The New Committee and the Next Talks

Last Monday evening, we had our first Friends committee meeting with everyone present apart from Rosemary Savage who as a new committee member had not been given much notice of the meeting, and was otherwise engaged.
It was a very rewarding meeting, members of the committee were brimming with ideas and full of enthusiasm for ways of improving the Friends.
We took a photograph of the committee, here they are:

Also a reminder that the next Friends talk is by
 Bryn Walters on 'Roman Towns in North Wiltshire' on Friday 28th November at 7.30pm.
The talk is about how the great significance of Roman Wiltshire has not been appreciated due to a preoccupation with neolithic pre-history looking at the three major towns: Durocornovium (Lower Wanborough), Cunetio (Mildenhall, the principle Roman military site after the 4th century revolt) and Verlucio (Sandy Lane).
 Tickets as ever may be bought in advance by ringing 01793 466556 or on the door. Tickets: £4.50 (£3.50 Friends price)
To book, telephone 01793 466556.

The next talk organised by the Museum and Art Gallery is
 'Modern art and images of Christmas' by Swindon Museum & Art Gallery’s Curator, Sophie, on Thursday 4th December at 7pm
This will be a special illustrated seasonal talk about modern art and images of Christmas. 
From LS Lowry’s ‘Winter in Pendlebury’ to Gerald Gardiner’s ‘Christmas Drawing’, the talk looks at the way artists have rejected, subverted and embraced the festive season in their work.
Tickets: £4.50 (£3.50 Friends price) NB. talk starts at 7pm.

All Change at the AGM last Friday evening

It was with some trepidation that I attended the AGM last Friday knowing that Paul Ricketts, Chair for the last 7 years, has now reached the limit allowed by the constitution, and therefore had to stand down. Also standing down are John Walsh, editor of the splendid Journal for the last 15 years, Judith Thomson as Treasurer after 7 years, and Gillian Bromhead who has been Membership Secretary for the last 15 years as well.
I had volunteered for the role of Chair, and was looking forward to making notes on how to run an AGM, since at the last AGM, I was too busy taking notes as Secretary to properly observe proceedings. Unfortunately Paul was unable to attend the AGM because his Mother needed his presence, so I was thrown in at the deep end and became Chair immediately.
The committee now comprises:
Chair: Linda Kasmaty
Vice Chair: Ray Ward
Treasurer: Paul Gregory
Secretary: Jane Milner-Barry
Membership Secretary: Katie Ackrill
Ordinary members:
Vanetta Joffe
Rosemary Savage
David Poulton
Paul Ricketts
Pam Little
John Walsh
Paul Ricketts and Ray Ward have agreed to edit and publish the Journal.
A formidable team whose varied talents will help drive the Friends to bigger and better things; the fact that Katie Ackrill works on reception will make it much easier for people to join the Friends.
A new role of Event's Organiser has been created, but not as yet filled, however we can discuss this at our first committee meeting with the 'new team' next Monday evening.
Following the business end of the meeting, Helen Miah gave us an update on the Museum and Art Gallery, successful Heritage Lottery Funding and Arts Council bids have enabled 2 new people to be employed- Stefanie Vincent is Collections Manager and Jon Ratcliffe is working with younger people. There are plans to work with other groups within the town, and with 3 changes of exhibition so far this year in the gallery, it's not surprising that audience figures have doubled, and they are coming from further afield.
The Heritage Lottery Funding bid for the new Museum and Art Gallery is being finalised now and will be submitted on the 30th November, more news as we have it. Exciting times ahead with a vibrant, energetic team of people at the Museum and Art Gallery to drive the project forward.
With the distractions, I only took 2 photographs:

 I took the drinks one when waiting for people to arrive, and below is a photograph taken when Dr. Mike Pringle had begun his fascinating talk on WW1

Magnus Quaife In Conversation

On Friday 31st October, Magnus Quaife was in conversation with Sophie Cummings at an event organised by the Contemporary Arts Society, CAS and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Before the event started, Ellen Mara de Wachter explained a bit about the CAS whose aim is to facilitate the acquisition of new work to galleries throughout the country; founded in 1910, the CAS has been instrumental in bringing 40 works of art to Swindon's collection since we joined in 1945, including Augustus John's 'Smiling Women'.
This year, the CAS donated 3 works by Magnus Quaife to our collection, and they arranged for him to come along and talk about his practice.

His practice involves an exploration of the significance and circulation of images and cultural artefacts through painting and curating.
The three pieces are watercolour paintings from the series 1968 and Other Myths were prompted by the 40th anniversary of events in 1968, and the fact that his Mother had been in Paris in 1968 when the student uprisings were taking place, and became interested in iconic images available on the internet from this time.

Above Sophie and Magnus at question time, and below the computer projecting images and 'Miss Iceland' in the background

Another one of Magnus and Sophie

The three paintings we have are below:

                                 
 They all untitled, the one above is also 'Ben'
The watercolours are in black and white because the photographs from that time were black and white.

                                         

The one above is 'Prague Tank' and 'Miss Iceland' is below

More information on the three paintings here:http://www.swindonlink.com/news/swindons-art-collection-receives-a-boost
I've included another picture form the series below:

It was a very interesting evening, lots of people attended and asked questions, and at the end, Magnus Quaife said what a great honour it was to have his work in the Swindon Collection.

