Newsletter

Dear Reader(s)

The first Taunton Youth Culture and Arts Festival (Tyca) has begun, thanks to Arts Taunton and some generous funding by sponsors. Young people’s art, sculpture and photography – with prizes – is now on display at CICCIC until 11 November. I hope to get to the PV tonight. If the visual arts are to play a greater part both in the lives of our schools/colleges and of the Deane, initiatives like this need our presence and encouragement. We can  promote and cherish younger artists, and invite them to work with SAGT – even join us. Our thanks to Laura Crofts for representing us.

Also coming soon, at the Museum of Somerset, is the Tristram Hillier exhibition, which starts on November 9 and runs into January, and promises to be well worth seeing and even going back to for further helpings. I remember being excited by his landscapes of the South Downs but know little else.

I commend two further happenings: my talk on  Mondrian and Ben Nicholson on Saturday 23 November, 11.00 am at Trull Church Community Centre, the last of this year’s talks; and our Christmas Lunch for members and their friends at the Quantock restaurant, Taunton & Bridgwater College on Wednesday 18 December at 12.30. Anna Mullett will send out menus shortly and invite you to book your place.

In my November talk I will focus on an exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery in 2012 which showed  paintings, by Mondrian and Nicholson from the 1930s up to 1943. Their friendship began in Paris when Nicholson visited Mondrian’s studio and ripened over those years. Winifred Nicholson, whom I talked about last year, insisted that Mondrian leave Paris before the Germans arrived, and she brought him safely to England and Hampstead where he stayed for two years with a studio close to the Nicholsons before leaving for America when the bombing of London started. But the two men’s art, related but different, is the heart of the talk.

This year’s tenth Ken Grieb lecture was a success with much laughter and learning. Thank you to those attending and for the many apologies received. We began by remembering Ken and his gift of these talks, Our speaker was Dr. Jan Cox from Clevedon, who specialises in Nordic Art. He talked about Thomas Fearnley (1802-1842) and the Golden Age of Danish Art, someone new to his us. Norwegian by birth, he had an English grandfather and studied in Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm, choosing to be Danish, it seems, and a constant traveller. On the mainland of Europe he studied in Dresden with J.C.Dahl, learning especially to observe nature, and then in Munich where his style was influenced by the local school of landscape painters and by his earlier meeting with Caspar David Friedrich and his way of composing grandiose atmospheric effects.

A bachelor, sketching and painting outdoors by day, Fearnley, naturally merry and gregarious, met other artists in the evenings in the local tavern for food, drink, and song. Cox illustrated this camaraderie and his journeys and their output with extracts from letters and recorded impressions, and showed how his sketches made attractive landscapes, usually with people in them. In Italy (1832-35) his charming pictures of the landscape around the Bay of Naples especially delighted, as did his Lake District paintings of August-September 1837. This tour followed his visit to the Royal Academy where he sketched Turner, perched on a stool, on varnishing day! Fearnley for some years hoped to marry an heiress from Halse – this was the local interest  moment – but later did marry another heiress only to succumb to typhus and die at the peak of his considerable powers in his late thirties.

Two further things of note happened that Saturday in Trull: our speaker was excited by the bright colours of the screen in the East room (unknown to us the equipment had been updated) and by our being so close to him, and he and we enjoyed the resulting interplay. Secondly, we received an informal visit from our MP Rebecca Pow and her sister in the interval, gave them a drink and they chatted and learnt about SAGT, then posed for a photo before leaving to see the marvellous Botanic Art in Taunton Library.

Talking about books I’d like to recommend In Camera Snowdon edited by Robin Muir, a Pallant House Gallery catalogue, 2007. Kevin Saunders has lent it to me. It consists of photos of artists, often in their studios, and a commentary or story or brief biographical cameo. Delightful.

Your turn now. Please feel free to recommend to Anna or me a favourite art book with an accompanying few words, which we could then include in future newsletters.

Happy visual autumn,
Jeremy (Harvey) 23 October

Dear Reader(s)

The SAW fortnight is upon us and I wonder what you have seen and liked. The Reflect exhibition in the Brewhouse (venue 25) celebrates 25 years of Somerset Art Weeks with work by invited artists, including at least one of our members, Hilary Adair. I do recommend that, and a visit to Close House, Hatch Beauchamp (35) for sculpture and line drawings in a new space. This year’s free SAW booklet is informative and well produced.

