Sculpture in a Landscape 1969 - 2020 at West Leaze

 This sculpture exhibition was to have been the Friends fifth and final visit of the year, but due to restrictions imposed by Covid -19, this has been the only visit which is able to take place. Because things are happening differently this year, we have not been able to travel together in a coach, or car share, but we are going independently. I visited yesterday, and wanted to encourage everyone who can do so to visit this very special exhibition in the fabulous garden at West Leaze where the 1969 exhibition took place.

Their website gives this introduction:

'This year our exhibition, ‘Sculpture in a Landscape 1969 – 2020’, has a rather different focus from our previous shows. In 1969 the same property was one of the first private gardens in the country to be used for showing contemporary sculpture. That exhibition was organised by sculptor Roger Leigh and his wife Pat. It featured 18 sculptors many of them with reputations that survive to this day. They included Hubert Dalwood, Denis Mitchell, Henry Moore, William Pye and Austin Wright. The Wiltshire archives hold many of the papers about this exhibition and visitors to the exhibition will be able to get an insight into that event. Work by several of the 1969 artists will also be on show.'

Yesterday was a glorious day to visit, the sun shone properly for the first day in a while, and everything was seen at its best, although not all photographs turned out well, so what follows is a mixture of what photographed well, and things I loved. The sculptures were set out on a slope dipping away from the house in uncut grass with paths mown through, making it perfect for wildlife and chalkland flowers. The sheep in the first photograph look very realistic, and looked fabulous beside the beautiful conifer, they are by Jon Barrett-Danes and are resident in the landscape, they were missing lambs and a dog which have now been installed. Included in the entry fee of £7.50 is a magnificent catalogue giving an excellent summary of each sculptor taking part. If you have visited once, you can return to the exhibition provided you bring new visitors with you, well arrive at the same time.

This installation of five pieces 'Occelli' is made of copper and glass by Peter M Clarke are really reminiscent of .seed heads.

I suddenly saw scabious flowers

and harebells among the grass

And then noticed one of Sara Ingleby-Mackenzie's wonderful creations, 'Uptown Girl' beside the summerhouse. I first encountered her work at Urchfont Manor in 2018. Sara has been creating unique sculpture since 1982. More on her website

Everything at West Leaze has been carefully orchestrated, in the nicest possible way, and this includes things like this delightful planter in front of the summerhouse

The physicality of this work, 'Themis' by Tobias Ford made from welded steel which has been rusted and cured is magnificent.

And now I'm including photos of another two pieces by Peter M Clarke. He says: 'The essence of nature-the patterns, shapes and textures to be found on leaves, bark or seed - provide the inspiration behind the creation of my metal sculptures'

Above 'Pynaceae'. copper on wooden plinth, and below 'Copper Leaf'

Tim then drew my attention to the bark on a nearby tree:

This 'Murmuration' by Diana Barraclough worked really well.

Below Dominic Clare's 'Succession 2020' in western red cedar is an impressive piece. The wood has been shot blasted and burnt exposing the grain by blowing away the soft summer growth. When looking at it, we spoke to someone who has visited his workshop.

We were by now walking uphill, and towards the pond which gave us more entertainment, we stayed for at least 15 minutes watching dragon flies chasing each other around, and water boatmen ducking and diving in the crystal clear water.

I asked permission to photograph this woman posing beside John O'Connor's 'Spring' sculpture.

Matt Maddocks' sculptures on the grass, in the sun looked great, this one is 'Creation' grey granite mirror polished

and this is 'Aurora' in grey granite

Below this is titled  'Dreams Remembered' by Lucy Lutyens

This was a lovely sitting area to one side of the house where pieces by Jane Muir were displayed, I liked the artichoke so much I bought a small one in the shop. It looks lovely in the garden, and a great reminder of the visit.

This piece by Peter Hayes right in front of the house was fantastic. I really admired his pieces in the exhibition at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. There must be a record of it in this blog somewhere.

I'll include another of Sara Ingleby-Mackenzie's girls in long high heeled boots.

The signboards were designed by Mollie Gratland and were fascinating.

