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MARCH MEETING

As the Impressionists were so popular last month

we continued with Wendy and her investigations

into Gustav Caillbotte. Apparently this painting

of the Floor Scrapers was vilified for its content

of menial workers by the critics!

Nancy ended our Impressionist period with her collection of

English Impressionists which included this self-painting by her

aunt, Peggy Angus, milking a cow.

We then continued with our favourite Portraits which were varied to say the least!

\A portrait of Madame Paul by Manet

Portrait of a Jew by Chagall

Startled in Blue by Anne Hamlyn

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Her Majesty’s Pleasure by Lucy Willis

Lucy Willis spent some time at Shepton

Mallet Prison

where she

painted this

portrait of some

of her students

... and finally, Anton chose to introduce us to plant portraits by

Billy Showell.

SHIPS AT SEA : MARCH 2012

This was a topic which we discovered

several members were not too keen on!

However, we had a really lively session

and the dissenters had actually

enjoyed their research. Mary started

us off with “The Slave Ship” by

Turner, and told us of his inspiration

t o p a i n t t h i s p i c t u r e a f t e r

reading “The History and Abolition of

the Slave Trade” by Thomas Clarkson.

The painting shows sick slaves having

been thrown overboard so a claim could

be made for death by drowning.

The Cradle by Berthe Morisot Pastel portrait of Germaine Greer by

Paula Rego

Bamboo and Lilies : Billy Showell

W B Yeats by Augustus John

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Wendy then followed with her choice of two

works by a modern artist, Regina Orchard. The

first was an oil painting depicting a pilot

cutter. These boats had to be strong and very

fast. Those based at Pill, near Bristol, served

the River Avon and were privately owned. The

first boat to reach the ship needing piloting

was the winner!

Wendy’s second work was a collage of a brigantine

and after explaining the technical difference

between a brig and a brigantine, she told us how

artists would be commissioned by owners to paint

their ships from piers. These paintings were

obviously done very quickly and woe betide the

artist who left out any part of the boat or rigging!

Glennis’s offering was two paintings

by Willem Van der Velde (b. 1633 in

Leiden). His paintings are very

accurate portrayals of 17th century

ships. He was employed by Charles

II to aid his father in “taking and

making draughts of sea-fights” .

Here we have “The Cannon Shot”

and “The Gust” painted around 1680

and in the collection of the

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

Pam brought along a book containing

our oldest painting of ships at sea: a

w a l l p a i n t i n g d e p i c t i n g t h e

Laestrygonians destroying Odysseus’s

fleet. Probably painted in the first

century BC and in the collection of the

Vatican in Rome, this is taken from

Homer’s tale of The Odyssey. The

Laestrygonians were a cannibal tribe

living in the region of Mount Etna.

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Barbara’s father-in-law, Joseph French,

had been an marine artist who worked

for an advertising agency. When

commissioned, the artists would visit the

ship in question, make a model in very

thin plywood, then doing the painting.

Again, these paintings had to be

accurate in their detail and some very

fine work was the result.

Nancy continued the Impressionist

theme from last month by choosing work

done by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, a

Spanish artist who lived from 1863-1923.

“All inspired painters are impressionists, even though it be true that some impressionists are not inspired." This beautiful painting is entitled “The

Three Sails”. He was a very fast painter

and said "I could not paint at all if I had to paint slowly. Every effect is so transient, it must be rapidly painted.”

Anton chose to show us Art at Sea based on the work of

Giancarlo Impiglia (1940-) and this painting is an example of

his work done for the Cunard liners : Queen Mary 2; Queen

Victoria and Queen Elizabeth.

These paintings were done in acrylic on aluminium panels

rather than oil on canvas to comply with health and safety

regulations on board. They are very lively and evocative of

the Art Deco period. There are three reasons why the

figures in his works are devoid of

features. "First of all, I am not painting portraits, I am painting situations so there is no need for physical features. Also, the images are very stylized and flat. Also, they reflect the idea that we live in a society that is faceless. We do not pay much attention to faces, we pay more attention to other

things."

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Finally, Denise shared with us her love of Lyonel

Feininger’s paintings of boats which ranged from a

simple watercolour painted when he was 17 through

various oil paintings and woodcuts. He was a prolific

artist and during his lifetime produced some 1,500

caricatures and illustrations for various newspapers;

539 paintings; 320 woodcuts; 65 etchings; 20

lithographs and several hundred watercolours and

drawings.

Feininger constructs his paintings with transparent or translucent overlapping geometrical planes that catch light like prisms or reflect it from solid surfaces. These planes rise up to form an architecture that continues into a similarly constructed atmosphere, while light pours through them as if through a series of gauzy veils. His softly muted colour is applied lightly in both oils and water colours and the resulting works have the misty iridescent quality of motes of dust in sunbeams.

HOW MEDIEVAL BOOKS WERE MADE : JULY 2012

This was a fascinating discussion led by Nancy. She had

prepared lots of visual work for us to look at while she told

us about the scribes employed to write the words, the

illuminators who beautified the capital letters and also how

the proof-readers’ changes were left in the manuscript to

prove how carefully the document had been produced. This

is far too big a subject to explain in this newsletter but have

a look at http://www.randyasplund.com/ or see if you can

find Scribes and Illuminators by Christopher de Hamel.

We were amused by Jan’s picture showing probably the earliest

baby walker in the world! The Holy Family at Work from Hours of Catherine of Cleves 1440.

THIS IS THE LAST SESSION THIS YEAR. ENROL FOR OUR NEXT EXCITING

PROGRAMME ON AUGUST 24 AT THE EDGAR COMMUNITY HALL FROM 1000-1200.