Peter Waldron's Talk about his exhibition

Peter's exhibition entitled 'Odyssey' runs until 18 November in the sectioned off part of the main gallery upstairs. The museum's website, says 'his bold, abstract paintings are inspired by the rhythm, colour and energy of natural forms. This exhibition explores the artist’s life and career to date and brings together a selection of his paintings and drawings'.
 I'll show you a selection of the work on display, although if you haven't visited the museum to see, it's well worth a trip.

It's also good to see that the Friends supported this exhibition, and are also supporting the next exhibition, the first for 40 years of Janet Boulton's paintings

 Peter gave us a lovely biography, the cacti with additions are a theme running through his work form the beginning. He brought with him a great abstract painting of Avebury, and several others which Ray Ward and myself held up for the audience to see.

 Below are some of Peter's paintings of flowers

 and here are a series of abstract shapes in red, black and white.

I'll add some photos taken during the talk before adding notes about Peter's talk:

 The above photo is courtesy of Marion James, and shows Peter talking in the front

 Below Peter talking about the paintings he brought with him:

 Ray holding up a picture

 Peter going round his exhibition:

Peter was born in 1941 in Swindon, on reaching school leaving age, he was given 3 choices of career because there were 3 major employers in the town at that time, they were GWR, Garrards and Plesseys. Peter was apprenticed to work at Plesseys from 15-21, because his father worked there. He was working with metal and wasn't happy until he discovered life drawing evening classes, he ended up going to 3 classes a week.At 21, Peter was able to take a foundation course in Swindon and had the most wonderful teachers, including ceramicist Peter Burgess whose work is currently displayed in the museum. From there he applied to Chelsea where he met and worked with Patrick Caulfield, John Hoyland and Bridget Riley at Space
Peter became interested in the idea of going to Crete, and visited many times before buying a house in Myritos in 1989, he spends form February until October out there.
He also praised Keith Murray at Wedgewood who encouraged him to do linear paintings. He's currently enjoying using gilding in his painting.
I very much liked this, he said: 'Good art has energy, vigour and mystery'
A bit like Peter really.

Chavenage House Visit

Our fourth trip of the year took place in October to Chavenage House, and although I didn't go on this trip due to holidays, have found a flyer about the house, there's a website, and I have kindly been given permission to use the excellent photos taken by Marion James.
Although this historic Elizabethan house is home to the Lowsley-Williams family, it has been open to the public for a number of years. Tours of the house are usually conducted by a member of the family who will show visitors the tapestry rooms, furniture and relics of the Cromwellian period.
During the Civil War (1641-1649) Chavenage was owned by Colonel Nathaniel Stephens, MP for Gloucestershire who was persuaded by Cromwell, to whom he was related, to vote to impeach the King. Soon after the King was beheaded and Colonel Stephens died and it is said that his ghostly form was seen being driven away from Chavenage by a headless coachman wearing the royal vestments.
Chavenage has been used as a film set for many TV series, the most recent being Poldark starring Aidan Turner, although it's George and Elizabeth Warleggan who 'live' at Chavenage.

 The above photo shows Cromwell's bedroom with the famous tapestries still intact

 Below in the entrance hall, there's a small figure representing Poldark

 A snapshot of some of the group.

 Below you cna see the lounge decorated by the BBC with 'Poldark wallpaper'

 Here you can see the fabulous uninterrupted views from the house.

 And here's the dining room where visitors are treated to afternoon tea and Auntie Caroline's cakes.

How I wish I'd been able to go, still there's always next year.
The Chavenage visit was the last for 2018, with visits to Madresfield Court, Hauser and Wirth, The Watts Gallery, and Chavenage House, we visited some outstanding places in the area.

Pruning and planting at the front of the museum

On Sunday 8 October, some of the Friends' committee, museum staff and local councillors met up and spent 4 hours pruning back the hedge between the museum and Chatsworth House, planting the 2 beds with perennials and trying to weed the mound where there's a huge tree stump. The photos give an idea of what went on, if anyone else has better ones, please send them to me.

Here are Councillors Nadine Watts and Jane Milner-Barry chatting over leaf collecting:

  Some of the plants selected by Rosemary and myself to provide good displays over the next months we hope

 Below Tracy White clearing up the mound

 Rod Hebden and Martin Newman starting on the hedge

 Rosemary planting up the bed beneath the tree

 Planting in progress on the other bed

 Rod beginning to put laurel clippings into black bags

 The view from the museum we couldn't see before

 A tea break

 More bag filling

 The extra car park and view when clippings had been removed

 Jane hard at work on the mound area where we found a wall made of fossil rich rocks

 Close ups of the beds when we'd finished

That is only the beginning of improvements to the outside area, we will be doing more sessions.
I didn't get any photos of the amazing cakes made by Olive Tree Cafe and brought round by Nicky Alberry who had been showing the model to people at a Christ Church #BacktheBid event.
I would also like to thank the gentleman who kindly offered Heucheras, Penstemon and Rudbeckias from his garden; I went round to collect them the next day, and they will be planted as soon as I am confident that they have rooted properly.

