Lynne Derry's Talk on The Great Bustard

May's talk  by Lynne Derry on the Great Bustard was fascinating and informative. Lynne has worked with them for the last 9 years, and gave us the benefit of her extensive knowledge about Great Bustards, much of it gained from working with them. Lynne showed us some lovely photographs of the Great Bustards, but from a projected image, they're not that easy to photograph.
here's the photograph at the start of the talk:

 Bustards are the heaviest flying birds, they tend to land in fields away from people, and are the size of roe deer, the male being much heavier and larger than the female, 40lbs to her 12 lbs. They can rise vertically when they fly. When trying to attract a mate, the males fill their throats with air as seen below:

Great Bustards were hunted to extinction in this country in the mid 1800s, although they exist in many other parts of the world, so when there was an attempt to reintroduce them to Salisbury plain in 1999, it was a matter of trying to find ones in places with a similar climate to ours so they would survive. Amazingly enough, as recently as 2007, Mike Prior, designed a flag for Wiltshire with a Great Bustard at its centre. More on the flag http://www.wiltshireflag.co.uk/about.html

In order to rear chicks, those looking after them have to wear dehumanization suits so the chicks don't become attached to humans. They are omnivores and exist in droves. The best time to visit the sites where they live is in March and April, to find out more look at the Great Bustard Group's website
 Lynne brought some back copies of their magazine, I photographed the cover of this one with a beautiful photo of a Great Bustard on the front.

Also Wiltshire Life magazine recently had a photograph of one in front of Stonehenge:

Maybe we should plan a visit next April?

Fairford Church Trip 4 June 2.30pm

I'm hoping to encourage a good turn out for this trip to look at the stained glass windows in Fairford Church which date back to the 14th Century, and are some of the oldest ones still in existence. The church has a 4 star Heritage rating
On a recent trip, I took some photos, firstly of The Bull where some of us are meeting before the trip for lunch at 12.30pm:

 And then from there we're meeting inside the church at 2.30pm for a talk on the windows:

here are a couple:

I really liked this kneeler, there are so many gorgeous ones

 and this cat greets you on the way out.

If you'd like to come on this trip, please let me know via emailing lindakasmaty@hotmail.com
also indicate whether you'd like to join us for lunch because I need to book a table.

Trip to Roche Court

On Monday, a group of 30 Friends visited Roche Court on one of the brightest, sunniest days we've had this year. It was glorious. We arrived about 12.35pm after a lovely coach ride through leafy Wiltshire countryside, and were greeted warmly by Beth and Francesca and introduced to our picnic spot overlooking the valley to one side of Roche Court.

 Above stretching our legs after the trip, and below on blankets amid the rolling countryside

 The sculpture park is set in the grounds of Roche Court, with some of it in the walled garden where I found this Euphorbia 'Firecracker' possibly.

 The red tulips beneath this tree are almost visible

 This is 'Hazinthe' by Paul Morrison, set against the blue sky it's breath taking

 and this is Barry Flanagan's 'Acrobats'

 Of course a sculpture trail wouldn't be complete, for me at least, without one of these men!

 We ended the day with high tea served in the house, and eaten outside on the terrace.

We were encouraged the spread the word about Roche Court, it's free to enter, do go and visit, it's a beautiful place. For more details and information about what's going on at Roche Court, please click on the link at the top of this post.

Nearly forgot to include one of the stone dogs

Friends PV and Eileen Cooper RA Talk

Last Thursday we were very pleased to welcome Friends to an Eileen Cooper RA Private View at 6pm, followed by an in conversation session between Eileen and Sophie Cummings, Curator at the museum and art gallery. Drinks were kindly provided by Meryl Ainslie including lots of bubbly.

 I've included several photos of people during the first part of the evening when people were enjoying the exhibition, and chatting to Eileen. Here's Martin Newman with Eileen below. They could have posed beside that fabulous drawing, but it was by chance that it turned out like that.

 Below is a beautiful linocut, available for sale!

 I like this one, above, Vicky Silver and Rosemary Yeldham chatting

 Below here's Sophie quizzing Eileen about her early influences, and her practice. We weren't surprised to learn that Eileen puts a lot of hours into her work. Wonderful questioning by Sophie and I'm even more fascinated by Eileen Cooper now.

 Below the rapt audience.

If you haven't been, I strongly recommend the exhibition 'Hide and Seek' , a remarkable collection of unique works on paper spanning almost 40 years, additionally there's a selection of drawings from the Swindon Collection picked by Eileen Cooper to complement her drawings.

