Tarot Art by Michael Gray

 Our June talk was by a well known speaker, Michael Gray who has delighted us with his knowledge of heritage architecture in the past, and even reimagining where the Tabernacle Stones could be relocated one year. Michael has immersed himself in tarot and become extremely knowledgeable about how it is thought to work, its benefits and the changing art of the cards. After the talk, Michael gave readings in Rudi's Bar.

'Tarot Art' by Michael Gray

 7.30pm Thursday 26 June 2025

The design of tarot cards has evolved over five centuries, mirroring the artistic and cultural trends of each period. First used as playing cards, their widespread popularity across Europe led to their use for divination and fortune telling. In this talk Tarot Reader Michael Gray will discuss popular tarot decks, review their artwork and iconography, and explain how they provide profound insight and knowledge during a Tarot reading.

Photographs taken on the night include these:

Above are photographs of two people closely associated with Tarot

A photograph taken during a reading when the cards were laid out and interpretations made of their significance.

May Talk by Mark Golder on Stephen Russ

 We were very pleased to welcome back Mark Golder who has given many excellent talks to the Friends in the past and supported us in many ways. This was a fascinating talk shining a light on Stephen Russ and the importance of book cover art. Here's the illustration used for the talk:

'The Illustrator, Stephen Russ'

by Mark Golder

Stephen Russ lived at Shaw Hill near Melksham and taught fabric design and then printmaking for thirty years at Bath Academy of Art (Corsham); but he is better known in the world of illustration as the designer of dust jackets for over eighty books between 1945 and 1975, and as the designer of covers for the Penguin Poetry series in the 1950s and 1960s. He also produced a generic cover for Penguin's D. H. Lawrence novels, and it was his design of a phoenix rising from the flames on the front cover of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' when Penguin was taken to court for obscenity. This illustrated talk will concentrate on the dust jackets and cover illustrations, considering how they reveal the artist and the major concerns of the times in which he lived.

Here are some photos taken at the talk:

It's difficult to take good photos in the Council Chamber at the Civic Offices but I think you get a good feeling of the atmosphere by not cropping the photos.

April Talk about the 'Seriously...' Exhibition

 

Our April talk was about the exhibition in the small gallery curated by three members of the Friends. This is what the Chair, Andrew Cross said about it at the time via email to members:

Seriously... The Friends Exhibition by the Friends

The Friends' exhibition "Seriously…" has now been on display for a few weeks. It was good to see many of you at the Private View, but what do you think of the choices? Our show draws its name from the old Sir Kenneth Clarke quote but one of its aims is to show that Swindon is as serious about new and challenging work as it is proud of its "big hitters". That's why amongst Alfred Wallis and Michael Ayrton we selected some less well known artworks and some striking work by living artists which MAS has acquired more recently. 

We want to challenge preconceptions of what the Swindon collection is. It isn't preserved in aspic, it's a living breathing thing. In this hopefully entertaining and lively talk the three living breathing things who put "Seriously…" together (Miles Franklin, Claire Parsons and former chair of the Friends Linda Kasmaty) will talk you through three works and how we challenged each other on their merit for inclusion in the show, and we'll invite Friends to have their say. 
Katie Ackrill, the MAS curator who helped us put the show together will also be available to answer your questions.

A flyer advertising the event appears below:

March Talk: Ann-Rachael Harwood on the Antarctic explorer Edward Wilson

 I was not able to attend the talk, so am including the information about the talk and then some photographs kindly taken by our Treasurer, Brigid Harkness used to illustrate the talk.

Ann-Rachael is a passionate Antarctic historian with a special interest in the life and work of Edward Adrian Wilson. She is a museum curator by training and had a varied career working at the Tower of London cataloguing cannon balls, to time at the old prison at Northleach, the Corinium Museum in Cirencester and lately at The Wilson in Cheltenham. Here, she encountered the work and writings of the naturalist, doctor, artist and Antarctic scientist Edward Adrian Wilson and became fascinated by the frozen southern continent. 

About the talk...

Edward Adrian Wilson (1872 to 1912) was born in Cheltenham, and spent his childhood roaming the hills and fields around the town, totally absorbed in the natural world when he was not at school. He pursued that love throughout his life, training as a Doctor but still sketching every living creature he came across from ant to elephant.  Wilson went on two expeditions with Scott to Antarctica, painting and drawing the landscape, mapping the coastline and mountains, capturing and dissecting natural history specimens and starting us off on our love affair with Emperor Penguins. He led a trip in the Southern winter to find out about the Emperor Penguins' breeding habits, now referred to as 'The Worst Journey in the World'. He was one of the 4 men picked to go to the South Pole with Scott but died on the return journey in 1912. His legacy lives on through the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust, the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Scott Polar Research Institute as well as the many amazing scenes he painted in Antarctica.....and Penguin biscuits!

The Wilson, Cheltenham's art gallery and museum was named after Edward Adrian Wilson.

The Crippetts in Leckhampton was somewhere Wilson used to go to immerse himself in nature and draw.

'That God should lay such beauty at our feet' is what the writing accompanying the drawings done one imagines from observations in the field.

Below a great photos of those on the expedition. They don't appear to be wearing very much clothing considering the conditions

This presumably is one of Wilson's paintings.

I'm sorry I missed the talk, Wilson sounds like a fascinating person who died at the early age of 40 in the Antarctic.