The Brewhouse’s plans to expand are on hold, I understand, while the West Somerset and Taunton Deane Council assesses what cultural project(s) in Taunton to support. There is an important meeting about this on 8 October. You may have signed the online petition in support of the Brewhouse or made your view known some other way. The re-opened Brewhouse has made such a difference to our town’s cultural provision: among its achievements, it has given art a gallery fit for many purposes, brought cinema to Coal Orchard, restored a café, attracted a wide range of people, and given voluntary organisations a role and worthwhile stake in its future. Surely it has to be commended, and now adequately funded and backed to expand?

Ken Grieb, who died on February 11, some months after his 100^th birthday last year, was remembered by family and friends, including members of SAGT on September 20. Born in Wales, he served as a Captain in the Royal Engineers in India, returned in 1946 to become a good caring architect who sought to improve the quality of life for residents. He designed London housing estates and the hall of a Poplar primary school (now listed). He married Joyce, owned and altered Hendon Park lodge and coach house – a home he loved. He was appointed chief architect for Islington but found the job too stressful and resigned. He recovered, and then worked for the Housing Department of the Department of the Environment where he developed the idea of ‘gradual renewal’ of an area rather than comprehensive redevelopment. This later became Government policy. I was told that he applied this successfully to a part of Exeter.

He took early retirement and moved to an Arts & Craft house in Wembdon with a view of Steep Holm and  Welsh hills. Joyce was able there to support her sick brother. Ken’s many interests included the new Bridgwater Arts Centre and joining Chandos. He did the Guardian concise crossword: when stuck he phoned his friends, ‘Six across?’ he would ask. He went to the opera, saw plays, attended the Preaters’ Friday morning life drawing, and more recently was driven home by Damien Parsons, a friend and fellow London architect, after a class in Pawlett. Damien described Ken’s ‘life’ drawings as ‘distinctive, lively, amusing, rather than naturalistic.’

Ken joined SAGT in its early years and funded the lectures that bear his name, which we hope will continue well into the next decade.This year’s is on Saturday 5 October, at 11.0 in the Trull Church Community Centre. Our Speaker is Dr. Jan Cox and his subject is Thomas Fearnley and the Golden Age of Danish Art. We do hope you can come. It will be the first that Ken has missed. Please encourage others to be there. The cost is £7 for members, £10 for non-members, and £3 for Students.

In addition to his generosity to SAGT, for which we give many thanks, I learnt from Anna Mullett, at the farewell to Ken, of an RIBA article written by a fellow architect Philip Bottomley, which I quote from. He chose Ken, ‘a rather modest retiring chap’, as the person who had left perhaps the biggest impression on him. To illustrate this Bottomley selected two projects that Ken completed.

‘He was deeply committed indeed obsessive about the production of good local authority housing…He attacked each new design with a fresh and open mind and never just took the current dogma off the peg.’ Bottomley then described the Angrave Road scheme in 1950s Shoreditch. In those days inner city houses had to be built at a density of 136 persons to the acre. An obvious way to achieve that was to build high. Not by Ken who knew that most people wanted houses on the ground with gardens, not patios. Ken struggled until he had achieved back to back housing with 60 feet gardens, overcoming building and public health regulations and the ‘scepticism and general disapproval’ of most of his senior colleagues. In the second example, a point or tower block in Camberwell Road, he managed to ‘overcome the drawbacks of many of the current designs’ by ingenious replanning of such things as draughty lift lobbies after another ‘stiff fight’ to meet building regulations. ‘The lobbies together with the completely glazed escape stair enclosure and small play-deck at every third floor produced together a spacial arrangement of considerable delight, a surprising achievement in a high-rise local authority block.’

For those of us who have known Ken in his later years we may have found him, at times, odd, a bit abrasive, even rude or crude, but often amusing.  The warmth and affection with which his family and friends remembered him on September 20 will be my lasting impression of this generous and talented man who survived much and gave even more.

Best wishes,
Jeremy (Harvey)

President: Anne Maw, Lord-Lieutenant
Patron: André Wallace

Dear Reader(s)

Greetings. Midsummer and the roses are abundant and it’s time for an update.