Preparing for Tim Hyman RA on Thursday 28 April

I thought I'd have a look at Tim Hyman's paintings on the Internet last night so I could illustrate Facebook posts encouraging people to come along to his talk.
These were my top four paintings:

 Above 'Painting the Family', and below 'A Thousand Miles a Day'

 Below 'Night Taxi: Tamar Garb and Linda Nochin'

 I also loved this one: 'Maggie's House- Winter night'

Hope to see you on Thursday evening, can't wait to find out more about Tim.

'Hide and Seek' new exhibition at SM&AG

We were really excited to be attending the opening of the new exhibition of work by Eileen Cooper RA in the main gallery on Tuesday evening. Lots of people attended, the canapes were tasty, and the 'Hide and Seek' exhibition looks fabulous in the gallery.
It was great to see so many people chatting to those they knew and meeting people they didn't, a good networking opportunity.
I took a few photos of people rather than the exhibition, more on that in another blog post when people have had a chance to have a look for themselves.
On the way in:

Council Leader, David Renard talking about how pleased he is to see Eileen Cooper's exhibition in Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, with Erik B-G's ear and check shirt partly framing the picture.

 Below a great shot of Ray Ward

 And Chair of the Trust formed to lead the bid for funding for the new museum and art gallery, Robert Hiscox, thrilled to welcome Eileen Copper and talking about the new museum and art gallery and what it will do for Swindon.

 And the star of the evening, Eileen Cooper talking about the painting behind her among other things.

 Eileen Cooper will be coming to talk about this exhibition on May 12th at 7.30pm, and before that there will be a special social with Eileen for Friends from 6pm. You will need to book for both these events.

http://swindonlink.com/2016/04/swindon-museum-art-gallery-hosts-major-exhibition-by-royal-academician-eileen-cooper/

Private Passion, Public Face - a talk by Mark Golder

Our talk last Thursday 31 March was by Mark Golder, a collector, he gave us the title 'Private Passion, Public Face, and began by talking about the first half of the title; how he became a collector. Mark is a passionate collector and talked amusingly and fascinatingly about it for the first half of the talk. Here we are waiting to start :

 Mark tried making ceramic pots, but found he couldn't achieve the results he had hoped for, so he began collecting them. He began with ceramics because they were cheaper than bronzes, and he was influenced by other collectors he cited particularly Sir Alan Barlow, an oriental ceramics collector, Helen Barlow who in 1978 donated work and said 'If you've got it, share it'. Marina Vaizey also advised him where to go to begin collecting.
In addition to ceramics, Mark also set up a fund to buy Scottish prints for Pallant House Gallery, and then moved onto English prints, choosing Royal Academicians' work.
At home, positioning ceramics and pictures has been practicised as an art form in itself, Mark showed us how he positions ceramics according to texture together. They stay there for up to 5 years, after which time they are replaced by other arrangements.

 I've included two, although I don't think you can really see that much, but you get the idea.

Mark has collected the work of some 140 different artists, and bought up to 12 pieces from each one. When he first saw Edmund de Waal's ceramics, he bought 12 pieces at once, and although they have increased hugely in value, Mark would never sell anything he's bought, preferring to share it with others by donating pieces to Swindon Museum and Art Gallery and Pallant House Gallery
The second half of the talk moved onto the pieces donated to SM&AG recently. This was also a fascinating insight into what Mark liked about pieces, and I saw them anew, and went to photograph them in the art gallery cases the next day.
Here they are starting with 2 Edmund de Waal's:

 Below are 2 pieces by William Plumptre from the Lake District, but much influenced by Japanese ceramicists.

 This is a geometric stoneware vase from 2010 by Sun Kim.

 Above 3 vases on a stand with Raku glazes by Kate Schuricht c 2013 which were so pleasing because of the green colour in the glaze as well as the shape of the vases.

 Above three white pieces, Mark said 'some whites are exquisite, they enable you to look at form'. The 'Figurative Form' piece by Bruce Chivers is particularly memorable. The bowl is by Peter Wills, and the other earthenware vase by Martin Clark.

 Below is a fabulously coloured footed porcelain bowl by Eddie and margaret Curtis

And the other piece donated by Mark which caught my eye was this vase which from where I was sitting for the talk looked black, but certainly isn't, do go and have a look at the colours. It's a stoneware with glaze vase made by David Frith c 1998.

 A really enjoyable evening, thank you Mark. He has offered to return, so if you missed him last time, come and sample his infectious enthusiasm.