that florilegium means a book

illustrated by artists depicting plants in a particular garden.

This caused great debate about the ethics of inviting artists

to contribute but not allowing them to visit the garden they

were illustrating - merely be told what flower or plant they

were to paint. The book produced contains 120 illustrations by

72 artists and is very expensive at around £12,000!

Apparently for this you do get two copies both signed by HRH.

This month we were reporting back on Somerset Art Weeks

events which members had attended. However, Wendy had been

on holiday in Scotland during SAW Open Studios and instead

showed us samples of jewellery made by Flat Rabbit Ceramics she

had seen at Crieff.

Val visited several studios and liked Gaye Fox’s paintings which

combine a variety of techniques, including monoprint, collage, paint,

and fabric.

Denise bought a print of this painting for Peter as he

had been impressed by it when looking through the SAW

brochure. It is by Ioannis Antoniadis and called The

Great Portal.

Andrea visited Strode Theatre to see the exhibition put on to raise

funds. She liked the portrait of Harry Patch by local artist Bill Leyshon.

Mary went to many venues including Mark

Nesbit who uses plaster and chemistry to

produce uniquely origina coloured and

textured abstract paintings on canvas

Pam found Orchard Vale Trust, which provides

homes for people with learning disabilities and

which was showing some of their work for SAW.

Nancy didn’t have time to visit any venues but brought along a cutting about Damien Hirst in

which a learned art historian had dared to suggest that he was a con artist along with a few

others such as Tracy Emin. This provoked further discussion!

NOVEMBER MEETING

Only nine of us arrived for this meeting about War Artists which proved

to be very interesting with lots of lively discussions. Nancy brought some

cartoons by Bruce Bairnsfather, the officer artist who drew pictures of

what life was like on the Western Front in 1915. @If you know a

better’ole, go to it’ and similar. Bairnsfather was criticised in the House

of Commons for denigrating our ‘Heroes at the Front’ but the heroes

loved his cartons.

Glennis was unable to come but sent notes

about Henry Tonks a doctor who drew

pictures of faces that had been smashed up in the fighting. He

and others used them to help rebuild the faces and lives of the

victims. He was helped by Kathleen Scott (widow of Scott of

the Antarctic) and several people had read a recent biography

of her – much recommended.

Jan brought a teddy bear in a bomber pilot’s outfit which is sold to

raise money for Bomber Command charities. She had photographed the

new Bomber Command memorial in Hyde Park, an impressive classical

building containing a bronze Fighter crew of nine men. It is very

detailed and the faces express the courage of the airmen who flew on

such dangerous missions.

Wendy had read a book about the Official War

Artists of the Second World War with details of

how they were recruited and commissioned to

record all aspects of the war at home and abroad.

Evelyn Dunbar was one of them, and she painted

agriculture scenes, especially the Women’s Land

Army, and nurses in action under difficult

conditions. Her biography included some very

interesting pictures. Wendy also brought a book,

“Growing up in Wartime Somerset: Portrait in

Water Colour” by Syd Durston, available at the Rural Life Museum. It was a delightful

record in pictures of life on a farm in this area.

Andrea brought “Colour of War” about Edward Burra who lived near

her family in Sussex and who had made paintings of the Spanish Civil

War (1936-39), They were dark and contorted with the figures’

modelled almost in contour lines.

Val brought a guide book to Stanley Spencer’s Gallery in

Cookham and we talked about the murals at Sandham

Memorial Chapel, near Newbury. Several members have

visited one or both of these sites. The size and strength of

Spencer’s works are impressive.

Carol brought examples of another Sussex artist,

Eric Ravilious, who was killed while working as a War

Artist in 1942. His cool water colours show a

dreamlike world in which the wartime elements

seem almost incidental.

Jenny brought her copy of the Tate book of the exhibition

of Feb - Aug 2011, and shared some of the information in

the article written by Alison Smith (one of the curators at

the Tate) The article was entitled "Watercolour and war"

in which she commented about the different approaches

to / reasons for / official backing of / art in war, and in

particular how different it was between the first and

second world wars.

After tea, we watched Anton’s presentation about the Bayeux Tapestry as ‘war art’, quite a

different war, and an embroidery instead of the more usual art mediums of the 20th

century.