Private View 14 March

 It was wonderful to attend the Private View celebrating the opening of two exhibitions, Seriously... and A Very British Art Revolution, at Museum and Art Swindon on 14 March. The Friend's exhibition called Seriously... runs from 25 February until 13 September is something I am very proud to say I have been involved in helping put together, along with other members of the Friends. Friends who curated the exhibition will be giving a talk on the exhibition at 7.30pm on 24 April. The other exhibition, A Very British Art Revolution runs from 11 March until 5 July, it was curated by Katie Ackrill and Kirsty Hartsiotis, and is a great exhibition of works from the Swindon Collection, with a focus on the first decade of the twentieth century.

I took a few photographs of the event and have also used some photos taken by Claire Parsons and will indicate when this is the case, although it's fairly obvious.

We started downstairs at the Civic Offices with drinks provided by the Friends and served by them as well. After a bit of mingling and drinking, there were speeches, starting with Kirsty Hartsiotis, Collections and Exhibitions Officer seen above.

Next we heard from Andrew Cross, Chair of the Friends about how pleased he was with both exhibitions. Below you can see there was a quick shot of the audience. I'm not sure howmany attended, but it seemed pleasantly full.

Finally Frances Yeo, Museums Manager talked about how pleased she was with the turnout and the exhibitions.

We then went upstairs and looked at the two exhibitions and chatted. I took a few more photos

It was lovely to see so many people enjoying the exhibitions and chatting to each other

You will recognise some people. It was lovely to see Barbara Swann, who was Deputy Chair and writer of the newsletter, among other things had travelled from Swansea to be at the PV.

The following photos are much less 'point and see what you get', and are by courtesy of Claire Parson,  one of the curators of the Seriously... exhibition and part of an unlocking collections team and also member of the Friend's committee.

Above setting the scene

Below Barbara looking at the Robert Priseman's.

and below, Jeremy Lune appreciating a painting.

So there we are, a great evening celebrating lots of the Swindon Collection being on display for the first time in 5 years.

February Talk on the Cerne Abbas Giant by Mike Allen

 We were very fortunate to welcome Mike Allen, a geoarchaeologist and environmental archaeologist who coordinated all the archaeological science for the Cerne Giant excavations. A link to the information we were given prior to the talk is here. I took photos of the slides Mike posted for us while he talked about the magnitude of the hill carving. At Bangor University in 1970, I was impressed with our rag week attempts to raise money for WWT when some students carved a panda into a local hillside. The link here lists later exploits for rag week. I have a lifelong interest in hill figures as a result of this early exposure to them.

Mike produced some very informative slides to help answer questions and elucidate what we now know about the figure after his research.

The Cerne Abbas Giant is found in Dorset, north of Weymouth and Dorchester and surrounded by archaeological sites

This slide showed how he's changed over the years, basically in 1908 the navel was incorporated into  the phallus during a scouring operation, increasing it by 6 feet.

Apart from why this man was carved into a prominent hillside, there's also the question when was it carved and as you can see from the table, many people differed in their views

Above some handy stats

And a comparison with Wilmington Man in Sussex who isn't nearly as impressive is he?

There's clearly a book about the research available if you click on the link above

Even before the optically stimulated luminescence results, OSL, they discovered which snails were in the hill wash.

Interesting to see Ravilious painted both hill men, but gave the Giant a brown outline

I've enlarged the last slide for the conclusions because they are fascinating

'Seriously...' the Friend's exhibition

 When thinking of a title for the Friend's exhibition, we felt we couldn't improve on Sir Kenneth Clark's comments over 50 years ago when he said 'They take art seriously in Swindon'. We reflected on this in the Museum and Art website write up of our exhibition. I thought it was worth going a bit further into how this phrase has been used as recently as 2012 when the Public Catalogue Foundation photographed the Swindon Collection of 20th Century art. An exhibition was held then titled 'They take Art Seriously in Swindon' opened by the Patron of the Public Catalogue Foundation: then HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, now Queen Camilla.

The booklet accompanying the exhibition had this cover:

 Monteiro, Vicente de Rego, 1899-1970, Tennis (detail) 1928 

Unsure why a Brazilian artist's painting was chosen for the front cover

and the following on the first page:

Dr Fred Hohler, Founder of the Public Catalogue Foundation said the following as a Foreword:

''I am frequently asked the question ''What has the Public Catalogue Foundation discovered?'' Of course we have discovered nothing. All we can hope to do is to rediscover what previous generations knew about, loved and respected and which the present generation has lost. 

Losing sight of these collections and their contents can happen very quickly. Sir Kenneth Clarke made his remark ''They take art seriously in Swindon'' less than 50 years ago. Yet, when the Gloucester and Wiltshire catalogue was launched in the summer of last year it was clear that very few people knew of the Swindon Art Gallery or the extraordinary quality of its collection of paintings by twentieth century British artists.

The loss of the Swindon Art Gallery would be tragic!

Today's visit therefore, to Swindon Art Gallery by the Patron of the Public Catalogue Foundation, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, is particularly welcome. I very much hope that it will inspire a re-discovery of the gallery and its rich collection of paintings.

It deserves never to be forgotten.''

We would all echo that sentiment, hence the name for the exhibition, bringing some of the favourite works on show again for the first time in at least 5 years.

'Seriously ...' is not the only art exhibition coming to MAS. There is also an exhibition entitled 'A Very British Art Revolution' Rebellion and reaction in the early 20th century from 11th March to 5 July in one of the large galleries.

Here are 2 posters advertising both exhibitions with their dates:

Plus if you are a member of the Friends, you will be invited to a private view to celebrate the opening of both exhibitions. Exciting eh?