Trish Jones opened our season of talks on 18 February at our new venue, Trull Church Community Centre. Since then we have had two further talks, our AGM, a coffee morning hosted by Christine Marsh, and two painting days. Many of you will have by now seen the very fine Doris Hatt exhibition in the Museum of Somerset.  Anna has sent out a reminder of the talk by Sarah Cox being offered us there at 2.30 on Wednesday 26 June (just before the exhibition closes). This is a first or further chance to enjoy Hatt’s particular patterned kind of modernism, which was enthusiastically reviewed in The Times (3 May).

Denys Wilcox, who played a key role in providing the works on show, has published an excellent book, The Art of Doris Hatt, which I can thoroughly recommend. (Half the sale price goes to the Somerset charity STAR which seeks to help children in care or need to find worthwhile ways of being creative.)

Our second talk (18 March) was given by Sara Dudman RWA, known to many of us as an enthusiastic and enabling teacher as well as an accomplished artist who risks new things. Her subject was Howard Hodgkin and she provided a perfect instance of how a young artist can be excited and inspired by an older experienced artist. It was one of those evenings which left me wanting to go off and paint there and then.

A month later Wayne Bennett, known to many people locally, Director of Dillington for 22 years, gave us a different kind of talk: on  A Short History of Museums. It was packed with information and interesting things. He began in Tudor days and talked of the Hilliard miniatures before outlining the Earl of Arundel’s role in building up the royal collection in the C17. He gave us facts and lots of apt illustrations of art. One surprise was the Art Treasures of Britain exhibition of 1857 at Old Trafford, Manchester which included 16,000 works of art, and led to Engels saying, ‘everyone up here is an art lover,’ would that this was the case in Somerset today! Wayne gave our gallery hopes a touch of nobility – to help instil a love of art as we journey towards achieving our aim. His presentation was something of a feast which brought the story up to date with reference to new galleries at Walsall, Margate, and Wakefield.

Christine Marsh generously invited us back to Pegasus Court for a coffee morning (29 March) which raised about £110 thanks to the support of her fellow residents. Sadly only three members attended, including her, which was disappointing for the residents who wanted to know more about us.

Our AGM took place in the Brewhouse, in the workshop space nicely set out for us. We dealt with the things that we have to, before adjoining for a drink or a chat and going into the auditorium to see a film on Rembrandt based on an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum. It was good and as always Rembrandt stays fresh and amazing.

Some of us also saw the excellent Van Gogh and Japan film at The Brewhouse. It is worth looking out for art films on locally. We will pass on information about coming ones, when we can.

We have had two painting days, the first based in a room upstairs in the village hall at Bradford on Tone (22 May) and the second at Tami’s house in the foothills of the Blackdowns. Kevin Saunders ran the first and Tami hosted the second (12 June). There were four to six of us present. The joy of these occasions is that you can draw or paint what you like, outdoors or inside, in delightful and stimulating surroundings with like-minded people; chat over coffee, lunch, and tea; and share what you’ve done if you want to. It is a relaxed and good way of making art.

We have more talks in the autumn – see our programme – and are likely to be helping with the Youth Festival celebrating all sorts of arts (early November). And Ron Cann has generously donated two prints and a painting for our collection from his recent Library exhibition. We thank him very much. And my thanks to Christine and those who run our events. Have a good Summer.

With best wishes,
Jeremy Harvey

President: Anne Maw, Lord-Lieutenant

Patron: André Wallace

Dear Reader(s),

Thank you for rejoining by paying you sub promptly. It is a great encouragement to your committee. We have 65 members and hope, with your help, to gain more.

With sadness I report that Ken Grieb, our oldest member and generous supporter, died on 11 February in his 101^st year.  Thanks to him we established the annual lecture in his name, which continues this October. Ken gave us a second benefaction and we are putting it towards paying our speakers. A London architect by profession, Ken retired to Wembdon, joined Chandos and us, and exhibited with them at Bridgwater Arts Centre and occasionally with us. A memorial event is to be arranged by his nephew. We will let you know the date when we have the details.

Trish Jones opened our 2019 programme with a stimulating talk (18 February) on Louise Bourgeois and the Japanese artist Yahoi Kusama, two grand old dames of modern art, who were innovative and very different. Good discussion followed and we enjoyed our first meeting in the East Hall at Trull Church Community Centre. We are booked there for four further talks. There is ample free parking, just 100 yards below the Centre, and opposite the church, in the first section of the Memorial Hall car park.

