Come and celebrate summer with the last Special Interest event of the season, including lunch at Long Melford Village Hall, when David Rosier will be taking us on a trip to China.

David Rosier lived in Hong Kong and worked in China from 1991-2004. Whilst there, he assembled a collection of around 700 predominantly Qing Dynasty (1644 -1911) Imperial related textiles, insignia of rank and dress accessories.

In 2019, this collection was acquired by The Shanghai Museum to form the core of a new textile gallery. 

• Lecture 1       Ruling from the Dragon Throne      
• Lecture 2       Ultimate Power Dressing

The lectures will provide an insight into the Chinese Imperial Court and the complex, and generally unknown system, of court costume. Students of textile art and design are currently seeking to bring a contemporary interpretation to these ancient symbols of Chinese culture.

David will also focus on the costume and dress accessories that fell outside the scope of formal court costume; for example, the clothing that would have been worn informally by either members of the Imperial Family, Civil or Military Officials and those in the higher social classes in the Qing Dynasty China. These robes and other forms of clothing would have been worn daily or for special ‘family’ occasions.

The lectures will explain the more common design themes such as dragon imagery and the use of designs from nature and various religions. Focus will be given to the highly decorative informal clothing of Chinese ladies, including the design of collars, skirts, and sleeve panels. In addition, David will explain dress accessories, including items attached to robe belts (purses, fragrance pouches, fan cases), hats, and kingfisher feather jewellery. Finally, he will explore the shoes of the period with particular focus on the bound feet shoes worn by Han Chinese ladies. 

David will bring for display, a range of textile Insignia of Rank badges. 

Click here for further details and booking form.

David Rosier is a Chartered Insurer by profession and a Fellow of the Assurance Medical Society, with extensive international experience as an author and lecturer in Medical Risk Assessment. He has in excess of 25 years of working and living in Asia. 

Whilst living in Hong Kong (1991-2004) David assembled a collection of approximately 700, predominately Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Imperial and related textiles/costume accessories.  In 2019, this collection was acquired by The Shanghai Museum to form the core of a new textile gallery.

Photo: Insignia of Rank Badge for a First Rank Military Official - early 19th Century

This Special Interest Morning has been organised by our sister society, South Suffolk.

Norfolk with its rich agricultural land has many large estates and fine country houses. Caroline Knight will talk about the lesser known houses like East Barsham Manor as well as the splendid Jacobean Blickling Hall; Houghton Hall and Holkham Hall, being the two greatest houses in Norfolk both Palladian in style, and the sporting estate of Sandringham. This will link in with the visit to Sandringham on 31st of May 2022 also organised by South Suffolk.

Click here for further details and booking form.

Caroline Knight is an architectural historian, trained at the Courtauld and specialising in 16th to 18th century English and Scottish architecture. She is a lecturer at the V&A on year courses and short courses, and lecturer for the Art Fund, and for the Royal Oak Foundation in the US. Researched and wrote a history of Kensington Palace. Caroline has contributed to a book on the Cecil family, and has written several articles on architectural and social history and the history of travel as well as writing:  London's Country Houses (2009) and contributing a chapter to a history of the Royal Academy. 

John Wastell of Bury, Master Mason and Genius and his completion of King’s College Chapel

Wastell was one of the greatest architects of late Medieval Europe. He lived for the last 30 years of his life in Bury St Edmund, dying in 1518, though he styled himself as “of Cambridge” to the very end. His career appears to have started at the very top, as the designer of the central tower of Canterbury Cathedral. By 1490 he was Master Mason of King’s Hall (Trinity) Cambridge and almost certainly of the Abbey of Bury. Other works include the 'New Building' extension to Peterborough Cathedral and a number of parish churches in Cambridge, Lavenham, Saffron Walden and elsewhere. He is principally remembered for his masterly completion of King’s College Chapel, a work abandoned twice in its chequered history, yet brought to a spectacular conclusion by a man who could evidently snatch triumph from any disaster.

The Art and Architecture of Ely Cathedral, the Glories and the Mishaps.

