This blog has moved!

The Truro Art Society blog can now be found at www.truroartsociety.blogspot.com

MAY MESSAGES

TRURO ART SOCIETY
cornwall
SPRING BLOG


The Committee would like to welcome back all those members who have renewed their membership and to welcome all those new members who have just joined the Society. This Newsletter is to fill you in on all those interesting activities you might have missed since the last Newsletter and to give you a taste of the even better things to come in the next year. We hope that there will be something to please everyone.

If you have not yet paid your subscription for the coming year, may I remind you that it is still £15 for individual members, £25 for two members at the same address.

A blast from the past! By January 1960, Truro and District Art Society membership numbers had reached 51 and the annual subscription was 10s. 6d. old money. In 1960 the Society received a grant of £23 from the Carnegie Trust but gave a donation of £42.2s.0d to the World Refugee Fund.

At the AGM, there were 30 people present. We said goodbye and thank you to the following Committee members who have already stepped down, are retiring or changing role or are going to retire part way through the year;
Gill Widdison (Minutes Secretary)
Sara Pound (Workshops Secretary)
Joan Humphries, Elaine Allcock and Bryan Dawkins (Exhibition Secretaries)

We heard reports from Committee members, the essence of which is summarised in this Newsletter.

(The full minutes of the AGM will be published for the next AGM, April 2009)

We have now had the AGM and the new Committee has been elected.
They are:
Jan Lobb; Chair
John Faupel; Programme Secretary
Sonja Faupel; Membership Secretary
Barry Pettit; Treasurer
Bryan Dawkins; Workshops Secretary
Tony King; Publicity Secretary
Martin Perman; Exhibitions Secretary (Technical)
John Pedler kindly agreed after the AGM to take the minutes at Committee meetings.

Other Exhibition Secretaries will change over after the next Selected Exhibition at Trelissick.
So current Exhibition Secretaries are
Joan Humphries
Elaine Allcock
After that the task of organising exhibitions will be shared by
Christina Rayson
Jennifer Lilley and
Anne Brooks.

N.B. There is still a vacancy for Exhibition Secretary 2, whose job it is to deal with mailing, labelling and catalogue production.

Thank you to all those who filled in their questionnaires and sent them back to Jan Lobb. There is still time to do it if you have anything to say. We are taking note of your suggestions.

workshops past and future

Back in May and June 2007 Sara Pound organised two very enjoyable and successful workshops on mixed media, led by the very enthusiastic and inspiring Ges Wilson. Unfortunately, two workshops planned for later in the year came to grief when first one then another of the proposed workshop leaders had to drop out. (Vincent Rymer relocated to Spain and Gillian Craddock had a clashing duty.)

However, the prospect for the coming year looks good. Bryan Dawkins has acted on the desires expressed by some of the less experienced painters in their questionnaire replies and is organising a series of classes/workshops, at Carnon Downs, between now and September, at £20 a time. So what is usually a Summer holiday blank in our schedule now offers something for you to do. (More workshops will be announced later in the year.)

*Wednesday 21 May: Drawing (Use of all drawing media from graphite pencils to pen and wash, including pastels. Includes an introduction to perspective.)
Already fully booked, but may be repeated.

*Wednesday 25 June: Marine and Seascape Painting (How to paint the sea. boats and shoreline. Any preferred media.) Already fully booked, but may be repeated.

*Wednesday 23 July: An Introduction to Abstract Painting (Includes use of texture and special effects.)

*Saturday 2 August: Landscape Painting
(How to paint trees, clouds, buildings, etc. Includes composition.)

*Wednesday 13 August: An Introduction to Oil Painting (Includes use of palette knife.)

*Wednesday 27 August: The Use and Understanding of Colour (A complete guide to the paints on your palette and how to use them effectively.)

*Saturday 6 September: An Introduction to Painting With Acrylics.

