To coincide with the exhibition “Eric Ravilious – Downland Man” at the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes (25 Sep 2021 - 30 Jan 2022).

Eric Ravilious was only 39 when he died on active service as a war artist in 1942, yet he had already achieved amazing things. A brilliant wood engraver and designer, he is best known today for his haunting watercolours in which lighthouses, white horses, empty rooms and downland paths become marvels. Over the past decade James Russell has explored many of these paintings in depth, teasing out stories and characters hidden in the wings. This entertaining illustrated talk illuminates the life and work of a playful, enigmatic artist, with plentiful examples of his work in watercolour, wood engraving, lithography and ceramics. The paintings are a delight, the Ravilious story funny, sad and full of surprises.

In the context of our World War centenaries, anniversaries and the current debate about statues and monuments, the subject of this talk is hugely relevant. In this country, relatively little is known about Germany’s complex post-WW2 process of ‘coming to terms with’ the atrocities of its recent past and the counter memorial movement that started in the eighties and continues to this day.

Germany’s very specific situation rendered all traditional concepts of monuments and memorials irrelevant and inappropriate. Instead of commemorating their own losses, German artists created art forms that responded to questions of apology and atonement: How does a nation of former persecutors mourn its victims? How do you remember what you would rather forget?

American pioneers in glass technology from the late 19th century onwards provided much of the innovative tradition that was to bring about the birth of the Studio Glass Movement in the USA in the 1960s. Glass manufacturers such as Louis Tiffany developed new blown shapes and technologies to create new surface effects and an appearance of movement in glass that was to be continued in the work of studio glass makers such as Dale Chihuly, who became one of the foremost American studio glass artists and popularised the medium throughout the world.

Dale Chihuly is still the name that comes to mind in the context of studio glass making and in this talk his work is considered in some detail in terms of individual works and large scale exhibitions such as that in Kew Gardens, England, in 2005.

Markets come and go, rise and fall and sometimes disappear altogether. Today we are in a world of ‘downsizing’, ‘decluttering’ and minimalism, gone are the days of high demand and eager buyers furnishing with antiques and dealers filling container load after container load of furniture to send around the world.  This talk will examine the changes in the market in recent times and explain why ‘no one wants to buy your wardrobe’. Why are our ancestors’ prized possessions, items that they cherished and valued, now so unloved by this generation?

Grant Ford will discuss some of the great pictures he has handled during his extensive career in the art world, from incredible masterpieces by the Pre-Raphaelites to Lord Leighton and Modern British works. Why did certain works fall out of fashion at a certain point in time, only to spring back and set new world records many decades later? He will explain changes in the market place and his experiences with sellers and buyers. This talk will be focused on the international art market, but will specifically look at some of the great British artists and their work within the global art market arena.

2021 promises to delight enthusiasts with an exhibition at the V&A dedicated to the legendary St Petersburg jewellers. Our lecture about the House of Fabergé’s British enterprise will dovetail with objects on view at the 'Fabergé in London' exhibition at the V&A Museum from November 2021 to May 2022. 

The firm’s Russian sales ledgers disappeared but those of the London branch, opened in 1903, document royal patronage and a ‘Who’s Who’ guide of Edwardian prosperity.   American heiresses and other prominent visitors flocked to the London salerooms while the branch supplied periodic trunk shows to delight buyers on the Continent and as far as Siam and India.  The role of the London business cannot be overstated and provides us, today, with insight into a society that was forever altered by the world events that followed.

The work of Nicholas Poussin became the cornerstone of the French classical tradition. This lecture will look at the ways in which Poussin was in fact highly original, with early works that were dramatic and highly idiosyncratic. It will look at some of the ideas underlying his work, examining how it compares with that of his contemporaries, and how his mature works reflect a new and coherent philosophy of art.

It will consider the fact that Poussin was a thoughtful, private person who resisted attempts by the French court to lure him into the art establishment – and how his work would one day influence radical, anti-establishment artists such as Cézanne and Picasso.

This lecture celebrates the discovery 100 years ago of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter in 1922, arguably the greatest archaeological discovery of the twentieth century. The name of this boy-king conjures up wonderful imagery and mysterious tales of the pharaohs. This lecture explores this unusual tomb and its iconic treasures; examines the design and decoration of the most famous tomb in the Valley of the Kings. It discusses Carter’s discovery of the tomb, and explores what happened to the incredible wealth of funerary goods found inside, looking at these fabulous treasures, from Tutankhamun’s golden shrines to his ornate board games.

When Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1953, she inherited a collection of paintings that rival any collection in the world. The Royal Collection of Art contains paintings from the Early Renaissance period to the Victorian era and beyond and is an important reflection of both the taste of the Monarch and of the social and economic thinking of the country at the time. There are fewer than 2,700 pictures hanging in the National Gallery in London – there are more than 7,000 paintings in the Royal Collection. 