Ely Cathedral is one of England’s greatest medieval monuments famous for its Romanesque nave, its decorated Lady Chapel, the stunning Octagon and for falling down rather too often. While it is tempting to dwell on the last point, the fact that it fell over from time to time makes it even more interesting from an architectural and artistic viewpoint. In the space of an hour, we shall see the original form of the Anglo-Norman fabric, some of its dramatic Romanesque sculpture, the lavishly adorned early Gothic work, the stunning though mutilated Lady Chapel and the inner workings of the extraordinary timber Octagon. A talk packed with visual richness.

Click here for further details and booking form. You can print the form or, if you download or save it, you will be able to fill it in before forwarding it to Jenny Antill.

There will be 2 x one hour lectures with a 30 minute interval.  

The lectures will also be recorded and available to view until midnight on 23 February.

Price: £10 per household.  Non-members welcome.

Francis Woodman has a lectureship at the University of Cambridge and is based at the Institute of Continuing Education at Madingley Hall. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, he specializes in art and architecture from the Romans to the Reformation. Other subjects range from the patronage of Medieval Women to the Architecture of Islam. A post-graduate of the Courtauld Institute and former research fellow of Christ’s Cambridge, he has had academic responsibility for all the Art History and Architecture programmes at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education since 1997, and in addition, is Academic Director of the Building Conservation Certificate programme. Dr. Woodman is also joint Academic Director for the University of Cambridge Certificate in Early Historical Studies in England.

Amongst many publications are books on Canterbury Cathedral, Norwich Cathedral and Kings’ College Chapel and Dr Woodman has published papers and chapters on a wide range of topics including the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey, as well as chapters on women’s birthright and the endless inheritance dispute by the daughters of the earl of Warwick. He has conducted research into the lives of medieval women for more than forty years, publishing a pioneering article on Lady Margaret Holland as long ago as 1976. More recently there has been ‘Women behaving badly’ for the British Archaeological Association, lectures at both Oxford and Cambridge on medieval women and last autumn he spoke on Joan, Countess of Kent at the International Black Prince Conference in Canterbury. 

This Special Interest Morning has been organised by our sister society, South Suffolk.

Please note that this event has been cancelled and those members who had booked for the event, have been contacted by Louise Pollock, the events organiser for South Suffolk, to arrange a refund.

The foods we eat at Christmas have a long, curious and visually spectacular history. This lecture narrates and illustrates that history from Medieval boar’s head and brawn, by way of highly decorated seventeenth century mince pies to the almost forgotten Twelfth Night Cake. Medieval illuminated manuscripts, paintings and prints from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, and illustrations from cookery books provide us with images of some of the lost glories of the British Christmas feast.

Peter has a History of Art degree, an MA in London history, a PhD in the cultural history of an English Criminal, and qualifications in the teaching of adults. Currently Principal Librarian at Guildhall Library, he has for 20 years lectured on a broad range of topics including the history of English books, portraiture, and London history. Peter has appeared on TV and radio as a consultant on the 18th century criminal Jack Sheppard and on the history of English food. His most recent publication, The Curious Cookbook, was published by the British Library.

Sir Christopher Wren, polymath of his age, who knew many of the movers and shakers of his age, from Charles II to Isaac Newton, shows a remarkable range of mind. He was the right man, in the right place, at the right time. His productivity was vast, across many types of activity, especially in architecture.

The Great Fire of London of 1666 gave immense opportunities for Wren: 52 new City Churches, their varied forms, sources and considerations. Form and decoration for differing parishes and funds. 

St Paul’s Cathedral: Wren’s masterpiece but is it what it seems from the outside, inside and above? How did he solve architectural problems, find enough materials and manage a large workforce? How did he complete such an enormous building in his lifetime?

Click here for further details and booking form. You can print the form or, if you download or save it, you will be able to fill it in before forwarding it to Jenny Antill.

There will be 2 x one hour lectures with a 30 minute interval.  

The lectures will also be recorded and available to view until 23:59 on 10 November.

Price: £10 per household.  Non-members welcome.