On show that evening was a painting by Mike Tarr called Glimpse Vesuvius which we have bought for our permanent collection. It is one of a series he has been painting of Glimpses in which we peep through openings in buildings or spaces. He is enjoying creating works that stem partly from his draughtsmanship days in an architect’s office.

We shall show the painting again at Sara Dudman’s talk on Howard Hodgkin in the same venue on 18 March. Anna has sent out information about that talk.

We have an arrangement with the Museum of Somerset that our members can claim reduced entry to their talks. We are invited to attend the panel discussion there on May 2^nd at 7.30 about the Doris Hart Exhibition for a discounted £8.50. The exhibition opens this week – on 16 March. I suggest you have your SAGT programme with you.

Christine Marsh is arranging a fundraising coffee morning for us on Friday 29 March (10.30 – noon) on the top floor of Peagasus Court, overlooking the county cricket ground. Please contact me if you can help and would enjoy meeting other residents. These occasions are fun and enable us to be better known in the community. To attend ring flat number 23 if there is no one to open the main outside door for you.

Our AGM is taking place in the Brewhouse in the Westward room at 6.30 on Tuesday 9 April. We will deal with our business and finish in good time to see the Rembrandt film showing there at 7.30. Do hope you can join us for these events.

With best wishes,
Jeremy (Harvey)

Greetings. We hope that this year will be a good one for you and the Trust. Thank you very much for paying your subscription promptly. Anna will be sending out the new programmes shortly.

My apologies that it has taken us longer than usual to put the year’s programme together. We learnt in November that the Conference Centre was not available for us in 2019 since the College was considering its future use. This meant we had to look around at short notice for a new venue. Fortunately we have been welcomed by Trull Church Community Centre and we have five talks booked there in a room that seats 40 and has a partition wall that opens to give more space. We hope you will support this change. If approaching from the Trull/Taunton main road, the Centre is a short way down the main street on the right. There is ample parking just down the road by the Memorial Hall.

Our first talk there is on Monday February 18th at 7.0 pm when Trish Jones will be introducing us to Grand old dames of Modern Art. Some of you may remember Trish’s talk last year on Leonora Carrington.

It is with sorrow that I have learnt of Stella Murray Whatley’s death, too late to attend her funeral. I have written to David and the family to express our loss and that of the art world in Somerset. She was a fine artist and printmaker, an inspiring teacher and an amusing narrator. We shall miss her.

Our only other news is that four of us visited Andre Wallace’s exhibition Voyage at Poole Museum on December 10th, and found it a very stilling experience both for his sculptures and amazing drawings and also for the gentle music specially composed. Journeyman 11, one of the drawings featured, is now on the back of this year’s programme card. Our thanks to him for that.

With best wishes,

Jeremy (Harvey)

Despite recent rain art brings summer to me, usually. This autumn we know we have given and received pleasure from our Members’ exhibition Noticing the Ordinary. Every time I went into that part of the Brewhouse it lifted my spirits. Ten paintings were bought, thirty-one responses were put in the High 5s box, and the taking down of our work went well. My apologies for the confusion over the taking down date. I wrote to thank all those at the Brewhouse who had helped us, and Vanessa Lefrancois, Chief Executive, then wrote to ‘thank us for bringing such an excellent and diverse group of artists together for your second Summer Exhibition’.

It was clear that – in a modest way – we had put some good art into the heart of Taunton this summer, art which was accessible and free to look at. May that one day be an all-the-year-round happening!

The High 5s voting produced more cheer. There were 31 responses posted in the box. The five categories were 1.Favourite work, 2.One that made you Smile, 3.Favourite Landscape, 4.Work that made you Think, 5. Best Colours. Dandelion Puffs by Lesley Bartrop-Clist & Tranquility by Lena Lewis both received 8 votes (across the categories) followed by Michael Tarr’s Beach Pedaso Roundabout & Andrew Bell’s Reflections, Ponte a Serraglio with 7 votes each. In the Favourite category Ron Cann & Pat Preater both had four works nominated, Alexandra Lavizzari & Lena Lewis had three, while Andrew Bell had two others, & Mike Tarr had one more. The following also had one singled out as Favourite: Lyn Mowat, Gillian Solomon, Andre Wallace, Geoffrey Bailey, Tami Boden-Ellis, Elizabeth A.Adams, and Peter Coate whose Farm near St. David’s also received two votes for best landscape, and is still for sale. In category 2 Gillian had 4 votes, Ron 3, Damien Parsons 2; and landscapes also chosen were by Kevin Saunders, Anna Mullett, Christine Marsh, and Sara Dudman. Our thanks to all who showed with us. We hope to return to the Brewhouse in 2020.