The Curator's Talk on Modern British Landscapes

Sophie Cummings, Curator at the Museum and Art Gallery, gave a talk last Friday night on the exhibition of Modern British Landscapes she has put together to compliment the 'Turner's Watercolours in the West' exhibition which runs until the 13th December.
Sophie talked about the history of landscape painting via a series of slides of these paintings- starting with Salomon van Ruysdael's 'Landscape with Farm' from 1631, onto Gainsborough's 'Mr and Mrs Andrews', Constable's 'Flatford Mill' and onto Turner's 'Malmesbury Abbey'; the latter being part of the Turner exhibition.

 

From there, she talked about paintings on the walls including John Piper's 'Pistyll Maes-Glasau 1940, Claude Muncaster's 'Trees on Ellerside Moss' , a watercolour painted outdoors in the Lake District where he was born. It's the painting on the right in the photo below:

Then we looked at the 2 paintings by Gerald Gardiner- 'Towards Wiltshire-Early Autumn' 1944 a  painting glowing with rich light, and 'Christmas Dawning' also painted in 1944, a re-interpretation of the previous scene, the thatcher's ladder lies abandoned and the cold, dim light is in sharp contrast to the mellow glow of early autumn. F.C. Phelps presented both of these paintings which can be seen to good effect on notelets available in the shop. Not such good photos here:

Alfred Wallis' 'Ship Amid Tall Waves' is a fabulous painting:

And on to Philip Wilson Steer's 'Boats in Harbour' painted in 1920 and purchased by T.E.Lowinsky for the Contemporary Art Society and presented by the Society in 1946. Lowinsky lived in Aldbourne and Steer was a friend of his.
Next we looked at Augustus John's 'Classical Scene' and onto Paul Nash's 'Edge of the Wood' painted in 1944, not really seen below, but positioning established:

We finished with Richard Long's 'Roisin Dubh from 1976

and Barbara Howey's 'Pagoda' 2012.
I have also used the 'Guide to the Swindon Collection of Twentieth Century British Art' available in the shop for some of the information.
The next talk is tomorrow evening at 7pm. Magnus Quaife who has 3 pieces in the Swindon Collection will be in conversation with Sophie Cummings.
http://www.swindon.gov.uk/events/Pages/Contemporary-Arts-Society-Talk---Magnus-Quaife.aspx

A Friends Trip to Wiltshire Museum in Devizes

On the 20th October, we were lucky enough to be given a guided tour of the new Prehistoric Wiltshire Gallery, by museum director, David Dawson. The displays feature 500 Stonehenge period objects, including 30 pieces of gold treasure excavated from Bush Barrow near Stonehenge displayed permanently for the first time.

 Above a variety of axe heads, including the greenish one made of jadeite, and below more axes and bowls

Here's a photo of David Dawson in front of a reconstruction of a long barrow

Information on the gold:

Above the amber necklace beads, and below information on the necklace

For more information on the Wiltshire Museum, have a look at the website:
www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk
The church next door is also worth looking at:

The Talk by Professor Sam Smiles on 'Turner in the West Country'

I was lucky enough to have had the foresight to buy tickets well in advance to hear this talk which covered Turner's explorations and images of the region, including Bath, Malmesbury, Salisbury, Stonehenge and Fonthill. The talk given by Sam Smiles was engaging, informative and fascinating, and knowing nothing about him, I thought I'd do a quick Google search on him, and found the following quote:
'The artist I’m most obsessed by is Turner; he gets me up in the morning – painting pictures which he knew were going to be misunderstood, and carrying on painting them without making any compromise, absolute refusal to temper what he believed was important to say in the interest of the public reaction.'
The talk was accompanied by a great selection of slides of Turner's paintings and drawings, which Sam Smiles used to good effect, giving many pieces of information about all the paintings. Turner apparently liked to do a pencil drawing on site and then finished it with the watercolours at a later date, possible because of his great ability to visualise and remember colours. He also enjoyed using the latest colours to be produced and made notes about them in the 1820s. In some of his paintings, there is a hoop in the bottom of the painting, is this a form of signature he wondered.
How lucky we were to be in the presence of a great speaker who gave us such a feeling for the artist.

I took a photograph at the beginning, Sophie Cummings, curator at SM&AG is on the left introducing the talk, and Prof Sam Smiles on the right.

Opening Night of 'Turner Watercolours from the West'

As a member of the Friends committee, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the opening night of the new exhibition which includes eight JMW Turner watercolours on Tuesday 14th October. It's  an exhibition spanning Turner's career from student days to mature style, including views of Bath, Bristol and the surrounding area.
 It is presented by Frameworks, a partnership of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, the Holburne Museum in Bath, The Wilson in Cheltenham and Swindon Museum and Art Gallery and the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath. Frameworks aims to raise the profile of the 5 art collections.
Apart from seeing the exhibition before it officially opened on the  15th October, it was a very pleasant night with speeches by the Curator, Sophie Cummings and Cllr Brian Mattock, Deputy Leader of the Council who updated us on plans to apply for funding for the new museum and art gallery.
Here are a few photos of the event:

 In the one above, Sophie can just be seen talking with some of the gold lettering

 You may recognise a few people above, and below you can more or less see the letters JMW Turner

 And below, the lovely stained glass windows at the front door.

The exhibition runs until 13 December and can be seen from Weds-Sat 11am-3pm.

Sophie Cummings the Curator of the gallery will be giving  a talk on the rest of the exhibition in the gallery entitled 'Back to Nature - Landscape and Modern British Art'
on Friday 24th October at 7pm, she will talk about how war and urbanisation encouraged British modern artists to depict the landscape.