Formerly Print Room Superintendent at the British Museum, now Art History Education Officer, Hilary Williams lectures for the British Museum, the Wallace Collection and the London Borough of Bexley.  She is founding Artistic Director of The Arts Society North Kent and is a guide to special interest private tours of Buckingham Palace's state apartments.

This Special Interest Morning has been organised by our sister society, South Suffolk.

Sarah Cove has been instrumental in the attribution of three significant Constable oils for BBC1’s Fake or Fortune? series, appearing in 2014 and 2017. In 2014 she set up a Facebook page that is hugely successful in raising awareness of her research so that now she is regularly contacted by people that think they have a found a previously unknown Constable!! Some have, some have not, as you will see in this lecture which gives a ‘behind the scenes’ look at how such decisions are made and will describe some extraordinary successes but also crashing disappointments. Stories will include, at opposite extremes, a hugely publicised oil sketch reputedly worth £250,000 that turned out to be a copy and the chance discovery of a fabulous, almost abstract, oil study of the 1830s that had formerly belonged to an American G.I.

Click here for further details and booking form. You can print the form or, if you download or save it, you will be able to fill it in by clicking on the pen nib symbol before forwarding it to Louise Pollock.

Sarah Cove is an accredited paintings conservator-restorer, technical art historian and lecturer with more than 35 years’ experience working on paintings for the heritage and private sectors. She is based in London and Falmouth and is a specialist in British portraits, 19th-20th century British landscapes and oil sketches on paper and board. In 1986 she founded the Constable Research Project and she is now the leading authority on Constable’s materials and techniques. She has appeared in several TV programmes for the BBC, notably Constable in Love with Andrew Graham-Dixon and twice on Fake or Fortune? where she was instrumental in the discovery of 3 ‘lost’ Constables. Other research interests include Tudor and Jacobean Portraiture, the 19th century Newlyn and St Ives schools and early-to-mid 20th century British painting generally. She has been a lecturer for The Arts Society since 2003 and is an experienced international speaker having lectured independently at major public and gallery venues across the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Her presentations are lively and enthusiastic as she speaks without notes with an inimitable passion that comes from presenting her own work and research with wonderful images.

During the 19th Century, many Central European countries were still under the control of the Habsburgs. In Vienna, art and culture were often the only ways in which the Empire’s constituent crown lands could express national identity. Gavin will examine two case studies: the Czech lands and Hungary, through the prism of their capital cities.   

The great artists, musicians and architects in these three centres included Klimp, Kokoschka, Loos, Hoffmann, Mahler, Mucha, Smetana, Dvorak and Bartok.  The morning will explore these exciting cultural revolutions.

Click here for booking details.

Gavin was born in Dundee in 1981. He studied music at Keble College, Oxford and began working at Covent Garden before working in the theatre industry.

Described by The Times as a ‘leading cultural historian’, Gavin Plumley is well known for his work on Central European music and culture during the 19th and 20th centuries.

You can find his writing in newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes around the world. He appears frequently on BBC radio. Gavin has been the English-language commissioning editor for the Salzburg Festival since 2013.

This Special Interest Morning has been organised by our sister society, South Suffolk.

Linda Smith will present two lectures giving an extensive account of British painting (with the occasional sculpture) from the Pre-Raphaelites through to the Post WWII period and to the present day.  

From Augustus Egg, through Whistler, Gwen and Augustus John, Hepworth, Moore, Spencer and Bacon, on to the explosion of Pop Art and Conceptualism in the 1960s and 70s, through to the 1980s and 90s, which gave us the notorious Sensation exhibition and the Turner Prize, and on to the present day. A tremendous tour de force.

The morning will be divided into two lectures, to be delivered via Zoom: 10:30 to 11:30 and 12:00 to 13:00 with a coffee break.

For booking details  click here

Linda Smith holds two first-class degrees in Art History, has a broad knowledge of art historical subjects, but specialises in British Art and twentieth century art. An experienced lecturer and guide, especially at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, She has lectured to a wide variety of audiences in different venues, including school and university students, and independent arts societies in the UK and overseas.

