Art Appreciation

  1. This group meets on the 3rd Monday each month from 10.30 am – 12.00 pm.  We are currently meeting in Brinsley Parish Hall meeting room.  New members are welcome.

For more information contact Helen Baker tel.07535 785 061  or email helenbaker2@hotmail.com

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Future Meetings:

Art Appreciation – Programme for 2024

15th January

Planning All
19th February Book illustrators All to contribute
27th February Visit to Djanogly Gallery to see Saad Qureshi’s exhibition ‘Something about Paradise’
18th March Sagrada Familia Margaret Naylor
15th April Renoir Helen
20th May Visit to Leicester Museum and Art Gallery to see ‘National Treasures: Renoir in Leicester’
17th June Hockney Suzanne
15th July ‘Show and Tell’ at Colliers Wood All
19th Aug No meeting
16th Sept ‘The Longest Yarn’. A depiction in knitting and crocheting of the events of D Day at Southwell Minster. Meet at 11:00 am.  Make own way there
21st Oct Pottery All to contribute items of interest.
18th Nov Giacometti

Janet

December 16th – no meeting

Visit our gallery

Past meetings and visits:

June/July 2024

At our June meeting, Suzanne shared a selection of her vast collection of posters, prints and postcards of David Hockney works.  She is a great fan!  To keep it manageable, she concentrated mainly on his landscapes – you’ll no doubt be familiar with his recent depictions of trees through he seasons.  She also recommended a visit to Salts Mill at Saltaire, near Bradford, which houses one of the largest collections of Hockney’s works.

July was our annual ‘Show and Tell’ where we bring anything art related. A souvenir of a gallery visit, a picture we have at home, a pot we picked up in a charity shop – anything goes. It’s amazing where the conversation takes us!

This time we looked at the photography of Julia Margaret Cameron, a highly acclaimed British photographer of the 19th century.  A book of maps convinced us that cartography was a form of art. There were accounts of visits to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Quai D’Orsay, Paris. We were very pleased to be able to identify, after some googling, a vintage Japanese biscuit barrel, circa 1930’s, but a mystery object foxed us. It was an unusual looking statue, possibly east Asian and possibly stone or bronze!

We were shown pieces of art that had a very special meaning for one of our members.  Lastly, a porcelain plate was brought which connected us with our look at Renoir earlier as he had begun his painting career at the factory in Limoges.

As you can see our interests are varied.  In September, we’re off to Southwell to see ’The Longest Yarn’, the depiction in knitting and crocheting of the events of D Day.

Please join our group if you have an interest in any form of art and would like to learn alongside us.

April 2024

At our April meeting we had a presentation on Pierre Auguste Renoir, a leading member of the Impressionist movement.  We heard how he progressed from starting work in Limoges painting on fine china to Paris where he became friends with other Impressionists such as Monet.

 He was a painter of portraits and still-life, but he was also famed for his paintings of social scenes.
(Image of ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party. 1881)

He was particularly interested in depicting the reflections of light and colour on water and colours in shadows. He painted ‘en plein air’, out in the open, and often sat alongside Monet.  Several pairs of paintings exist where they painted the same scene.

 In 1881 Renoir began ‘The Umbrellas’. Whilst painting it, he travelled to Italy and there studied the grand masters.  He began to question whether he was taking the right path and returned to complete ‘The Umbrellas’ in a more severe classical style.  This change can easily be seen when looking at the painting and the mystery of why it took 5 years to complete is explained. (Image  ‘The Umbrellas’ 1881-6)

It may not reproduce here but we were very lucky to see it for ourselves when for our June meeting we visited Leicester’s Museum and Art Gallery.  As part of the National Gallery’s 200th Anniversary, 12 museums around the country are displaying 12 iconic artworks from the national collection during this summer, under the title ‘National Treasures’.  Leicester is displaying Pierre Auguste Renoir’s masterpiece “The Umbrellas” (c 1886), one of the most famous artworks in the world.

Visit – November 2022 

A group of us went to Patchings Art Centre near Calverton to see two exhibitions.

The first called ‘The Artist Collection 2022’ was a collection of works from 8 winners of ‘The Artist’ Exhibition awards 2021.  There was a great variety of styles to look at and we had fun picking out our favourites. Unfortunately, my favourite of Whitby Beach had been sold – it was only £1400!

Whitby Beach – Michael Salt

The Diagnosis – Mark Fennell       

A stitch in time – Michelle Ashby

 

The second exhibition was ‘Transcribing the Landscape’ by Susan Isaac, a local artist.

We were initially struck by the rather imposing images in this exhibition.  There was a lot of dark outlining of buildings and features. However, as we acclimatised and began to study the paintings inclose up we were able to appreciate them more.  The artist has worked as an archaeologist and is trained in fine art and sculpture.  We could see the influence of her interest in architecture in the strong shapes of the buildings she painted and saw her bold use of colour. She has been a wild card winner on ‘Landscape Painter of the Year’.

Helen Baker

Meeting – Monday 17th October 2022
THE 4th PLINTH
Lily gave us an engaging account of the history of the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar  Square. Pru Leith wrote to The Standard newspaper in 1994 with the suggestion that the 4th Plinth ( which had been empty for 140 years) should be used to carry a new work of art each year. Lily then presented us with 13 examples of  some of the artwork which had been used. The best known was probably Alison Lepper Pregnant by Mark Quinn, but  an amazingly diverse array of works of art had been used, including One and Other by Anthony Gormley, Powerless Structures, Cock and The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist. Our task was to put names to the pictures – not so easy! She finished by presenting us with some definitions of art, and applying them to the art we had been discussing. An excellent and well thought out presentation.
David Hale

 

Art Appreciation Archive 2021

Art Appreciation Archive 2020

Art Appreciation Archive 2017-19

 

Here are some links to follow.  They allow you to ‘visit’ some great museums worldwide:

Guggenheim Museum, New York – 3D tour

Musee d’Orsay, Paris

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam – 3D tour

Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Uffizi Gallery, Florence – install Google Arts & Culture app to explore virtual reality tour

MASP, Sao Paulo – install Google Arts & Culture app to explore virtual reality tour

National Gallery of Art, Washington – install Google Arts & Culture app to explore virtual reality tour

Paris Museums – 100,000 images online for free viewing

Googles Art site – explore in 3D many places of interest

Most detailed ever photograph of The Night Watch goes online – Rijksmuseum

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/most-detailed-ever-photograph-of-the-night-watch-goes-online