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

Picasso's Linocuts talk

Last Thursday, 31 August, Peter Davies gave us an evening talk entitled Picasso's linocuts in the gallery at the museum. It was a sell out, with a fabulous atmosphere, and when you look up Peter on Google, you can see why, he has a reputation for writing books about art and is passionately keen about his subject.
Not to be confused with the painter Peter Davies, our speaker makes linocuts himself, and talked a little bit about about that process.
This was one of my favourites, Still Life under a Lamp' 1962, bought in 2013 by the British Museum:

The slides of the linocuts were lovely, and the image of Picasso's posters attached to lamp posts ready for the taking was a fascinating one, Peter needed to be encouraged to stop reading essential quotes and talk about the linocuts.
Here's a photo of the audience:

and the poster Ray Ward made to advertise the talk:

Such a great subject. Our next talk is by Cathy Lomax on Thursday 28 September at 7.30pm. Tickets
www.friendsofsmag.org and museum reception.