Edward Seago was one of the most popular and talented English landscape painters of the last century whose work was  notably collected by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Prince Philip, and other members of British royalty.  His annual post-war exhibitions were always a great success and quickly sold out, and his work is still widely sought after. 

Edward Seago (1910-1974) was born in Norwich. Aged seven, a heart complaint was diagnosed so, whilst bedridden for several years he took to painting scenes from his bedroom window to pass the time.  When aged 14, he won an award from the Royal Drawing Society and from then on knew what he wanted to do in spite of his parents' initial disapproval.

He studied briefly  with Sir Alfred Munnings, but was largely self-taught. During World War II, Seago was enlisted by the Royal Engineers to develop camouflage, as though he was unfit physically for serving as a soldier, his artistic talent offered other opportunities to aid in the war effort.

As a young man Seago had joined a circus in reaction to his childhood confinement. Travelling provided material for many early paintings, as well as two illustrated books.  His mature paintings seek to capture atmosphere through his impressionistic style rather than pure topography. His works are open and uncluttered, utilising the simplicity of composition and brushstroke for personal expression and conveying his emotional responses to nature.  Seago’s art is very much in the tradition of English landscape paintings, influenced by Alfred Munnings and Laura Knight, but forging a lineage back to Constable and even to Gainsborough. In turn Seago has been very influential upon a later generation of artists, particularly East Anglian painters.

James Russell explores some of his oil paintings and watercolours in detail, looking at his choice of subject, design and technique. 

Click here for booking details.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, from 10:30 - 1pm with a 30 minute coffee break at 11:30.  Bookings: £10 per email address.

James Russell

Having studied History at Pembroke College, Cambridge, James  enjoyed a lengthy stint selling contemporary paintings and sculpture in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an experience that inspired him to begin writing and lecturing on 20th century art.  Of his dozen or so books, one was a Sunday Times book of the year, while his writing has been described by critics as 'insightful', 'informative' and 'enjoyably readable'.  James has curated major exhibitions at Dulwich Picture Gallery and for museums around the country. He bases his lectures on wide-ranging original research into the subjects that fascinate him.

PLEASE NOTE:  THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED

David Rosier focuses on informal wear and on costume and dress accessories worn for formal occasions. In particular he looks at highly decorative clothing of high ranking ladies and considers the design of items such as robes, outerwear, headwear and ornamental accessories.

Click here for full details.

PLEASE NOTE:  THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Any cheques already received will be shredded.

Edward Seago was one of the most popular and talented English landscape painters of the last century whose work was  notably collected by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Prince Philip, and other members of British royalty.  His annual post-war exhibitions were always a great success and quickly sold out, and his work is still widely sought after. 

Edward Seago (1910-1974) was born in Norwich. Aged seven, a heart complaint was diagnosed so, whilst bedridden for several years he took to painting scenes from his bedroom window to pass the time.  When aged 14, he won an award from the Royal Drawing Society and from then on knew what he wanted to do in spite of his parents' initial disapproval.

He studied briefly  with Sir Alfred Munnings, but was largely self-taught. During World War II, Seago was enlisted by the Royal Engineers to develop camouflage, as though he was unfit physically for serving as a soldier, his artistic talent offered other opportunities to aid in the war effort.

As a young man Seago had joined a circus in reaction to his childhood confinement. Travelling provided material for many early paintings, as well as two illustrated books.  His mature paintings seek to capture atmosphere through his impressionistic style rather than pure topography. His works are open and uncluttered, utilising the simplicity of composition and brushstroke for personal expression and conveying his emotional responses to nature.  Seago’s art is very much in the tradition of English landscape paintings, influenced by Alfred Munnings and Laura Knight, but forging a lineage back to Constable and even to Gainsborough. In turn Seago has been very influential upon a later generation of artists, particularly East Anglian painters.

James Russell explores some of his oil paintings and watercolours in detail, looking at his choice of subject, design and technique. 

Click here for full details.

