Chairman’s Newsletter
August 2015
Introduction
Welcome to a new season of the Art Circle. This Newsletter has all the details of the various events taking place this autumn.
The schedule of activities, including the Friday afternoon Lecture Programme, the start dates of Life Drawing and Portrait Groups are listed together on one page. The booking form for the Saturday Workshops should be sent to Muriel Lacey – see the separate flyer.
Brief review of this year’s summer Festival Exhibition
All the paintings submitted this year were accepted by the Judges.
959 people visited the exhibition – about the same number as last year. 44 paintings were sold (42 were sold in 2014). The average price of the paintings sold was £105; the average last year was £104, although this year the maximum price achieved was £300, as opposed to £185 last year. It was also nice to see a good spread of sales across the membership
I am grateful to Stephen Curtis, our exhibition treasurer, for supplying these statistics.
Congratulations to all prize winners.
The general feeling is that this year’s show was a success. And from the committee’s point of view the exhibition went very smoothly. This was largely due to all the members who kindly volunteered to help: Mary Taylor, Jane Pollock, Keith Stringer, Lenny and Frankie Townsend, David Walsh, Brian West, Tim Gilbert, Mike Holtom and Richard Newnham – thank you all.
As usual Barry Tolfree designed the posters and Stephen Curtis kept a record of the sales, a task which gets bigger every year with the increasing number of red spots.
David Weight made his customary huge contribution to the smooth running of the exhibition, much of it unseen but all essential: booking the Scout Hall, contacting helpers, organising the entry forms, preparing the rota for stewards, all the picture labels (over 200 this year), organising the catalogue and prize winner’s certificates – work we all take for granted largely because David does it with so little fuss.
On behalf of the members I would also like to thank Alan Wiltshire for his “heavy lifting” contributions. Alan not only turns up to help with the screen lifting for the exhibitions, but also for the other activities - workshops and group sessions - which require furniture to be moved.
Alan is an example of a member who is not on the Committee but nevertheless is always ready to help. We can always do with more help so if you would like to contribute please speak to David or me.
I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone who helped make this year’s exhibition such a success, but thank you all the same.
A website worth checking
Laina West has asked me to draw your attention to this website: www.suffolkpainters.co.uk. It has details of thousands of East Anglian artists. Laina said many entries, including hers, had irrelevant and incorrect personal information. Please check and contact the website owner if necessary.
Saturday Workshops
Muriel Lacey has taken over the organisation of these popular workshops from Marie Paine – see the enclosed leaflet.
I would like to thank Marie for all the work she has done in running these sessions so efficiently over the last two years; happy “retirement” Marie.
Southwold Art Circle website
Please visit the website www.southwoldartcircle.co.uk for the latest Newsletter and details of all the events.
All the current Featured Artists and anyone who has already approached me about joining this page on the Art Circle website will be contacted during September about up-dating their statements and refreshing their pictures.
Local painting classes
A number of members of the Art Circle are experienced tutors and run regular classes and workshops in this area – Jack Stephenson (oil portraits), Dawn Pretty (various mediums and subjects) and Andrew Pitt (watercolour landscapes). If you are interested in joining any of these weekly classes please contact the tutor direct.
Speakers
I am grateful to Maryrose Rintoul who suggested Katherine Hamilton as a possible speaker and put me in touch with her. Katherine will be talking about her life and work on the 27th November and it should be an interesting talk.
If anyone else has ideas for topics and speakers please speak to me or Jack.
Personal Note
I will be showing a group of recent watercolours at The Serena Hall Gallery in Southwold during October. All painted “in the field.”
Final Quote
This has become one of my favourite quotes since I stumbled across it while viewing an exhibition. It demonstrates how sound advice cuts across geographical boundaries (the Atlantic Ocean in this case) and across the ages (from the 19th to the 20th century).
The American painter, Fairfield Porter said once, “When I paint, I think that what would satisfy me is to express what Bonnard said Renoir told him: Make everything more beautiful”.
Very best wishes and happy painting,
Andrew