Your Committee met on 18 September to review the year so far. On their behalf I will now invite Annie Maw, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, to be our President. Many of you met or heard her at the very enjoyable Private View back in July. She is a forceful and persuasive speaker, passionately supports what we are doing, and could be a powerful advocate for us. We will let you know her answer.

We have two Open events coming up. Please support them and bring a friend or family members, which could, among other things, lead to us recruiting more members. We have 62 currently. Our next event is our annual Ken Grieb Lecture, Saturday 13 October, 11.00 am in the Conference Centre, Bridgwater & Taunton College. Our speaker is Mary Acton. Her subject is The Spirit of Place in British Art from Bacon to Gormley which she lectures on and has written about. Our thanks go to Ken for his recent sponsorship grant to enable the series to continue into the 2020s.

The second autumn event is designed to encourage people to think about Public Art with particular reference to Taunton. On Saturday 24 November, 11.00 am in the Conference Centre Ann Jones and I will show examples of good and bad public art before hosting a discussion in the second half of the morning. It is hoped that Arts Taunton, which is seeking a sculpture of some sort for, say, Creechbarrow Hill, will participate in this debate that the Trust has arranged. County and local Councillors would be most welcome too.

Meanwhile there is a remarkable exhibition of African Tribal Art at CICCIC until 28th September (best to check first) and Somerset studios are open for one more week. I wonder if you saw the Picasso 1932 exhibition at the Tate Modern. Am I alone in not warming to much of his work of that year? You will, I know, enjoy Anna’s and Damien’s writing which follows this. Our thanks to them. Christmas Lunch for members and their guests is on Wednesday 12 December at the Quantock Restaurant in the College. Anna will be in touch about that. With my best wishes,

Jeremy (Harvey) 22 September, 2018

Pam by Gillian Solomon

Damien Parsons on Indian Art at the Queen’s Gallery, London

To any reader visiting London I recommend strongly two exhibitions of Indian art at the Queen’s Gallery, together called Splendours of the Subcontinent.

One part is A Prince’s Tour of India 1875-6 and the other shows miniature paintings from the Mughal and Hindu courts.

The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, travelled around many princely courts as a Progress planned by Victoria and Albert to educate him about this part of the Empire, and to establish diplomatic links.

The Tour meant the exchange of gifts, and the Prince received wonderful treasures of superb design and craftsmanship. A selection is well displayed here to dazzling effect – jewel-encrusted objects of great richness and beauty: jewellery, caskets, arms & armour, courtly objects, ‘curios’ (a peacock inkstand, models of buildings), & so on, in 10 cases.

When the vast & glorious collection came to England it was shown in many British cities, and in Paris. Thousands saw it, and Indian products became very fashionable.

Other rooms show wonderful paintings, mainly in sequences telling stories about the Gods and Kings of Mughal and Hindu cultures. Here too everything is of exquisite beauty.

Tickets give entry for as many visits as you like for a year. The Royal Collections can support many exciting exhibitions. A forthcoming one will be of Leonardo drawings.

If you should go to Barcelona
This is a city full of museums of all kinds; archaeology, ethnology, zoology, early and modern art, Catalan art, Gaudi, Picasso, music, chocolate and wax to name but a few. There is even a museum dedicated to the Giant Mammoth which unfortunately we were unable to track down. We had gone principally however to see the art and we were not disappointed.

If you take the open-top tourist bus you not only gain a very good idea of the layout of the city but are able to get on and off near the places you want to see. Wendy and I went round the city several times (not always intentionally). To the west of the city set in lovely gardens is the Fundació Joan Miró, a beautiful gallery designed by Miró’s friend the architect Josep Lluis Sert. The first impression is one of whiteness and light, the spacious galleries show the artist’s works arranged chronologically and stylistically, much of it donated by family and friends. Drawings, sculpture and paintings reflect Miró’s many influences and interests including Surrealism, the Spanish Civil War and his desire to turn poetry into paint. From the rooftop you get a panoramic view of Barcelona, with Gaudi’s wonderful Sagrada Família towering above the neighbouring buildings. As an added bonus there was a striking exhibition by the French Algerian artist Kader Attia, ‘Scars remind us that our past is real’ whose work on the subject of war and its traumatic after effects left us feeling subdued and thoughtful.

