BAS MEMBERS! LESS THAN A WEEK UNTIL ENTRIES CLOSE!
If you want to be a part of this years glorious exhibition you have less than a week to go to get your entries in.
An opportunity to sell your work and/or win a prize. This year the prize money on offer is well over £1500 including The Joy Barnes Award now £500 and the Vittorio Zanetti Drawing Award now £200.
Don’t miss the opportunity. Entries close at midnight on 20th June.
The Bruton Art Society workshop season has been proceeding apace since February. Now, with a break until the programme resumes in September after the hubbub of the annual exhibition in August, it seems like a good time to report on a great series of workshops organised, as ever, by our workshop co-ordinator, Sally Ridout.
‘ Paper Art ’ : Tutor, Naomi Kendall
We had a rescheduled 2 day workshop on the 20th and 21st February with Naomi Kendall on ‘Paper Art’ which was postponed from October 2024 due to illness.
Naomi is a Somerset based artist and a member of the Paper Artist Collective. Those of us who took part had a very enriching experience, experimenting with cutting, folding and scoring, finding different ways of turning paper into relief sculptures, collages and stand alone pieces. We discovered with great pleasure what Naomi’s words meant : “although it’s such an every-day material, paper can be transformed in so many ways”.
‘ Expressive Acrylics – Land and Sky’: Tutor, Lynn Keddie
A one day workshop on 7th March 2025
Lynn is a very inspiring tutor and artist, who gave the group an opportunity to free up their work using acrylics, a medium often misunderstood. There was nothing but praise for her encouraging style of teaching and folks were determined to continue to work with acrylics undaunted when they went back home.
‘Portraiture, a route to character and likeness’ : Tutor, Toby Wiggins RP
On 13th and 14th March we had the privilege of working with the portrait painter Toby Wiggins, who is a member of the Royal Portrait Society.
Toby took us through the process of building up a portrait on a ‘route to character and likeness’ over two days and we are very grateful to him for agreeing to work with us.Toby is a patient and thoughtful tutor and the results of his teaching are spectacular. Thanks must also go to our two models who sat for us over two consecutive days, with breaks of course! Because this workshop was so popular, Toby has agreed to do another one in the future, so members need to look out for that one in the future.
‘ Expressive Drawing in charcoal and soft pastels’: Tutor, Kate Lynch
A two day workshop on the 10th and 11th April 2025 at Hadspen Village hall.
Kate is well known for her interest in West Country rural crafts and skills, and has researched, written and illustrated books on the subject. One book in particular to look out for is “CRAFT”- portraits and voices recording traditional crafts from Somerset artisans accompanied by Kate’s illustrations.
We will remember the collaborative drawings which Kate set for us in both charcoal and soft pastel and in particular her enthusiasm and joy at imparting and developing our expressive drawing skills.
‘Cut, paste and sew fabric landscapes’ : Tutor, Imogen Bittner
Something completely different and magical happened when Imogen brought her Aladdin’s cave of fabric scraps and offcuts to Hadspen Village hall for this workshop. Her signature fabric landscape and still life collages are works of art like no other, transforming left over cuts of material with their colours, patterns and textures into compositions which inspire and surprise. Those of us who took part in this two day workshop on the 8th and 9th of May found ourselves excitedly delving into her table of treasures, sorting and cutting, stitching, ironing and pasting the gems we needed to create our own masterpieces, guided by Imogen’s encouragement and experience. A whole new world of resources opened up for us in the process and we are very grateful for it.
‘Franz Marc and Der Blaue Reiter’ : Talk/Workshop with Sally Ridout
Blaue Reiter
On 24 May at Hadspen Sally Ridout led an enjoyable and informative workshop on Der
Blaue Reiter.
She opened with a talk and slides of this colourful and stimulating group, active in
Germany all too briefly, roughly 1911 to 1914 , when the outbreak of World War I forced its
dissolution. Principal members dispersed from Munich: Kandinsky went back to his native
Russia,
We learnt of the rejection of 19th century classical formal painting and its replacement with
the freedom of expression pioneered first by Impressionists, Van Gogh, Monet and
company; later by the Fauves, Derain and Matisse. The Blaue Reiter members such as
Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky, Gabrielle Munter and August Macke concentrated on
movement with powerful use of primary colours that they believed would signify emotions:
blue for purity and/or masculinity; red for brutality,weight, matter; yellow for femininity.
Nature, principally animals and vegetation influenced design often with flat surfaces and
black outlines.
