SUBSCRIPTIONS AND VENUE FOR 2007

Unfortunately, with rising costs, it has proved necessary to raise annual subscriptions. These now stand at £15 (£25 for two at same address, half price for under-eighteens and students in full-time education). This gives you admission to all the talks, the right to submit works for exhibitions and newsletters. Visitors are welcome to attend any individual talks, price £2.

The new venue, from 19th September 2007, is the Jenny Agutter building at Truro High School for Girls.

There is one more meeting (June 20th) at Archbishop Benson. Bring along a work for David Cheepen’s critique.

AGM 2007

At the AGM in March the Chairman and various Committee Members gave reports. The Treasurer, John Pedler stepped down, having been in office for an extra year. Many thanks to him, and to our Auditor who is retiring at the same time. Barry Pettit was voted in as the new Treasurer. Also voted in was Tony King as Publicity Secretary. We are grateful to him for offering – a year spent sharing publicity between the rest of us demonstrated what an important job this is. The rest of the Committee were re-confirmed.
So the Committee now stands at:

PRESIDENT:PAM ENTWISTLE

VICE PRESIDENT: HEATHER PHILLIPS

CHAIR: JANICE LOBB (janicelobb@tiscali.co.uk)

VICE CHAIR / WORKSHOPS: SARA POUND (s_pound@hotmail.com)

PROGRAMMES: JOHN FAUPEL (john@faupel.fsworld.co.uk)

TREASURER: BARRY PETTIT (barry_pettit@tinyworld.co.uk)

EXHIBITIONS: JOAN HUMPHRIES
ELAINE ALLCOCK
BRYAN DAWKINS (bryan.dawkins@btinternet.com)

PUBLICITY: TONY KING (tony.king8@iscali.co.uk)

SECRETARIAT: GILL WIDDISON

MEMBERSHIP: SONJA FAUPEL (Sonja@compass-home.org)

Membership enquiries and subscriptions to
Lemon Cottage
Baldhu
Truro
TR3 6ED

MONTHLY MEETINGS 2007

In January we had a scintillating talk, entitled The Other Side of Cosy, by an interesting artist from Camborne, Malcolm Lindsay. Malcolm’s own “raw art” style paintings are powerful and eye-catching – sometimes disturbing - anything but cosy. He believes in conveying ideas – strong social and political messages. He admitted he is not the world’s best technical painter, and he certainly uses unconventional touches, such as burying an axe in a picture of conflict in the Middle East. As the title suggests, the theme of his talk was that the public-face of art is all too cosy, yet beneath this façade there has always been a more important and powerful motivation driving creative art forwards. Ever since human beings began scratching on the walls of caves they have attempted to express their inner and feelings and it is this on-going struggle that has made art endlessly novel and liberating. In our attempt to establish an orderly world with too many rules and regulations, we seem to be stifling creativity beneath a blanket of conformity and convention. Malcolm’s argument is that our cosy living-room walls are adorned with far too many pictures of flowers or landscapes that tell us absolutely nothing about the artist’s inner thoughts and feelings – only that he or she is able to paint well. Perhaps we have become stifled by our fear of stepping out of line and upsetting one another because these feelings of joy or sorrow, or even disgust with the manifold troubles of the world are too uncomfortable to express visually. But surely there is a kaleidoscope of such emotions buried somewhere in every one of us, so not even the most amateur of painters should allow themselves to secretly carry such feelings within them to their grave.

At our February meeting we were joined in the audience by one of Andrea Garrihy’s own creations, a life-size cloth sculpture of a lady “of a certain age”, who had previously appeared on Blue Peter. Andrea gave us an inspired talk, “A Touch of Sculpture” illustrated with slides, about public sculpture, from its earliest days right up to the present day. The sculptors were frequently not acknowledged but sometimes, surprisingly, they were women. We saw works of vast size, such as the Angel of the North at Gateshead, and of small size, such as masks of Isis and Thames on Henley Bridge and the head of John the Baptist in Penzance, with all stages in between, with representations ranging from larger-then-life heroic figures to the intimate and abstract. All media were represented, from classical white Carrera marble, Bath stone and bronze to brick and wire and bright yellow plastic and painted steel. Andrea told us which sculptors she liked and how she was inspired by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth and the Yorkshire landscape. Her own works included large stone knots, a giant conker carved from horse chestnut wood and threaded on a giant string, and award-winning snow sculptures produced (with a team) at international competitions. Snowmen will never be the same again.

Andrea has her own website.

When do textiles cease to be home furnishings and clothing and become works of art? Certainly when they are Techno Textiles. This was the subject of our March talk, given by Sarah Braddock-Clarke, who has written two fascinating books on the subject. She brought along the most beautiful samples, and stunned us with what they would cost to buy. Starting with the basic principle of a warp and a weft, it is amazing what materials can be woven together and how they can be finished after the weaving process. Extremely fine copper wire, coated in transparent plastic and interwoven with fibres made from coagulated milk protein, produced a subtle pink fabric with a look of silk. Some materials had been sprayed with micro-fine coatings of metal, such as stainless steel -21st Century chain mail that could be washed and ironed! Japan and Italy lead the way in the production and use of these fabrics. Technology previously used in car manufacturing, computers controlling jacquard looms, many things have expanded the potential for textile production. Sometimes the end results go straight to art galleries, sometimes to haute couture, some even have a practical purpose.

Having had a talk on Mediaeval and Renaissance art in the autumn, it seemed only natural to examine the other end of the spectrum in Spring. Our May talk by Jacqueline Wedlake Hatton was “A Post-Modern Approach to Art”. Most of us can just about cope with Modern, though most members tend to keep to a fairly traditional style in their own work. Jacqueline herself started as a photographer and now uses video and painting in her work as well – along with a selection of unconventional materials – to produce installations. The wonderful thing about Post-Modernism seems to be that anything goes. Don’t worry about technique or medium, if you choose to call it art, it is art. We had a lively discussion and Jacqueline illustrated her work with slides of her own work and that of other artists. I can’t wait for the next exhibition to see if anyone has taken up the baton and run with it!

SPRING WORKSHOPS

Ges Wilson’s workshops are always popular and inspiring. Held at Carnon Downs Village Hall, the two latest were no exception. Ges is a contemporary artist, having freelanced & exhibited in Cornwall & London over the last decade. She has been involved with arts education in Penwith since 1978, Ges then worked alongside Roy Ray (then Principal of St Ives School of Painting) as a Tutor, stepping into his shoes in December 2000. Since leaving her post at St Ives School, she has focused on being a ‘working’ Artist, exhibiting new bodies of work, joining ARTSPACE Gallery in St Ives and, as if that wasn’t enough, is a Professional Freelancer for the Tate giving talks on various exhibiting artists ‘in house’.
She has worked with oils, acrylics, pastels, charcoal & various other mixed media, including various types of printing. To read more about the school & see some of her work see www.stivesartschool.co.uk or go to ARTSPACE Gallery, where you can link into her own website!
The first workshop was drawing from a ‘Life Model’ in the morning – several short sketches to warm up, using charcoal, ink or other media. Then in the afternoon developing image/s with mono-printing & layering of coloured glazes.
The 2nd workshop was a continuation of the image/s produced (one day was not long enough to produce a ‘finished’ result) or bringing along another/similar image to progress onto.