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  • The subtle science and exact art of colour in English Garden Design

    Stalbridge Hall Stalbridge Hall, Lower Road, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, United Kingdom.

    Fillius, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons   In 1888 Gertrude Jekyll wrote a short but seminal article in The Garden in which she urged the readers to “remember that in a garden we are painting a picture”. As an accomplished watercolour artist, Miss Jekyll was familiar with the principles of using colours, but she felt that […]

  • The Victorians – a Course of Six Lectures Starting:

    Market Lavington Community Hall Market Lavington Community Hall, Market Lavington, Wiltshire, United Kingdom

    Organised by the Arts Society Wessex Area   For more information from the Wessex Area website - click the link below: https://theartssociety.org/sites/default/files/files/society/attachments/The%20Victorians%20synopsis.pdf  

  • The British Army in India – an unofficial view

    Stalbridge Hall Stalbridge Hall, Lower Road, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, United Kingdom.

    Many thousands of British soldiers - and, in some cases, their wives - sailed out to India in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the era before photography, many sent back drawings and paintings intended for private consumption. These now offer us a vivid insight into various aspects of their lives, sometimes unglamorous, often amusing. […]

  • The art of the cartoonist

    Stalbridge Hall Stalbridge Hall, Lower Road, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, United Kingdom.

      Harry Venning has been a professional cartoonist for thirty years, during which time he has provided cartoons for several high-profile UK publications (The Guardian, Radio Times) as well as for countless more obscure titles (British Journal Of Wound Care). He was awarded UK Strip Cartoonist Of The Year for his Guardian strip Clare In The Community, which he […]

  • Picasso`s Guernica

    Stalbridge Hall Stalbridge Hall, Lower Road, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, United Kingdom.

    Zarateman, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons   Picasso's Guernica the painting created in 1937 is considered by many to be his greatest masterpiece. Painted as a reaction to the bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War, it shows the horror, cruelty and devastation of modern warfare. The painting contains a lot more than a depiction […]

  • Opera : The melting pot of culture

    Stalbridge Hall Stalbridge Hall, Lower Road, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, United Kingdom.

    Norio NAKAYAMA from saitama, japan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons This is my ‘calling card’. The lecture is of general interest and charts opera’s close connection with the society that is paying for it. The talk moves from the 17th and 18th century preoccupations with princely patronage, classical plots, courtly manners, high voices, enormous […]

  • Henry VIII and the Field of the Cloth of Gold

    Stalbridge Hall Stalbridge Hall, Lower Road, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, United Kingdom.

    Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons   In June 1520 the king of France and the king of England met in a field outside Calais to celebrate peace. The celebrations that accompanied this meeting have become known as The Field of Cloth of Gold because of their extravagance and luxury, a magnificence captured in […]

  • From Errol Flynn to Bottles of Gin: Literary Portraits and their Afterlives

    Stalbridge Hall Stalbridge Hall, Lower Road, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, United Kingdom.

    (left)User Roisterer on en.wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons-(right)Majvdl, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons I confess to not thinking it much like the original – but that the public will not be able to detect… Cassie Austen on her Aunt Jane’s portrait. From Burns to Byron and from Jane Austen to the Brontes; […]

  • The Colour Blue – From paradise to poison

    Stalbridge Hall Stalbridge Hall, Lower Road, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, United Kingdom.

    Lecture Description Deep blue is the most popular colour in the world.  Perhaps it is redolent of velvety night skies and starry Summer evenings. It is thought to symbolize strength and wisdom. It has always stood for the cosmos and the Virgin Mary, as a colour of the intellect and spiritual healing and was the […]