2 lectures within one Special Interest Morning:

1.  Cathedrals: Safe places to do risky things?

2.  How to pick a favourite church.

This event is organised by The Arts Society South Suffolk.  Click here for further details.

This is a follow-up lecture to the very successful event held in 2019. This event will cover the period of Strauss, Britten, Debussy and Shostakovich.

Simon Rees is known as a very entertaining and provocative presenter, as those who attended his last presentation will know.

Click here for full details and booking form

This event is organised by The Arts Society South Suffolk. 

According to Interpol, Art theft is estimated to account for between $4 billion to $6 billion worldwide and, as a criminal enterprise, is only exceeded by drug trafficking, money laundering and arms dealing in terms of dollar value.

Click here for full details and booking form

Tom Flynn teaches the MA module on the International Art Market at Richmond, the American International University in London. Until 2016 he was Senior Lecturer and programme director of the RICS-Accredited MA programme in Art Appraisal (Professional Practice) at Kingston University and a visiting lecturer on the International Art Market at the London-based IESA Masters course.

For the past six years Tom has also contributed to the Postgraduate Certificate in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection Studies run by ARCA, the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art in Amelia, Italy. A former fine art auctioneer and journalist, he holds an MA from the Royal College of Art/Victoria and Albert Museum Joint Course in Design History and completed his doctorate at the University of Sussex.

At the turn of the last century, Vienna was the capital of a vast empire and one of the most exciting artistic laboratories in the world. It produced painters such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka; architects like Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann; the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud; the composer Gustav Mahler; and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Looking at these and others figures in the context of the society in which they worked, this talk asks how and why the City of Dreams became a cultural hotbed around 1900. 

Gavin Plumley

Gavin is a writer and broadcaster who has appeared on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and contributed articles to The Independent on Sunday and The Guardian. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, including to the National Gallery, the British Museum, the V&A, the Southbank Centre, the Tate and the Neue Galerie, New York, as well as for history of art societies and The Art Fund. 

Click here for full details and booking form

Simon Rees

Studied at Colchester Royal Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving a BA and an MA in English Literature. Simon taught in Italy and Japan, exploring the art and architecture of both countries. From 1989 to 2012 he was Dramaturg at Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, working with set, costume and props designers and giving lectures on their work in opera production. Now a freelance writer and lecturer, Simon lectures widely on opera, art history and literature, travelling extensively with travel companies. He has published several novels, including the award-winning The Devil's Looking-Glass, poems and opera librettos.  

This event is organised by South Suffolk (the afternoon group).  Full details and application forms available by  clicking here.

The lectures includes a brief history of frames and focus on their design and construction. Julia also discusses the conservation of frames and how to choose the right one to transform a painting and display it to its best advantage. 

·        The History of Frames – including how frames have developed in Europe, influenced often by prevailing architectural styles.

·        The design and making of frames – an insight into their design & selection; gilding techniques over time, together with the materials used in the workshop.

Julia Korner

Julia is a specialist and lecturer in fine art conservation and the restoration of paintings, sculptures and frames. She acts as an advisor, valuer and exhibition curator for public and private collections. 

She spent 20 years working for Christie's as a paintings specialist where she built an extensive knowledge of old masters and British, European and American paintings from the 1700s onwards. She set up Christie's Maritime Department in 1987, followed by the Frame sales, the Aeronautical, Exploration and Travel and the Polar sales.

In 1997, Julia was elected Huntington Fellow of the Mariners' Museum, Newport New, Virginia, USA. A seven year commitment saw her catalogue this collection and that of the South Street Seaport Museum, New York.

Julia has worked independently in her own studio in West London for almost twenty years. Here, she and her small team give specialist conservation work personal and expert attention.

Click here for full details and booking form

Ian Pickford

Freeman of the Goldsmiths' Company, Freeman of the City of London. Lecturer at University of London, University of Surrey, V&A, National Trust and The Art Fund. Ian broadcasts on both television and radio and is the author of Jackson's Silver & Gold Marks.

Click here for full details and booking forms.s.

