
Thu 9th Jun 2022
Georgia O’Keeffe in New Mexico
This colourful lecture explores the relationship between an extraordinary American painter and an equally remarkable place: the picturesque state of New Mexico. Having visited the mountain art colony of Taos for the first time in 1929, she moved permanently to New Mexico after World War II. Fascinated by the mountains and desert, adobe churches and sun-bleached bones, and above all by the brilliant light and vast skies of the state they call the Land of Enchantment, O’Keeffe painted constantly. She…
Find out more »Thu 7th Jul 2022
Most Popular Pictures in British Collections
This lecture will present the most popular paintings to be found in British collections – in reverse order from No. 20 to No.1, compiled from different polls conducted since 2005 (society members who recall Alan Freeman’s Pick of the Pops will get the idea!). As the list is counted down, there will be detailed discussion of some of the individual artworks, as well as reflections on why some artworks rate so high or low and why some don’t feature at…
Find out more »Thu 6th Oct 2022
The subtle science and exact art of colour in English Garden Design.
The subtle science and exact art of colour in English Garden Design
Find out more »The subtle science and exact art of colour in English Garden Design
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 in gardens these principles “had been greatly neglected”. This talk looks at how to apply these principles in designing a border, but it also looks at the…
Find out more »Thu 3rd Nov 2022
The British Army in India – an unofficial view
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. We see their journey out, their social activities, their bungalows, gardens and hill stations; also their cuisine, their recreations, life on the march, and their…
Find out more »Thu 1st Dec 2022
The art of the cartoonist
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 adapted into a Radio 4 sitcom. In 'The Art Of The Cartoonist' Harry will be tracing the history of his profession with examples from early practitioners…
Find out more »Thu 5th Jan 2023
Picasso`s Guernica
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 of war. Picasso explores many themes, love, death, nationhood, motherhood and his own life at that point in time. The painting is also full of cross…
Find out more »Thu 2nd Feb 2023
Opera : The melting pot of culture
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 costumes and happy endings – through the gear change of the war and revolution to the 19th century concerns of nationalism, epic themes and doomed heroines. The talk is based on years of writing articles, programme notes,…
Find out more »Thu 2nd Mar 2023
Henry VIII and the Field of the Cloth of Gold
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 the famous painting at Hampton Court. Textiles, armour, goldsmiths’ work, painting and even a dazzling temporary palace were all called upon to impress the watching world.…
Find out more »Thu 6th Apr 2023
Writers Portraits
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; this lecture will uncover the fascinating stories behind some literary portraits of the Romantic period. We’ll look at various ways in which Romantic writers have been depicted in art, and how these likenesses have been received; both during the writers’ lifetimes,…
Find out more »Thu 4th May 2023
Morocco`s Blues
Michal Osmenda from Brussels, Belgium, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Morocco Blues – why and how Morocco got painted blue draws on Elizabeth’s time in Morocco in visits spanning more than 25 years. The lecture focuses particularly on the stories behind the blue pigment used for the fishing boats and doorways of photogenic Essaouira on the Moroccan coast, and the Majorelle Blue developed and patented by French artist Jacques Majorelle in Marrakech in the 1920s. The story of Morocco’s…
Find out more »Thu 1st Jun 2023
The Kennedy White House
National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons This talk is about the White House’s most celebrated twentieth century residents. Others had been, perhaps, more intellectual, such as Eleonora Roosevelt, certainly others utterly perfidious, just to name Nixon for one, but no other couple who inhabited the White House were ever so glamorous, sophisticated and celebrated. Of course they will never be forgotten given the tragic end to the Kennedy presidency, but this has tended to overshadow, somewhat,…
Find out more »Thu 6th Jul 2023
Public Sculpture
Public Art is a contentious subject. It is the most visible art form and therefore is an easy target. But how do they come to appear in our public spaces? This lecture tracks the development of public art over the last century and looks at various examples to see why are some loved and others loathed. It also explains the process of procurement from the initial commissioning to the production and installation. Drawing from my own experience and using case…
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