Several now famous names briefly joined or influenced Blaue Reiter. So we saw bits of
Cubism, Picasso, Klee et al..
Sally encouraged us to listen to The Lark Ascending and some Schoenberg while
generating spontaneous marks on A5 paper. We discussed synaesthesia and colour.
Which colour do you assign to which day of the week? Is your Monday red? Is Sunday
blue? Some surprising coincidences cropped up.
Next, Sally issued a plain coloured card apiece, inviting each one of us to cut out their
own choice of interesting shape. One by one we added and built a group collage on the
floor. Kandinsky would have been as delighted by the result as we were.
The afternoon session was couple of hours individually emulating Blaue Reiter style
inspired by images that Sally provided. Our collected results made a most satisfying show
of bright colour and interesting forms.
I found this another of Sally’s well prepared and successful workshops, evidently much
appreciated by us all.
Thank you, Sally.
Michael Riggs
26May 2025
With many thanks to Sally Ridout and to Michael Riggs for their reports. There are still a number of excellent workshops to come in the autumn. Visit the Events Calendar to explore and to book.
With just over 3 months to go until our 72nd Annual Art Exhibition at the Memorial Hall, King’s Bruton, the Committee is pleased to announce that the “Call for Entries” is open today, 2nd May. If you are a BAS member, and are interested in entering work for the exhibition, please click the button and follow the links……
(Image “An unexpected Joy” by Vanessa Fawcett winner of The Joy Barnes Award at 71st Annual Exhibition in 2024)
We started the new years activities for members on the 7th February with a lecture by Jenny Newman on ‘The Art of Snow and Ice’ at Caryford Community Hall in Castle Cary, with approximately 45 members and guests attending. Jenny was happy to be our ‘guinea pig’ as she was the first lecturer to present in this hall.
Well known to Bruton Art Society Jenny taught Art for 40 years, latterly as Head of Art at Sherborne Girls’ School, from 1994 – 2016.
Trained in Fine Art, she has a broad knowledge of Art and Design, which she loves to share with others, often taking groups abroad and organising ‘Pop Up’ talks in the town. She is a member of the Sherborne Arts Society and on retiring she started two University of the Third Age (U3A) groups in Sherborne, for which she gives illustrated talks on current / forthcoming exhibitions and collections.
During the lecture, Jenny showed us early examples of artists who made ice and snow a subject since at least the 15th century, when winter scenes began appearing in illuminated ‘books of hours’. Our attention was drawn to the smallest of details in all these examples, particularly such well known paintings as ‘Hunters in the Snow’ by Pieter Breughel (the Elder), the much loved Skating Minister by Henry Raeburn, Japanese prints and the Impressionist painter Monet with his ‘The magpie’. We were shown Post Impressionist and early C20th works, ending with the contemporary artist Peter Doig and Andy Goldsworthy the sculptor.
The lecture was very enjoyable and much appreciated. There was a genuine feeling of intimacy in a smaller space, which Jenny herself agreed with. She is a naturally engaging speaker who loves imparting her knowledge of the subject and we look forward to more of her lectures in the future.
Sally Ridout ( BAS Committee )
2025 started this year as usual with our AGM which was held at Caryford Hall on 16th January. Those of you who were there will remember that we were treated (not for the first time) to a lecture by Will Vaughan.
The lecture was entitled “Drawing the Line” and was very enjoyable and thought provoking. Now, by popular demand, Will has posted the lecture on YouTube where it can be viewed until the end of March.
So for those of you who missed it, or those of you who would like to see it again, click on this link and you will be transported there: Drawing the Line
We have held the last workshops of the year with two ’Taster Days’ and one two day workshop on Egg tempera painting, all at Hadspen Village Hall, near Bruton.
In October we spent a ‘Taster Day’ exploring and trying out ‘Gouache’ paints with Kate Cochrane; an artist well known for her impressionistic, textural paintings of woods, trees and waterfalls, which was followed the next day, with Su Elsden sharing her skills in soft pastels with us and generously bringing a kaleidoscope of colours for us to use. Sally Ridout also brought oil pastels to experiment with for those unfamiliar with them.
In November we were very happy to have a much appreciated and fully booked two day workshop with James Lynch on Egg tempera painting. James is well known as a painter of English landscapes and skies in egg tempera; often from an aerial viewpoint, as he is also an experienced paraglider.
