The colour blue is generally associated with the sky and the oceans but is oddly rare in nature. It has different meanings in different cultures and was the first man-made colour pigment in 2,200 B.C. This selection of work celebrates blue in a varied mix of both 2D and 3D items. From contemporary work to eighteenth century illustrations, abstract interpretations to representational art, see a wide range of work celebrating blue in nature.
Paintings by Derek Robertson based on his researches into bird migration and visits to refugee camps in Calais, Sicily, Cyprus and Jordan. The work overlays depictions of refugees and migrants with studies of migrating birds, blending stories,tradition and acute, personal observation.
Migrations – A Field Study in Adversity: an illustrated talk by Derek Robertson £8 including finger buffet and access to galleries
Derek Robertson has been a professional artist for over 30 years and his paintings have won multiple national and international awards. He is also an enthusiastic amateur naturalist and bird ringer and has had papers published in many scientific journals. Derek will be talking about his most recent project ‘Migrations’ which ties together human rights issues of refugee crises and climate change through the imagery of migratory birds and their role as environmental indicators. Derek travelled and sketched through the UK, Europe and the Middle East drawing together imagery of birds and people as they negotiated borders, refugee camps and points of transit. An evening for all.
Migrations is on show at May 21st – June 23rd
The Wildlife Art Society International’s annual exhibition of wildlife art. Around 300 paintings, drawings, original prints, photogrpahs and sculptures by professional and part-time members of this active organisation will be on display, the majority for sale. Members will be demonstrating throughout the exhibition.
Heart&Soul Community Choir
£6 including light snacks and access to museum and Wildlife Art Society exhibition
Under the inspirational leadership of Hilary Davies, Heart&Soul Community Choir will be lifting our spirits with a varied repertoire covering traditional and contemporary folk songs from the British Isles, South Africa, Bukino Faso and New Zealand (plus other gems). The emphasis is on the sheer joy and diversity of singing! Part proceeds in aid of Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers. An evening not to be missed!
An illustrated talk by Charles Dewhurst £8 including finger buffet and access to all the galleries
Some of the world’s most beautiful butterflies are the swallowtails and birdwings, includes our own very localised British Swallowtail. Possibly the most beautiful, and certainly the largest in the world is The Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing Butterfly (Ornithoptera alexandrae), where females may have a 30cm wingspan. It is classed as Endangered by CITES and has a very restricted habitat. Examples are traded illegally for huge sums of money. Charles has lived and worked as a scientist in New Guinea, where the Queen Alexandra butterfly is found, and talks as both an expert and enthusiast for this amazing creature. An evening of natural history and conservation. Do come!
Over 300 items by members of the Association of Woodturners of Great Britain. Artistry and craftsmanship come together in wonderful items exploiting the varied qualities of wood. From the traditional to contemporary, a diverse show also incorporating colour,carving, texture and a mix of other mediums. Exhibition includes 118 items from the Ray Key collaboration project.
Read more ……
We are delighted that the Association of Woodturners of Great Britain are staging this exhibition of turned wood with nature very much in mind. It offers a wonderful opportunity to see a host of techniques exploited to bring out the beauty in wood – art from the tree. The exhibition includes a large number of pieces, of varying scales, and is made up of three different sections.
The first is ‘The Ray Key collaboration’. This came about after many part turned pieces were found in the workshop of Ray Key BEM after he died in September 2018. Ray was the founder and president of the AWGB. The part turned pieces were sent out to turners from five continents for them to finish in their own style. 118 pieces were returned revealing a vast array of different techniques and styles representing a unique collection of work. These will all be exhibited at Nature in Art and at a later date auctioned, partly in aid of the AWGB.
Ray was a very influential turner who revelled in the beauty of wood. He said, ‘My work embraces minimalism; my quest is to produce objects of beauty and elegant simplicity. I am a great believer of the object as a whole; not a disjointed assemblage of different ones. ‘Keep it simple stupid’, ‘let the wood speak for itself’ and ‘if in doubt leave it out’ are my design bywords’. One of his great delights too was his sense that in his time this ancient craft is now accepted as an ‘art form’.’
A preview of the Ray Key Collaboration pieces can be seen on the AWGB website: www.awgb.co.uk/ray-key-collaboration
The second grouping is ‘The Masters’ which showcases the work of Ray Key (the first person ever to be awarded the title), Reg Hawthorne and Stuart Mortimer. All three were awarded the title of ‘Master Turner’ by the Worshipful Company of Turners. (The Turners’ Company is one of the oldest Livery Companies in the City of London. Its origins go back to early medieval times: the first reference to a London turner dates back to 1189.) Many of these Master pieces will be available for purchase at the exhibition.
The third section are by AWGB members and are a selection of the best pieces chosen from their international seminar which took place last October along with some additional pieces from local turners. Many of these pieces will also be available for purchase at the exhibition.
For the first week of the exhibition (2nd – 7th July) we will also have a lathe and demonstrations taking place in the studio.
The AWGB is a national charity which aims to promote woodturning to ensure the craft continues and to advance education in woodturning. It currently has over 3000 members, including makers abroad, and has 50 local UK branches, including in Gloucestershire. Phil Irons, who has a spectacular large vessel in the Nature in Art collection, was elected President of AWGB earlier this year.