Fabulous #BacktheBid evening at Rabley Drawing Centre

At the beginning of October, Meryl Ainslie of the wonderful Rabley Drawing Centre was kind enough to host an evening to spread the word about the plans for the fabulous new museum and art gallery in the centre of Swindon town.
The model of the proposed building was shown to a packed room, here's Meryl introducing the evening

 And then Chair of the Trust, Robert Hiscox talking about his passion for the project and why he's been involved

 a close up of the planned building

 Rather a poor photo of Jason Parker, from Make architects who's designed the new iconic building.

Dr Rod Hebden, director of the project also spoke about the plans and progress so far with the bid.
An excellent write up of the evening with some great photos appears on the Rabley blog
along with links to the bid:
Sign up here to back the bid!
 http://swindonmuseum.org.uk
Read more about Make Architects design proposalhttp://www.makearchitects.com/media/news-and-events/161214-swindon-museum-and-art-gallery/
Follow the New Swindon Museum and Gallery Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/backthebidswindon/

The Blind Spot - Exhibition and Talk by Cathy Lomax

I was drawn to this exhibition with its focus on 1950s Hollywood glamour icons; my earliest memories are of my mother sitting at a dressing table, not to be disturbed, looking not unlike some of these women. I was particularly drawn to the brittle quality of the cardboard cutouts in the glass case. Cathy calls them' flattened people defined by their surfaces'

 I've taken a few close ups, the one below is entitled 'Mrs Stone Reflects 1' a work inspired by Vivien Leigh in the film, The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone.

 The next two cut outs are titled 'Identity Crisis' and feature Jayne Mansfield seen below and

 Tippi Heden seen below here

 The one below is entitled 'Switchback' and shows four views of Diana Dors.

Here are a few more of Cathy's paintings:

 The one below is titled 'Show Girl'

Below is The Merry Maidens series inspired by a neolithic stone circle on the road to Lands End which is said to represent 19 maidens who were turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday. Images of the women have come from a wide range of sources, they have been given names from the most popular baby names.

 This painting is called 'Static Electricity'

 This painting called 'Adors' is the partner painting of 'Black Venus', the painting that won the Contemporary British Painting Prize. It's of a bronze head is modelled on the portrait bust of Diana Dors by Enid Mitchell.

Our September talk was Cathy talking about her exhibition, methods of working and her inspiration.
It was intriguing to hear her talking about her fascination with the world of 1950s glamour film stars, and reflecting on the fact that in many ways things haven't changed that much in the way women are depicted in film.

 Above Cathy just before the talk, and below talking about images she takes from films she watches which might make it to the painting stage

 The painting below depicts tights on women in the universal shade of American Tan, very popular at one time:

 And here is the Merry Maidens stone circle in Cornwall which inspired the 19 portraits

A great exhibition and fascinating talk, more on Cathy Lomax here:
http://www.contemporarybritishpainting.com/wordpress/?page_id=7042

Cathy Lomax Exhibition: a preview

Last Friday, there was a lot of drilling going on at the museum, I thought perhaps the ropey canopy was being taken down, but no it was Sophie Cummings and Cathy Lomax putting up the new exhibition in the small section of the main gallery. I hadn't expected such a hands on approach to hanging, but here are a few of the photos I took, they give a bit of a taster of the exhibition which will be officially open to the public tomorrow:

 Below Cathy kindly stopping what she was doing to pose:

 Sophie getting things straight

 and wondering which picture to hang next

The museum's website describes the exhibition like this:
'Cathy Lomax’s work is a contemporary and personal exploration of popular culture, beauty, celebrity and identity. Her projects have included an ongoing Film Diary, ‘Mock Tudor’ inspired by the art of Hans Holbein, and American Tan, which explores Hollywood glamour.
In 2016, Lomax won the inaugural Contemporary British Painting Prize. The competition was organised by Contemporary British Painting in order to celebrate and share the many important and exciting contemporary painters working in Britain today.
This exhibition showcases recent and paintings and three dimensional work concerned with reflection, the gaze and female identity.'
To find out more, come to Cathy's free lunchtime talk tomorrow, Wednesday 6 September at 12.30pm, or the Friends' talk at 7.30pm on Thursday 28 September. Tickets £6/8
www.friendsofsmag.org or reception at the museum