I have included a letter from Desmond Morris above, there's information about West Leaze below, and Jimmy Bomford also attended the private view of the 1969 exhibition.

Thank you to everyone who made this such a special exhibition, with special thanks to Lesley Andrews who curated the exhibition. Please spread the word about it.

Tickets are available on the website and must be bought in advance, the exhibition continues until 27 September, and is open every day but Monday and Tuesday.

 

Swindon Before the Railway - a talk by Nicola Cornick

 We gathered excitedly last Thursday around our computers for a Zoom talk by historian and author Nicola Cornick, fascinated to find out more about Swindon before the railway put it on the map as a destination between Bristol and London.I took copious notes, but not being a historian, I have only a hazy idea about what ages a medievalist might be interested in, it's between 6th-14th centuries. The map below dates from about 1804,  a mere 37 years before the railway came through this idyllic country town                                                                                                                                                                                               

It's interesting speculate on various places on the map, was the Direction Post the site of the current Magic Roundabout? And is the Small Pox House the site of the former Victoria Hospital? And the origin of the name Swindon, was it really Swine Down, or Suindune in The Domesday Book. The place where pigs were raised?

Nicola took us back to when Swindon was a Saxon village with farmers and craftspeople living here, 1000 years ago there were blacksmiths and cutlery was being made here. The Vikings were here in 878 and were defeated. After the Norman Conquest, the area was divided into five areas. The town on the hill, what is now known as Old Town has a road system based on a square, with a market square in front of the Corn Exchange which goes back to 1346.

Above you can see a photograph of High Street which looks very similar today

What are mostly missing are the Holyrood Church above and totally missing, the Lawn Mansion House which was demolished in 1952

The Bell was a pub for a long time, although apparently not as long as is claimed above the door, sadly no longer a pub

Swindon has a reputation for smuggling, with many passageways beneath Old Town supposedly used for this, the Moonraker's pub sign is a Wiltshire tradition, told here.

This photo shows the interior of Ashdown House where some of the finest Swindon stone, Purbeck limestone was used for flooring.

The Cotswold Games involved lots of sword fighting as can be seen here, and also standing on your head, riding horses and shooting . What a great advertisement for the games this is.

And so we come to the end of the illustrated talk, with the last slide depicting a country lane.

Despite William Morris's disparaging remarks made about Swindon in the 1885, describing Holy Rood Church as 'insignificant', there's plenty of evidence that Swindon was a thriving rural market town, with plenty of advantages such as stone, springs and excellent farm land around. With a little bit of searching, I found this excellent blog post written by Nicola giving far more interesting details than I managed to note down.

The video recording of the talk is ready now, please click : here it is.

I've also had a couple of extra pieces of information, firstly in answer to my question, which I feel silly about now, I asked where the mill was! A member of the Friends has supplied these two paintings:

They are both by Thomas Luckett Jefferies who was Richard Jefferies' uncle. He also owned the Mill, the bakers by the Locarno as well as the farm.

Nicola was asked on the night about whether Wadard became Goddard and says this:

I also looked into the question on the night as to whether the Goddard family were descended from Wadard, the knight who owned Swindon after the Norman Conquest. Although there is a branch of the Goddard family who do claim descent from Wadard, there isn’t actually a properly authenticated family tree that proves this!

There was also a question about the pest house, here's the location:

'We have just watched the recording of Nicola's talk, and we noticed the question about where the pest house was.  The pest house is marked on the 1873 OS 25 inch map of Swindon.  The National Library of Scotland has digitised old OS maps and overlaid them on a modern satellite view.