An exhibition of original cartoons and paintings by the renowned Norman Thelwell (1923 – 2004).
Norman Thelwell is one of the most popular cartoonists to have worked in Britain since the Second World War. Although best known for his images of girls and their fat ponies, his work is far more wide ranging than many realise. The countryside and environment were passions that informed his work throughout his life and his cartoons were a powerful way for him to comment on issues of the day.
This exhibition of original artwork has generously been lent by the family archive and, although it includes a few of his renowned horse and pony pictures, it also embraces serious paintings completed purely for pleasure, and drawn and painted cartoons with relevance to nature, the countryside and environment and the human impact upon them. Together they reveal not just his skill as an artist, but also his mastery of sharp social comment and his awareness of then current and future threats. He used satire to convey serious messages about the need to preserve the natural world; many of these still have poignancy today.
Many of his 34 books centre upon country life and country pursuits, and their light-hearted images are founded upon a thorough knowledge of their topics. (He was a keen angler, for example.) Many of the original works on show in this exhibition featured in these books including The Effluent Society (1971).
Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire on 3 May 1923, Thelwell showed a talent for drawing very early in life and found drawing and painting much easier than other subjects – ‘with drawing, the answer was always there in front of you – you only had to look’, he said.
During the Second World War he served with the second battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, and was soon transferred to the intelligence section because of his ability to draw. Later he was posted to India with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, subsequently becoming Art Editor and sole artist for a new army magazine. He even designed new uniforms for the Indian army.
After the war, Thelwell studied at Liverpool City School of Art (1947-50) and lectured on design and illustration at Wolverhampton College of Art (1950-56). He sold his first drawing to Punch in 1950, beginning a 25-year relationship that resulted in more than 1,500 cartoons, of which 60 were used as front covers. He also worked as a cartoonist for the News Chronicle, the Sunday Dispatch and the Sunday Express and began to produce his own comic books.
For the last quarter of a century of his life he lived in the Test Valley at Timsbury, near Romsey, gradually restoring a farm house and landscaping the grounds.
In today’s world of digital photographic manipulation, the idea of altering images is the norm. This exhibition features work by members of the Bromoil Circle using a process that involves changing images yet using a technique that originated from the Oil Process, which was patented in 1855. Later in 1907, C. Wellbourne Piper worked out a formula for the Bromoil process, which is still practiced today.
The method briefly, is that the silver contained in gelatine in a bromide print is bleached away and at the same time, the gelatine is hardened according to the amount of silver it contained. It is then fixed, washed and dried, after which it is re soaked to condition the gelatine and then all surplus water is removed.
A greasy ink, such as lithographic ink, is then applied by brush and is accepted where the gelatine has hardened (the shadow areas) but is rejected where the gelatine has swollen (the highlights). Thus the original image in the bromide print is built up so that the silver image is now an ink image and far more permanent.
By judicious application of ink, the bromoil worker has fine control over the final image. The bromoil process was much favoured by pictorial workers of yesteryears and is now once more gaining in popularity.
The Bromoil Circle Postal Club was formed by the late A.C Weller in 1931, who became a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 1934. Later the club was renamed The Bromoil Circle of Great Britain. It was established during a period known as the ‘Pictorial Photography Period’ when the pigment printing process had become very popular amongst photographers. The club was formed with 18 members, the same number as it has today. Initially the club existed as a postal club, as many groups did in those days. Today the Circle still adopts the same method of circulating prints etc, but meetings for members and interested parties are also held in an effort to keep this fascinating technique alive and appreciated.
During the early 20th century the Bromoil Process was a very popular process with an array of materials to use, a far cry from todays situation, as very few papers are now manufactured, suitable for the process.
In fact up to the late sixties the Bromoil Process remained very popular, but then with changes within photographic practices and the demise of suitable materials, the number of practitioners fell. During the 1990s, due to serious efforts from Circle members, bromoiling began to arise from the brink of extinction and is still flourishing today amongst this small group.
Workshops and exhibitions are held throughout Great Britain and publications on the process have been produced.
The Circle has an important archive collection running into several hundred outstanding images from some of the best bromoilists from Great Britain. An archive of the images of Sam Weller is held in The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as part of the Royal Photographic Societies Collection.
SEE DEMONSTRATIONS OF BROMOILING Aug 9th, 11th, 15th, 17th, 18th, 22nd, 24th and 25th. (One in the morning and one in the afternoon).
Images: © Josef Jindřich Šechtl
“Whosoever pulls this sword from the stone is the rightful King of England”
Wizards, Magic Swords, Knights in Shining Armour, and the Throne of England. There are fights to be fought, Knights to be knighted, and quests to be… quested. See for yourself exactly how Arthur became the most renowned King of England in this madcap, hilarious retelling of the legendary English story of The Sword in the Stone.
Following their phenomenal response from last year’s The Three Musketeers, IKP are back with another unique, tongue-in-cheek adaptation of a classic story. Excellent fun for all ages – with slapstick, physical humour, fast-paced multi-rolling, and a smattering of playful innuendo for the grown-ups, IKP’s The Sword in the Stone is an unmissable Outdoor Theatre treat this Summer.
Picnics welcome. There is no seating provided, so please bring something to sit on. This production is designed to be performed in the open-air and will continue in all safe weathers.
Grounds open 7pm. Play starts 8pm