It was great to see so many people, including two new members, at the recent Meet-Up at the New Cut Café. Though it was cool and grey it was not raining and quite a few manged to get out and about sketching. The next one is coming up on November 14 at Welsh Back.
I was lucky enough to get up to London last weekend and see the exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of Monet’s London paintings. These are views across the Thames of Charing Cross and Waterloo Bridges painted during winter visits between 1899 and 1901 when he was fascinated by the colours and light in the very foggy atmosphere at the time. Although I was familiar with some of the images to see them all together was extraordinary. A bonus was that despite being sold out that day, the exhibition did not feel too crowded and I could study each painting without peering round others too often. So, if you have the chance to go before it closes on January 19th please do. Otherwise you take the virtual tour online at https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/exh-monet-and-london-views-of-the-thames/ .
The Annual Open Exhibition at the RWA is also well worth a visit. This year’s show had more that appealed to me than previous ones and it was good to see that one of our members, Ian Price, had two seascapes in the show. (Apologies to any other member whose work I did not spot). I will certainly be having another visit -perhaps while our Autumn Fair is on next door at the Methodist Church.
I am looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the Autumn Fair and seeing your work. Please sign up to help, especially with the stewarding. It is not only a great chance to spend more time at the exhibition but an opportunity to meet others and recruit new members.
Fergus Macbeth