This wonderful river often referred to as ‘the river of light’ was a major influence on the development of Impressionism. Carole gives three lectures following the course of the river; a travelogue with the impressionists at its core. Starting at the estuary, as this is where it all began with open air painting, she moves on, tracking the rise to recognition of this new wave of artists, introducing little known facts about them and featuring their art and colourful exploits.

Carole Petipher

Carole is a guide and lecturer on combined history and art tours in France with over 10 years experience.  Life aboard river vessels on the Seine, Oise, Marne and Rhone offered her the chance to explore and further research, certain riverside locations linked to art which helped her develop her in-depth knowledge.

Click here for full details and booking form

Leslie Primo will explore why foreign artists such as Holbein, van Honthorst, Gheeraerts, van Dyke, Lely and Rubens, among many others, were preferred by the aristocracy to English painters, why they came, what impact they had on English art and art practise, and their legacy.

Click here for full details and booking form

Dr James Grant illustrates how artists as varied as Ghirlandaio, Holbein and Barbara Hepworth have depicted this diagnostic journey.  Through their ability to record faithfully many different pathologies and procedures in their art they allow the modern observer to understand better a complex process that we now take for granted.      

Click here for full details and booking form

A special interest morning: "Not Bloody Likely!"  The Covent Garden Piazza from Inigo Jones to Bernard Shaw and beyond. Daniel Snowman will take us on a tour of the buildings, events, characters and music of the first great square in London. The long list of characters will include Inigo Jones, Handel, Hogarth, Garrick, Voltaire, Dr Johnson, JMW Turner, the Artful Dodger and Eliza Doolittle (who may have influenced the title!).

Daniel Snowman is a writer, broadcaster and professional lecturer and author of a dozen books on social and cultural history. Recent books include 'The Hitler Emigrés: The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism' and 'The Gilded Stage: a Social History of Opera'. He has degrees from Cambridge and Cornell Universities and lectured at the University of Sussex, and later was Chief Producer, BBC Radio (Features). He is now a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. He leads frequent music tours to many of the world's great cultural capitals.

Click here for full details and booking form.

Jim Thompson arrived in Bangkok as an US Army Officer in 1945. Captivated by the lustrous beauty of Thai silk, he resurrected a declining ancient craft and made it famous throughout the world. He created costumes for shows such as The King and I. This lecture describes the heritage and culture around silk production and includes a short film.

Denise Heywood is an art historian, author, lecturer, photographer and journalist. She worked in Cambodia as a journalist for three years in the 1990s and has been a scholar of Southeast Asian art ever since.

Her books include one on the Buddhist temples of Laos, Ancient Luang Prabang, also in French, and another on Cambodian Dance Celebration of the Gods, with a foreword by Princess Buppha Devi, daughter of King Sihanouk.

Now based in London, she has lectured all over Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, South Africa and Europe at universities, colleges, schools, art institutions and travel organisations including the Royal Geographical Society, The British Museum, and The National Trust.

She writes for many art, literary and travel publications, has appeared on television and radio, leads art tours to Southeast Asia and Europe and lectures on cruise ships.

Click here for full details and booking form.

Since the C19 English high society had 'wintered over' on the Côte d'Azur, but always left by April.  In the early 1920's, however, an intoxicating mix of artists, writers, musicians and international visitors, inspired by a mythological seascape of luminous colours, created a new summer season.  Sun tans and sportswear soon became 'de rigueur' in the chic new coastal resorts, villas and hotels.  This liberating playground of ideas across the visual design arts was stimulated by impresarios Serge Diaghilev and Paul Poiret.  Traditional boundaries were torn down.  Matisse, Picasso, Dufy, Cocteau, and Chanel merged the worlds of fashion, theatre and interiors.  Cole Porter, Scott Fitzgerald, and the intriguing Gerald and Sara Murphy, introduced an American perspective and attracted an influential new set of discerning patrons and collectors.