If you are interested in any or all of them contact Bryan on bryan.dawkins@btinternet.com
or phone him on 01872 571435

monthly talks, past and future

In January, Fiona Hackney from University College Falmouth departed from her advertised title and told us about her research into the design of women’s magazines and about the part-time course she runs on twentieth century art and design. She also showed us slides of a variety of art galleries (such as the Guggenheim) and got us thinking about the relationship between works of art and the spaces within which they are exhibited.

In February, Robin Paris talked about the process of batik, well-known in Indonesia but less so in this country, as a method of creating works of art, and showed examples of her work.
You can see Robin's work on www.robinparis.co.uk

In March, the advertised speaker was taken ill and John Faupel stepped in with a talk about his own work, his favourite artists and his influences. With stong undertones of mathematics, science, natural history and philosophy, John’s works were eye-catching and thought-provoking, as well as using a range of unconventional media to achieve a desired effect. See more of John’s work on www.faupel-art.org

Coming up in May, Jenny Beavan will talk about “The Art of Ceramics – A Sense of Place”. Anyone who has been to County Hall recently may have spotted one of her benches on display. You can see some of Jenny’s work in advance by looking on www.cryofthegulls.co.uk

Our final meeting before the Summer break will be a critique, by Tom Henderson Smith, of members’ work (presented anonymously). Usually we have a vote for our favourite picture, but don’t be put off. If you don’t consider any of your pictures good enough, if you are a beginner and want to know how you are progressing or if you are having difficulty with a particular work, bring your problem with you and take the opportunity of getting some free advice from Tom (not to mention unsolicited advice from the rest of us!).

Tom’s own work can be seen on www.hendersonsmith.co.uk

*AFTER THE SUMMER BREAK*

On 17th September you can look forward to a talk by Mark Thackeray on ‘Stanley Spencer’s Earthly Paradise’

Stanley Spencer (above) spent much of his life in the Berkshire village of Cookham and is perhaps best known for those large visionary paintings based on traditional themes. Mark hopes to involve the audience in some interesting discussion about what they really mean.

If you want to have a preview of some of Stanley Spencer’s paintings, you can see 65
of them on www.tate.org.uk

On October 15th do not miss ‘Benign Icons’ by Patrick Woodroffe. Patrick is brilliant in the field of imaginary realism, as exemplified by the jacket of his latest book, called Benign Icons. Visit his web-site www.patrickwoodroffe-world.com for an idea of the dazzling array of his work.

This is a marvellous opportunity to meet the founder of all this creative output and witness a display of hallucinatory images that will undoubtedly inspire you for many moons to come.

And on November 19th is the final talk of 2008 (the December meeting is the Christmas party). John Hurst will give an illustrated lecture about ‘William Blake – Poet & Artist’. Blake was a painter, poet, philosopher, visionary and mystic. We can all recognise his most famous paintings, but what do we know about him and his inspiration? Was he an insane Renaissance-man or a misunderstood eccentric of the English Romantic era? Come and find inspiration yourself.

and finally – your questionnaire answers

Suggestions for workshops and demonstrations:

Many of our new members are inexperienced and do not feel that they are yet good enough to exhibit. Now that there are fewer adult education classes available many said they would like lessons or demonstrations to improve their own work, including basic technique for beginners. All media were mentioned, particularly oils, which haven’t been used much in workshops (apart from glazes) for several years.

Water colour/oils/acrylic/mixed media/ oil pastels/water-based oils = 14
painting techniques/improvement of style/colour mixing/paint application =3
composition/perspective =1
not still life =1
Chinese watercolour/brush painting =5
landscape/seascape/sea/sky =4
marine subjects =2
buildings/interiors/furniture =2
industrial subjects =1
figure drawing/other drawing =3
animal subjects (e.g. Susan Bendell Bayley?) =1
trees =1
modernist/abstract =3
traditional =1
textiles/applique/collage/batik =4
silk painting =1
print making =1
on location, capture the moment =2
Sculture: techniques (wood/stone, etc.) =5

I am glad to say that many people thought John Faupel was doing a good job organising his monthly talks (only one person said anything adverse). Suggestions for demonstrations have been noted for future programmes.