Bruton Art Committee December 2024As we draw towards the end of another year of interesting and stimulating workshops it is good to see some feed back from one attendee, the talk and workshop being led by our organiser, Sally Ridout herself. For a number of years Sally has organised a rich variety of quality workshops for Bruton Art Society members this year being no exception. There are still a few workshops left before we wind things up. A programme of what’s on can be found by clicking here.
We very much looked forward to Sally’s workshop, “Picasso in Context”, particularly as we had recently visited the Picasso museum in Barcelona. The workshop was very timely, we were eager to explore some historical context and to try out some new techniques.
So how to summarise one of the icons of the 20th century, an artist who was prolific in painting, sculpture, printing, ceramics, theatre design and who produced over 20,000 works of art and 100,000 prints in his lifetime, all 91 years? A daunting task.
Sally described and illustrated some of the influences in Picasso’s life, his upbringing, women in his life, loves and losses, the effect of 2 world wars, other renowned French and Catalan artists, the ballet, circus harlequins, his passions and pet hates etc, portrayed through paintings such as Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (influence of African art), Guernica (effect of the Spanish civil war, pre WW2), 3 Musicians (cubism).
As a group, we discussed various Picasso works, from the weird and wonderful, the sublime and surreal, sometimes the erotic and sometimes dark. Overall, Sally’s presentation was very interesting and thought provoking and gave us an insight into finding out more.
In the afternoon there was a chance for hands-on drawing and painting such as; drawing from memory, illustrating ‘Picasso hands’, a still life from different viewpoints, and some freestyle painting (creating our own form of abstract or Picasso-esque art).
Many thanks, Sally for such an informative and enjoyable day and for your guidance, visual aids, helpful material and reference books. Such a busy day! The Picasso workshop followed on seamlessly from your Cubism workshop that we similarly enjoyed.
( Thanks also to Nigel Stevenson for this report)
We have had three very enjoyable workshops recently, two in April and one in May.
Alex Cree, painter and teacher, took us through ‘Basic Oil painting skills’ over two days on the 11th and 12th April, which revitalised some of us who are familiar with the medium and inspired those who are total beginners. We went right back to basic colour mixing, tints and tones and the effects on the eye of juxtaposed colours and among other interesting oil painting techniques, we learnt about “scumbling” from William Turner (1775 – 1851) and “tonking” from Henry Tonks (1862 – 1937)
The artist Sarah Ball inspired us to “Play, Explore and Create in Acrylics” the following week on the 18th and 19th April. We were encouraged to interpret the landscape around us in abstracted lines and shapes and to let go of what is expected of us in our art practice and find self fulfilment and happiness in what we enjoy doing most. Sarah demonstrated many different tools to work with using in acrylics such as credit cards, sponges, rags etc and showed us how versatile acrylics can be. It was very refreshing and enlightening. I know some people were inspired to continue working on their pieces over the weekend.
The workshop on the 10th May ” Landscape painting with earth Pigments” was with Amanda Bee, a landscape painter who has recently been combining earth pigments with acrylic binder in her landscape paintings and has researched the origins and places where they are found . The ochre colours are the main earth colours ranging from yellow to orange, red and brown and we learnt that ochre has been found in archaeological sites in Africa dating back 300,000 years and in Australia back 50,000 years. We were also given the thrill of using a pigment called ‘Green Earth’ which was found to have been used by the Romans on wall paintings in Pompeii.
With just over 3 months to go until our 71st Annual Art Exhibition at the Memorial Hall, King’s Bruton, the Committee is pleased to announce that the “Call to Artists” will open on 1st May, with the deadline of midnight, 21st June. Members are invited to submit up to five works for this years exhibition.
You will find more information and a link to the OESS entry system in the ‘Exhibitions’ section above.
What an excellent way to start our 2024 Bruton Art Society’s workshops.
On the 7th and 8th of March, 11 members of the society took part in Melanie Deegan’s “Sculpture in Wire and Resin” course at our familiar venue of Hadspen Village Hall.
Melanie is one of our regular tutors, much admired by those members who have had the pleasure of her calm and professional
approach. Her students always produce amazing work considering they only have two days to do it in, and this year was no exception. Some participants go on to do more sculpture in wire and resin in their own time having learnt about the materials and processes from Melanie and we are very grateful that she travels from the North Somerset coast each day where she has her studio at the Watchet “East Quay” contemporary Art Centre.
The next workshop “Basic Oil Painting Skills” by Alex Cree is now fully booked, but there are still spaces available in the other workshops planned through the year. The number of places is always limited and once they’re booked they’re booked! So have a look at the 2024 Programme and if there’s anything you fancy participating in book it whilst you can.