A visit to the Picasso museum was very different. Situated in an old building in the Gothic quarter it houses much of Picasso’s student work which demonstrate his extraordinary early talent. Picasso is reported to have said that he could paint like an old master as a youth and spent the rest of his life trying to draw like a child. Certainly the paintings which he did when he was fifteen and sixteen are remarkable and include a wonderful three quarter length portrait of his mother, her skirt billowing out in shimmering white pastel. After this period in his life the exhibits changed to a variety of later work, including many drawings which relate to his fascination with Las Meninas by Velásquez. My favourite room was devoted to the many paintings of doves Picasso painted in the fifties as a diversion from Las Meninas.

Another of the excellent museums in Barcelona which should not be missed is MNAC, the national museum of Catalan art. It is situated in the Palau Nacional, a magnificent building originally built for Barcelona’s 1929 International Exhibition and reached by a series of stairs and escalators. From the steps you have another wonderful view of the city, including at the foot of the steps the so-called Magic Fountain which at night sends up jets of water in a myriad of colours.

The museum is beautifully laid out, light and airy (and free to the over 65’s – an added bonus for some!) MNAC has four main galleries, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Modern. The Romanesque galleries were astounding. Catalonia is very rich in medieval wall paintings but by the early twentieth century many of them were in danger of disappearing as the chapels and churches where they were situated fell into disrepair. In order to save these wonderful frescoes the decision was made, mostly with the consent of the local population to remove them from the walls (a remarkable process in itself) and re-situate them in the museum. You can now see these beautiful paintings in rooms carefully constructed to resemble their original settings. Sadly we did not have time to visit the Gothic and Renaissance galleries.
If you should go to Barcelona this is just some of the art we enjoyed and you might too.

Anna Mullett

Newsletter 50 November 2017-11-02

Dear Readers,

Welcome to our 50th of these letters. We still have three events left this year to which we hope to entice you, your friends and family. These events have been in our programme and are on our website.

Coming very soon now – on Thursday November 9th –at 7.30 in the Brewhouse Hub (workshop area) is a teach-in and hands on sculpture evening being given by Linda Bareham-Stanley, a very experienced sculptor and fine teacher, whose work is exhibited and in collections in this country and in Europe. It is a rare opportunity to learn about and try carving stone. Linda will show some of her work as well as enabling us to try our hand. There are still places left but contact the Box Office quickly to book your place.

Linda is having to move her studio and is very keen to hear from anyone who knows of a suitable space in the Nether Stowey, TA5 area. Anna or I can put you in contact with her.

Earlier Ann Le Bas, a member and distinguished artist from Exmoor, gave us a superb landscape in oils, An Exmoor View, for our permanent collection. This lovely landscape will be on show in the Conference Centre, Wellington Road, at what is now Bridgwater and Taunton College, from 10.30 on the morning of Saturday 25 November when I shall be talking about Without Picasso: Landscape Paintings Then and Now. I plan to have other paintings on show then in addition to ‘on screen’ images of work by some 57 artists, together with books and post cards for browsing.

Ann’s painting will also feature mid-July, 2018 in our eight week exhibition of members’ work in the Brewhouse. We thank Ann most warmly for her generosity and look forward to showing more of her work – and yours, if you want to join us then.

Our final event this year is Christmas Lunch at Bridgwater and Taunton College, Wellington Road on Thursday December 7 at 12.30. Anna has just sent out information about this and will take your bookings. Again please apply quickly in order not to be disappointed. It is an occasion when we can meet old friends and make new ones.

Our 2018 programme will be ratified by the Committee at our meeting on November 6 and promises to be varied and have something for all of you. Women artists will feature in more of the talks and there will be two days when we can go out locally and paint what we want the way we want. And there’s our big Brewhouse exhibition.

Jack Coulthard’s early work will be the basis of a big exhibition in the Brewhouse late January 2018. That is very good news. See the Brewhouse’s promotions and website for the details. And our other former patron the late Peter Coate is represented in Dene Barton Hospital where seven of his landscapes are on display in public spaces. They are available to buy as are his other works featured on our website. Monies raised from sales of his work go towards our buying works for our permanent collection. His widow Pam has arranged for the remaining works of his studio to be auctioned at Wells Museum on April 30, 2018.

