The Art of Ashdown House by Nicola Cornick

 On the 25 August we were given a fascinating talk on the art of Ashdown House, a short distance from Swindon, by Nicola Cornick who has been a National Trust guide at the house for 20 years. Ashdown House was built as a hunting lodge in 1661-2, in 'blingy' white stone as a status symbol by Lord Craven who at one time was the richest man in England. He also had a fabulous portrait collection, a small core of which still remains at Ashdown House. I'll include the portraits I photographed from the computer screen, although I'm not sure who they represent. Fortunately we have a recording of the talk, and there are guided tours of the collection bookable on the website, Nicola is doing one tomorrow afternoon which I would very much like to have attended.

I think this is a portrait of Lord Craven above, and below the painting might be called 'Allegory of Love'. It was a posthumous portrait and shows symbols of love, loyalty and marriage

This might be Prince Richter of the Rhine who had 13 children

I will soon watch the recording of the talk and fill in the gaps
 Nicola Cornick is writer in residence at Ashdown House and is a best selling author, she has 2 days ago talked at Burford literary Festival!!

'From Response to lasting Image' a talk by Juliet Wood

We were fortunate enough to have the artist Juliet Wood talking about her life and work for our second Zoom talk a couple of weeks ago. Juliet ran through her early interest in art, when I think she and others recognised a real artistic talent, leading her to spend time as a student at The Slade, then a postgraduate year in Italy. Then followed 5 children, which it seemed might have had an effect on the progress of Juliet's life as an artist. However, Juliet's website gives a more accurate and succinct summary of Juliet's life, and her chronology an illustration of the wealth and breadth of her experience.
I first met Juliet at her exhibition 'Alone and Together, Brunel's People' where as Juliet says:
'In our ever faster moving world, I sat still in a fast food restaurant, a visual feast, recording hundreds of moments over more than a decade, gradually developing this series of themed paintings'. Juliet has also produced a video about these paintings here

 This painting above is called 'The Greeting' and really expresses the range of activities in the fast food restaurant really well, from the man sitting down at the end of his shift, the two men chatting to each other while a woman carries a bag behind them, and the people in the background are cooking food.

 I particularly like this painting because of the range of activities you can see, and also the fact that Juliet was photographed with Lakshmi who was cleaning the floor::

And here is Juliet drawing in McDonald's.

 Juliet has also produced some paintings of the seaside which make me long to be beside the sea.
These are of Cromer Beach and Pier

 and below the pier from the other side than shown above; Juliet stood in the water to draw this composition, with the tide rising!!

There were also some fabulous portraits, I particularly liked these, Juliet says:
‘At the heart of my painting is the expression of human life, and portraiture has always been a part of that.’ and there's lots more information on her website

 Above Ned, Jamie and Ellen Atiyah, three siblings

 This was a beautiful portrait, Juliet has conveyed so much here, and showed us drawings she had done of the hands.

This is a portrait of Chris Bretherton.
Maybe my absolute favourite portrait though is of one of Juliet's grandson's, Rex seen as a drawing and then the portrait:

 Here is the painting of Rex, with his father's portrait in the background, I think!

 I have only conveyed a fraction of the talk and what it covered here, but would like to thank Juliet Wood for giving us such a comprehensive overview of her work, and giving us such a pleasurable evening.
 Prints and books can be bought by clicking on the links.
And finally, as many of you know, while Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is closed due to Covid-19 restrictions, we have organised a selection of talks to hold via Zoom. It works this way, those who have joined the Friends, should be on my emailing list, and will receive a link to the Zoom talk just before it is held.It's a good way of keeping in touch with the Friends during these difficult times, and partly makes up for the fact we can't get together in the art gallery.
Here's a link to the video of the talk: https://youtu.be/DR4FIoOtjpU
Coming up next:
Jeremy Holt on artist Caspar David Friedrich next Wednesday 15 July.