The link below should take you to the page (you may have to get rid of an instruction sheet first by pressing X at its top right).  On the map page, you should see the pest house roughly in the centre, and there's a control panel on the left at the bottom of which is a transparency slider.  Use this to get rid of the old map and see where the pest house location is today - in the alleys between Goddard Avenue and The Mall.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.872345998877556&lat=51.54876&lon=-1.78602&layers=178&b=1

Art on Tour Talk

 Katie Ackrill and Mags Parker were invited to give us a  talk via Zoom on Thursday 6 August to explain what the Art on Tour project was intended to achieve, and what has happened since it was partially hijacked by everything closing down due to Covid 19. Katie and Mags were appointed at the end of 2019 . Both appointments were part time, and with a slightly different emphasis,  Katie Ackrill is the Project Engagement Officer for Art on Tour, which aims to help more people in more places engage with Swindon's collection of modern British art, in unique and meaningful ways. Katie has an MA in Art History from the University of Reading, leads Art History leisure courses at New College, Swindon. Mags Parker is the Learning Officer for Art on Tour and has developed materials for use in schools and other educational settings.

'Art on Tour at Home' is a digital engagement and education project, which brings Swindon's nationally significant art collection to audiences in the comfort and safety of their own homes. This includes art appreciation in the form of the Art Snaps podcast and the Art on Tour Blog, and access to a large number of family activities and education resources, including a Families in Residence Programme. I have engaged most with the art snaps podcasts and wrote about them here until I couldn't keep up with the sheer output. They are well worth watching, and I will catch up with them.

Katie and Mags took us through the history of the project via a series of slides which I photographed, and here thye are in order. I had hoped we would have been able to record the talk, but apologies in the heat of changing hosts, we didn't manage to do that.

So you can see the point of the project, it was to go out into schools and other places...

There are exhibitions in STEAM and at the Civic Offices through the sliding doors. I'm not sure if the Civic Offices is accessible yet.

Examples of works at the Civic Offices include 'Aerobots' by David Bent and 'Icelandic Scene' by Roy Bizley

Katie and Mags had worked with various venues where works could be loaned out and displayed. I'm not sure how the insurance and transport and security would work, but these were the suggested partners

Above is a list of all the activities and things Mags and Katie have done since they started, the job hasn't been what they expected to be doing, but they have certainly achieved a lot.

Add caption

I think there are two more artsnaps since they recorded the talk

I have written posts about the Swindon Spring Festival talk and the wonderful Great British Art Quiz in the Guardian. Wasn't that a pleasant surprise?

Lastly they reminded us that we can find them on Facebook, Instagram and the Museum and Art Gallery website

Great to hear about this initiative while the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery remain closed due to Covid restrictions.
 

Caspar David Friedrich a leading figure in the German Romantic movement

We were very pleased to welcome Jeremy Holt back to give a second Zoom talk on 15 June to a group of Friends sitting comfortably in their own homes. This time Jeremy talked about the life and work of the artist Caspar David Friedrich, he began by telling us that he was bottom at art in school, and doesn't have an artistic bone in his body, however David ticks all the boxes for him. It's always good to hear people talking about their enthusiasms. There were of course photos, this I think is a self portrait.

David's early life was marred by tragedy, he lost two sisters to smallpox and typhus and his mother died when he was 7, and his brother drowned when he was 13, and another brother committed suicide in his late twenties. This was the official summary of his life:

In 1808, David painted 'Monk by the Sea which gives an idea of his original style:

When he was born, Greifswald was in Sweden, and this most famous painting, seen below, 'Wanderer above the Sea of Fog' seen below and painted in 1818 shows someone wearing old fashioned German clothes which wasn't allowed apparently. I'm not sure what happened if you wore the clothes or painted someone wearing them, I must ask Jeremy.

This painting below was painted after he go married aged 44 to Caroline who was 25, the woman on the left is wearing a bright pink dress, a change from the more sombre colours used before his marriage. If David is on the right, looking out to see, I'm not sure who is in the middle?

This is another example of David's work where he has used colour in the woman's dress.

I'll finish by showing a portrait of David by Gerhard von Kugelgen

I'll also include a quote from Brittanica:

'Caspar David Friedrich, (born September 5, 1774, Greifswald, Pomerania [now in Germany]—died May 7, 1840, Dresden, Saxony), one of the leading figures of the German Romantic movement. His vast, mysterious, atmospheric landscapes and seascapes proclaimed human helplessness against the forces of nature and did much to establish the idea of the Sublime as a central concern of Romanticism.'
And finish by thanking Jeremy for a fascinating talk which can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbuSO1TxWE&feature=youtu.be