Congratulations to Tami Boden-Ellis for having her book No Way?! How Pickles Became the Christmas Gherkin, with her illustrations, published and available through normal outlets. She describes it as a book “for the ‘Child’ in us all”. The ISBN is 978-0-7223-4770-6.

Thank you for your membership and support. A very Happy Christmas to you and your family.

Jeremy Harvey

Newsletter # 47 December 2016

President:

Stella Murray Whatley

Patrons:

the late Jack Coulthard the late Peter Coate RWA

Dear Reader(s)

I begin this just before our Christmas lunch, near the end of a good year for SAGT, but one tinged with sad news. Both of our patrons died within a few weeks of each other: Peter Coate at the end of July after being frail and poorly for some time, and Jack Coulthard on the 18 October after ten weeks in hospital. And last Saturday Hugh Bazley, a faithful supporter of our events, died in hospital. We mourn all three and send our love and condolences to their families and give thanks for the part they have played in SAGT’s existence.

Peter Coate RWA (1926 – 2016) was a landscape painter and countryman, a fine man and good friend. He retired to Wells, learnt about us and decided he could help by donating paintings for us to sell. We exhibited them at the Brewhouse in November, 2015 and then at the Café in the Conference Centre, and included two in our Summer Exhibition. So far six have been sold and with the money raised we are gradually acquiring art for our permanent collection.

Jack Coulthard is well known to most of you, if not in person then through his Taunton exhibitions over the many years he lived locally. This is not an obituary – I do so hope a good one will appear: he deserves that – but an attempt to share something of what he has meant to us.

He was a fine teacher at the old Art College in Corporation Street and there are artists busy today who recall his way of working with them. He had a great knowledge of art history and drew on it for his work and for others. He could be blunt, direct and challenging and keep one on one’s toes in conversation – and in the questions he asked and the views he expressed. Life around Jack was often great fun and surprising.

For years he painted his pictures in a studio-shed in his garden, braving the cold, using plasticine models to set a scene, his imagination to the fore. A unique and powerful ‘narrative’ would emerge whose meaning one could not always grasp but which represented passionately something important to him.

The art world is a fickle one and picks whom it fancies and ignores other good and true artists. Jack had a foot in the London world for a time and a dealer in Austria for five years. His work is in Austria and America and in some public collections and in many private hands. My hope is that his great skill and daring will become far better known, and that interest in his paintings will quicken. He deserves greater recognition and is an important artist, one who may become seen as special, of whom Somerset can be very proud.

He was a good loyal friend of SAGT, creatively restless, and I enjoyed being with him, his laugh, Barbara and his hospitality, and his phone calls with the familiar, Jack here, Hey, I’ve just thought of…Do you think that would be a good idea?

Our Summer Exhibition in the Brewhouse was a great success even though one always hopes for more sales. The Private View was most enjoyable and we ran out of wine. The quality of the art and of its display, the latter overseen by Freeny Hammick, was much commented on, and struck me as excellent, seeing it afresh, on my return from holiday The footfall to look at art there is growing slowly and access to the art is becoming easier (we have to remember that volunteers are often on duty) and the staff are publicising their exhibitions more. It takes time for people to know where good art can be found. Twenty-two artists between them exhibited 77 works.

Tami, one of our committee, invited visitors to choose works in various categories: the favourite work was Mike Tarr’s Pedaso Bench with Pat Preater’s Play in the Sand close behind. The work that made one smile was also Pedaso Bench with Kevin Sanders’ Pick of the Bunch close behind. (One viewer wrote huffily, There’s more to art than humour.) The best landscape went to Peter Coate’s Sheep on Farm, Highbridge. The work that made one think was Deborah Westmancoat’s Finding a way Home. And there were lots of suggestions for the best colour: Ron Cann’s Sun on the Deck just pipped the others.

We have been invited to show bi-annually at the Brewhouse. So start stocking up with work for 2018. Our thanks to all who contributed and attended and stewarded.

Sara Dudman’s postponed workshop took place recently (24 November) at CICCIC and was great fun. Nine of us completed a small acrylic canvas of a Northumberland sky scene thanks to Sara’s inspired teaching and preparation. She showed us how one might paint a threatening sky, and then encouraged us to take risks and go for it.

