Top 5 Posts of All Time

Having listed the top 10 posts of 2019, I thought I'd list the top 5 posts in the history of the blog.

Coming in at number 1 is the post about Jon Ratcliffe's talk 'Unseen Swindon' at 538 page views, published on May 7 2018, it can be read in full here.

 

 I've included one of Jon's photos of the David Murray John Tower.

At the second spot is a post entitled 'Collective Artists with their Work' and is a series of photos of artists who took part in the first Open Exhibition at the museum. It's dated December 30 2018 and shows lots of photographs of artists who took part, and has 500 page views. It's hard to pick just one photo of an artist from this post. Do have a look here at all the photos.

 
 This is Mia Willis with her painting, she coincidentally walked in to the gallery when I was there, it wasn't taken on the opening night as most of them were.

In the third place is  a post called 'Smashing Pots a talk by Mike Yates' with 441 page views, it was posted on October 18 in 2012 and is of course worth reading, it can be found here.
I'll use 'The Pear' by Mo Jupp as the photo from the talk:


And in fourth place, there's a post copied from the flyer of Talks and Trips for 2019 with 426 page views. I've taken the piece about the talk by Michael Gray to represent that post.
 
 And finally in fifth place, a post entitled 'Archaeological Reconstruction Drawings' a write up of a talk by Jennie Anderson with 366 page views, this post was published on April 30 2017. Jennie debunked the idea that Vikings wore 2 pronged helmets  One important thing is people's preconception, Jennie said, for instance many people imagine Vikings had 2 pronged helmets as seen on the person below. The audience were asked to draw a Viking and many people drew the helmet with 2 prongs, Jennie was able to trace this back to a drawing made of Vikings made over a hundred years ago which has influenced our idea of what Vikings looked like.
 
 I can't get the photo into the centre of the page, but I think you can see the familiar idea we have of a viking helmet.
For anyone wondering where the Talks and Trips programme for 2020 has gone, it's due out very soon.

Artists and their Work

I do like photos of artists with their work, and last year took quite a few artists standing beside their work at the Open Exhibition. This year I have mostly relied on copying photos from Facebook, I do hope this is alright with everyone, there are some lovely photos:

 Above Graham Carter and his 'Measure Twice, Cut Once' piece, and below Alex Coppock-Bunce with her piece:

I'm not sure who the couple below are, I thought they were with Rebecca Perdue

 but then Rebecca Perdue appears to be standing in front of her linocuts

 And here's David Robinson with his autobiographical linocuts

 I've just had a look for more and found Sue Ash almost in the frame!

 Here's Simone Dawood receiving the Friends' prize, and her print on the right

 Lovely photo of Ushma Sergeant with her 2 pieces, must be in panoramic view

 and a visualartswindon post on Facebook advertising Instagram with a few more artists with their work

 Finally here's Tim Carroll with me standing in front of his Ferry painting

The Open Exhibition 2019

Brought back by popular demand, after being very successful last year, the Open Exhibition now occupying the main gallery runs until 21 December. It showcases work from artists who have entered from an even wider area than previously. The Friends' committee were pleased to be able to help behind the bar on the night of the Private View, and quite a few members of the Friends came along to the PV evening when the show opened.
It's quite difficult to get good photos on these occasions, but this one below was very easy because three people posed for someone else.The picture is Stella and friends. Stella's picture Thought Bubble' is featured in the middle.

 I'll add some of the others I took.

 It's interesting to do some people spotting, but I'll leave that to people looking through this post!

 I tried to get a few good ones

 I think you get the general idea

 there were lots of people attending, and they all chatted to each other

 Maybe holding the camera a bit higher improves the effect.

I was very pleased that the Friends were able to support the Open Art Exhibition by offering a £100 prize to a piece of art chosen by Katie Ackrill. The piece Katie chose was Ridgeway Relics I, a monotype by Simone Dawood, seen below. I have just looked up Simone and found she has written a great blog post about the Open Exhibition and her inspiration for this piece, click here to find out more

chosen because of the unusual view of the Ridgeway chosen by Simone and influenced by her voluntary work with the museum's archival material.
The piece has rather a lovely label beside it:

I took photos of pieces of work which initially attracted my attention. It's hard to do this because it's an excellent exhibition, with some fascinating work, but there are some pieces which immediately attract one's attention.
Here are some:

 I hesitate to do this, and encourage everyone who can, to visit the exhibition, it's on until 21 December, opening hours Tuesday -Saturday 11am-4.30pm at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, the photos don't do any of the works justice. Above two works by Jack Hicks, both sold

 Above an interesting assemblage of works, and below, Ray Ward and Juliet Wood

 Below on the right, Tim Carroll's 'Townscape', and on the left Lisa Harvey's 'Fall Equinox'

 Top piece Tara Parker-Woolway's pastel on slate, and below Lucy Longhurst's 'Dunstanburgh'

 The two above are by Alex Coppock- Bunce, 'Return from Blaskets to Dunquin' and below that a photo from Joseph Wright 'The Floods #01'

 Above Ushma Sergeant's picture of Liddington Hill in fibre

 I loved these 3 pieces placed together, Ray Ward's 'Little Soldier' on the right, Sarah Purvey's 'Pulse' in the middle and Joe Tymkow's 'Black Rain' oil and bitumen on canvas.

 Rebecca Perdue's 'Sparrows and Thistles' and 'Murmuration' above, I'll admit an interest here, I bought the lower linocut depicting sparrows and thistles, it's delightful and it was hard to choose between them

 This piece above, was a complete surprise, it's Graham Carter's piece 'Measure Twice, Cut Once' , so true!! Apparently the remains of the rulers, the bits with brass ends and were used somehow in Graham's kitchen. I'd like a photo of the kitchen, how about it Graham?
There's one more piece which I would love to bring home, it's this one by Anna Pinkster called sensibly enough 'Camel and Three Figures'

 and I can include Tim Carroll's The Ferry as my final piece