A Happy New Year to you all. I hope that you have had a wonderful time with your families over Christmas. We are so lucky having the London galleries so near — especially as most of us have to pay nothing to travel to see them. How about making a New Year resolution to see at least one exhibition a month during 2008? If the crowded blockbuster shows in London do not appeal you could hardly do better than making for the Mall Gallery to keep abreast of what the best of our contemporaries are doing. Closer to hand is the 200 world-class paintings at the Queen’s House, Greenwich. It is part of the Maritime Museum’s permanent collection and will be on show continuously for the foreseeable future. Entrance is free and it is well worth a visit. It is not all “maritime”. So much for my general hopes for the future; I will now review our activities of the recent past.
November 2nd – The “4 Corners” Evening: Perhaps members did not quite understand what “Four Corners” meant when they saw it in the programme as we had no more than two dozen people attending. During the evening there was one person in each corner of the room demonstrating or talking about a particular subject:
Ann Holdway was demonstrating her approach to mosaic and at least one member tried her hand at it.
Gilly Hewstone showed her skill at drawing portraits using pencil shading and brought many examples of her work.
Allan Davies gave advice on and showed very clear drawings explaining the principles of perspective.
I was drawing a pastel portrait and brought a number of unframed portraits and photographs of previous commissions.It proved to be an enjoyable evening — members sat for a while at one demonstration before moving round to the next — it was informative and pleasantly social. We must do it again and next time give you more advanced details on who will be doing what.
Private View at St George’s Church, Beckenham: I was very disappointed about the very small number of people attending the Private View. Not only were there very few members but there was little evidence that many had invited friends, neighbours and family to come. Ann sends out invitations to previous buyers but we expect members to invite visitors, too. Without them few pictures will be sold. Remember that the committee works hard to put on these shows and a Private View adds significant costs for the Society.
The Art Auction November 3rd: This event was not well attended either but proved quite enjoyable and those who were there picked up some real bargains. It was held in the Scout hut in Tiepigs lane. Many thanks to Ann and Peter for organising the event and to the committee for their energetic support — including Christine and her friend for the splendid refreshments. A repeat is expected — you will be informed of details when known. Here’s hoping that 2008 will bring continued success to the Bromley Art Society.