Our subscription remains the same for 2017. We plan to use the Brewhouse for workshops, our AGM, and some of our talks. Charges for these events may therefore be a little higher to cover costs for the room hire and use of equipment. Your committee feel that we want to work in partnership with likeminded organisations. We shall also invite other organisations such as Chandos, Contains Art and T.A.G. to attend our events, and have offered to pass on information about theirs.

Whats Coming After Christmas?

February 23 7.30 pm – Brewhouse Studio – Freeny Yianni Hammick will talk on Richard Hamilton and his Taunton links. Anyone is welcome.

March 6 7.00 pm Conference Centre – Jeremy Harvey on Three American Artists Edward Hopper, Alexander Calder, and George Rickey. All welcome.

March 23 7.30 pm Brewhouse Studio – our AGM followed by Gillian Solomon on The Portraits of David Hockney RA. Open event.

My committee colleagues and I wish you a very Happy Christmas and we’ll hope to help make 2017 another good year for SAGT.

Jeremy Harvey

Newsletter # 46 August 2016

President:

Stella Murray Whatley

Patrons:

the late Jack Coulthard
the late Peter Coate RWA

Dear Reader(s)

A warm welcome to new members who have joined us.

In a troubled and unpredictable world I find looking at art, and reading about its making, often soothing, reassuring, and surprisingly energising. It can also be inspiring. All this helps me to feel more alive and is an antidote to the competitive or aggressive aspects of our politics or economics. Art can be disturbing too, and I accept that. The creativity and imagination of art-makers thrills me.

These thoughts follow the launch of our Summer Exhibition in the Brewhouse where 77 works, paintings, sculpture and drawings, by 21 artists are on display daily until 10 September: Monday to Saturday – entrance usually via the Box Office. (Don’t be put off by shut doors!) I shared some of the above musings at the very enjoyable and well attended PV – see the photos below, taken by Elizabeth Adams – and urged us all to scoop up our family, friends and young people we know to see this lovely show; and then to urge them to tell others to come and see it. A good attentive look at the wonderful variety of work is the very least our artists hope for. And sales, if possible.

We still have morning and afternoon stewarding slots to fill: this does not have to be left to the artists whose work is on show; and is a peaceful and rewarding occupation. We are usually offered a cup of tea or coffee. Please fill in the file in the gallery or contact Anna Mullett while I am away.

In our May Newsletter number 45 we were publicising our visit to the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham. We went there on June 16 in a coach party and saw the current exhibition. Those who opted for the guided tour praised the talk they were given, and those who wanted to see the paintings and drawing in their own way were well satisfied. When not in the gallery, we had lunch and explored the village and church, the open spaces around them, and the Thames river path and views. Julia Cann was warmly thanked for her perseverance in recruiting and ability to harmonise us and the arrangements.

Before I mention two additions to our autumn programme members have been achieving recognition. Congratulations to Deborah Westmancoat on having two paintings accepted for the RA Summer exhibition and selling both, and on having a water colour accepted for the Sunday Times exhibition in September at the Mall galleries; and to Mike Tarr, on having similar success at the Mall galleries. Together with Sara Dudman these artists have work in our Brewhouse exhibition. And Sara was a judge for the Sunday Times exhibition and has a painting shortlisted for the National Open Art exhibition – see www.nationalopenart.org – and work selected for the New RWAs exhibition at the Atkinson Gallery, Millfield (opening September 27).

Now events please to go in your diaries – and for your company. This year’s Ken Grieb lecture is on Saturday 8 October at 11.0 in the Conference Centre, Somerset College, and it is on The Glasgow Boys and will be given by Julian Halsby. He is a popular and knowledgeable lecturer and artist, and you may have heard him talk to us on Bonnard (2014) or at Dillington or to a NADFAS group. We shall be joined that morning by Somerset Art Fund members. I suggest you book your tickets in good time.

Then Sara Dudman’s postponed drawing/painting workshop is on Thursday 24 November at 2.30 pm in CICCIC. We shall be painting skies, a subject she has been studying and painting. There will be room for about 20 people. Please let Anna know if you are attending.

Two mornings later on Saturday, 26 November at 11.0 in the Conference Centre, Somerset College I shall be talking on Georges Braque, one of the key pioneers of C20 art, a founder of Cubism, and highly regarded in France, but neglected or forgotten over here.

Further information will be sent out nearer the time about these three events which we hope by having them during the day will make it easier for you and your friends to attend, and that public transport will be available, where needed.

With best wishes,

Jeremy Harvey