Mary Alexander

Thirty years' experience as a lecturer, with a BA in History and History of Art and a MA with distinction in History of Art from University College London.  Experience includes public lectures in museums, tutoring for the Open University, visiting lecturer at Christie's Education in London, museum curator at Platt Hall, the Gallery of Costume, Manchester.  Now a freelance lecturer to various arts, heritage and antiquarian societies.  She also worked in Pentagram design consultancy in London and New York, organising conferences and special events.  Author of various articles on design and visual awareness issues, her background combines an unusual blend of academic and visual communications skills. Lectured for ADFAS Australia and New Zealand in 2011 and 2013.  Mary is an enthusiastic member and President of Glaven Valley DFAS.

Click here for full details and booking form.

Out of the Blue:  Have you ever wondered where the blue in medieval illuminated manuscripts came from, or how chemists of the nineteenth century invented synthetic blues?

The Ancient Britons tattooed their bodies in a blue dye and, two thousand years later in a Parisian art gallery, Yves Kline in a public performance painted his nude models blue and dragged them across his canvasses.

Why does the Virgin Mary wear blue and what is significant about the blue used by Gainsborough in his portrait The Blue Boy?  These are some of the questions that will be addressed.

The story of blue will take us from the lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan to the studios of Titian, Vermeer, Hokusai, Picasso and Matisse, to name but a few.  The spirituality of Blue led Kandinsky and Franz Marc to name their art movement The Blue Rider  in 1911.

As a professional artist herself, Alexandra pays special attention to the language of art within each painting: the structure, colour and tone.

Red Vibrations:  Colours are radiant energies that affect us positively and negatively, and red is the most forceful of all.  It is a very flexible colour, from demonic scarlet to angelic pink, from the wisdom of crimson to the extravagance of orange: its range of expression is extreme. Pure red is the colour of passion.  This is because of its association with blood and fire. When we fall in love our blood is on fire!  Like blood and fire, passion can be both creative and destructive.  Alexandra will look at the way artists have used red to express these opposing energies. Some artists use red for purely aesthetic reasons.  For example, landscape painters will often use a dab of scarlet on a figure’s clothing so that the figure will not get lost amidst all the greens and browns.  Other artists use red symbolically as in the paintings of Christ where he wears red to denote his sacrifice.  Generally the aesthetic effects of a picture are entwined with its meaning.  The history of red pigments is also explored in conjunction with the analysis of paintings formal qualities.  It is guaranteed that you will leave this lecture never seeing red in quite the same way again. 

Alexandra Drysdale

An art historian and a professional artist specialising in painting, sculpture and performance.  Her lectures combine art historical knowledge with personal expertise in aesthetics and artistic techniques.  Art from all periods, including examples of her own work, is examined from an artist's point of view.  This entails a perceptive analysis of a painting's structure, its meaning, and its relationship to the history of art.  She puts a particular emphasis on studying the symbolic language of the imagination.  BA (Hons) Fine Art from Chelsea School of Art and an MFA from Cambridge School of Art.

Click here for full details and booking form.

1st lecture: The Huguenots came to England in huge numbers in the late 17th century bringing a wide variety of skills - as silk weavers, silversmiths, clock makers, opticians, bankers, gilders, ironworkers, horticulturists etc.  Names such as Paul de Lamerie, Samuel Courtauld and Jean Tijou spring to mind.  In virtually all areas, they were innovators and more advanced than the English who were forced to improve their own skills or go out of business.  Although the majority settled in London, others found their way to East Anglia, Macclesfield and Canterbury.  This talk examines their lasting legacy. 

2nd lecture: Welcomed at first with open arms and bringing luxury skills, the Huguenots’ fortunes fluctuated wildly.  The talk will cover their early 18th-century houses that still stand, how they were decorated and lived in;  discuss the fashionable patterned silk dresses – who designed and made them.  And how, finally the trade died out, with some weavers literally dying in poverty at their looms.  One of the weavers’ houses can still be visited today. 

Sue Jackson

Originally in art and design publishing (Phaidon and Yale University Press), now lectures for the National Trust, U3A, City Literary Institute.  A qualified Blue Badge Guide, she gives guided walks on various themes and has published work on the lost world of the River Fleet.Fleet

Click here for full details and booking form.