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

Ken White's Private View

The Friends' committee organised a Private View for Ken White's exhibition currently in the gallery at the museum on the first day of the exhibition. There was a fabulous turn out, with around 90 people attending, and canapes provided by The Olive Tree cafe, situated adjacent to TWIGS. I'll post a few of the photos I took during the evening.

 We had a bar licence for the evening and so were able to sell alcohol from the 'bar' seen above

 Phyllida, canapes in left hand, and Ruth above chatting

 Canapes seen on the right hand side of the photo, and below I asked Graham if he would pose with this picture because his polo shirt was almost the same colour as the smoke in the painting.

 It wasn't easy to get a photo of Ken in relaxed pose, here he is behind Vicky and Sally

 Jeremy and Marion having a chat

 Phyllida with canapes in the entrance to the gallery, with Martin enjoying them

 Sophie Cummings, Curator at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery was kind enough to come and chat about the exhibitions, and when she would be giving lunch time talks, I think.
The next FREE lunchtime talk is tomorrow 18 October from 12.30pm-1.00pm about the exhibition: 'Touring the Swindon Collection 60 years On', about the exhibition in the main part of the gallery

 Here's another photo of Ken White

 and Sophie again, in the photo below, with Angela Atkinson in blue with her back to the camera. Angela has written a book in association with Ken about his life and work, available in the museum shop, booksellers in the town, and online, it's well worth a look with masses of illustrations. I haven't read it yet, just looked at the pictures so far, and they're brilliant.

 Tom Seaward from Swindon Advertiser wrote a piece in the Adver to celebrate the show, and here's Ken below with brother Mike and his wife Sue at the end of a brilliant evening. Thank you to all those who came and made it very special. We raised almost £200 in the raffle donated by Ken, it was one of his linocuts.

After the PV, some of the committee went to relax in the Eternal Optimist where we were able to discuss the highlights of the evening.

Thank you once again to all those involved who made it such a special evening.
Don't miss Ken White in conversation with Andy Binks at 7.30pm on 28 and 29 November. Tickets from Swindon MAG or www.friendsofsmag.org 

Private View of Touring the Swindon Collection, 60 years on

The Friends of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery exists to support the work of the museum, specifically as a registered charity we raise money for purchases, restorations, new works, exhibitions and currently the children's workshops. We also help publicise the museum, and many of us volunteer on the front desk, and act as assistants in the workshops, additionally we hold at least 10 talks each year and this year are we have organised 5 trips. We felt invitations to Private Views would be a really good selling point to encourage more people to join the Friends, and so we very pleased to be able to extend an invitation to all Friends when the current exhibition in the main gallery was launched.
To join the Friends, please go online: www.friendsofsmag.org or pick up a form from the museum. 
Here's the information on Touring the Swindon Collection 60 years on from the website:

'In 1959, the Swindon Collection of Modern British art began a tour of 16 towns and cities of the United Kingdom.

From Falmouth to Sunderland, Southend-on-Sea to Bolton, thousands of museum visitors were introduced to paintings by Paul Nash, LS Lowry, Gwen John and Graham Sutherland. This new exhibition celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of this tour, which introduced the people of Britain to Swindon’s remarkable art and established the reputation of the ‘Swindon Collection’.

This exhibition brings together the 44 works of art sent ‘on tour’ in 1959 and presents them alongside some of the most important acquisitions we have made in the decades since. The exhibition explores the history of the collection and the ambitions and challenges of touring so many pictures to so many places.'
We gathered in the gallery, had drinks and at 6.30pm there were speeches from Curator Sophie Cummings, and magazine editor, Sue Pycroft. Erik Burnett-Godfree was to have given one of his fabulous insights into a painting at 7.15pm but was unable to do so.
What follows are so rather dark photos taken in the gallery:

Details of our September private view will be sent to Friends soon.