This lecture topic is light and humorous in spirit but is serious at its heart. It is dedicated to an everyday root vegetable whose ancestors and cousins probably grew wild in Persia and Central Asia and travelled westwards - alongside more durable and costly commodities - on The Silk Road.

Carrots feature as meticulously painted meditations on nature in Spanish still-life paintings. A fanciful legend maintains that 17th Century Dutch horticulturalists bred sweet varieties of orange carrots in support of the ruling House of Orange. This humble and ephemeral vegetable emerges from the shadows, gleaming in brilliant colour as a symbol of abundance, quiet domesticity or as a code for seduction.

Sad to say that this visit has had to be cancelled as there were not enought takers.

Following on from our popular and extremely enjoyable visit to Roche Court Sculpture Trail last year we have booked a visit to Fresh Air Sculpture held at the beautiful organic Old Rectory Garden in the picturesque Cotswold village of Quenington.
Arriving by coach in the early afternoon we will start our visit with a guided tour of the sculptures which range from traditional to cutting edge modern.
We will then have time to visit the extensive gardens which offer vast lawns joined by a bridge over the river Coln, hidden walkways through trees, pergolas and around tennis courts with beautiful flower beds and vegetable plots and large impressive green houses.
There will be a refreshment tent for your afternoon cup of tea (at own expense) and a shop where you may browse and buy gifts from a range of delightful handmade crafts.
Please put the date in your diary.
The cost will be £30 for members and £33 for guests. Be warned, we are limited to only 25 places.

Booking is now open. Please fill in the booking form below and send to Linda Cassidy as per the form.

Fresh Air Sculpture Booking Form

On 3rd August 2022 the Arts Society went on its first post-Covid trip to the delightful Elizabethan Breamore House set in the Hampshire countryside outside Fordingbridge. The House was built in 1583 by William Doddington, auditor to the Tower Mint.

Splitting into two groups we were given guided tours of the House which features wonderful art work and furniture but the most interesting aspect was that the house has been in the ownership of the Hulse family since 1748 and is still, undeniably, a family home with family photographs all around. Michael Hulse himself showed one group around but the second group was also admirably looked after; so many interesting details about both the House, its contents and its owners were forthcoming that our hour-long tour lasted for an extra thirty minutes to the delight of all.

We then moved to the museum, stuffed so full of agricultural machinery and every conceivable household item from bygone days, that we could easily have spent the whole afternoon there.

Refreshed by tea and scrumptious home-made cake we just managed time to visit the beautiful Saxon church in the grounds of the house.

Our first post-Covid trip and a most enjoyable one.

Please see the photos in the Photo Gallery section, though sadly no photos were allowed inside the house itself.

Three lectures to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The Study Day will be held on Wednesday 23rd March 2022 in The Devizes Conservative Club, with the first lecture starting at 10 am.

Click here for the Details and Booking Form. To reserve a place, print the form, fill it in and send to Alice Boyd as detailed on the form. Send payment preferably by BACS, or by cheque, as detailed on the form.

The lectures comprise :

Creating Windsor Castle : A Step-by-Step Guide.
Windsor is amongst the most prominent of national landmarks, but it presents a complicated picture. Jonathan breaks down the evolution of the castle into seminal moments, explaining the context and purpose of each change from William the Conqueror's mound to the nineteenth-century transformation as a picturesque composition under George IV - with a special insight into its current care as a conclusion.

Tudor Hampton Court.
Hampton Court is one of our most familiar historic sites, routinely associated with Henry VIII. But what were its origins? What does Cardinal Wolsey's magnificent building work tell us about England's relationship with Europe at the turn of the sixteenth century, and how did Henry obscure Wolsey's name and reputation? Finally, what do the diaries of visitors to the palace tell us about the palace Elizabeth I inherited?

Henry VII and Elizabeth Of York’s Marriage Bed.
In 2010, the elaborately carved, incomplete oak bed frame was removed from the honeymoon suite of a hotel in Chester, to be auctioned as a Victorian relic. Jonathan has spent six years studying and attributing it, now featured in press around the world. Featuring five royal arms, six single roses, and deeply esoteric symbols of fertility, it turns out to be covered in medieval paintwork, and its proportions respect the mural of the lost Painted Chamber of royal Westminster Palace abandoned in 1512. Scientific analyses, documentation and art history agree to demonstrate it is an astonishing national treasure: the marriage bed of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, made by 18 January 1486.

Click here for the Details and Booking Form.To reserve a place, print the form, fill it in and send to Alice Boyd along with payment, as detailed on the form.

At last a real exhibition is back - starting in Marlborough on Saturday 21st August and on for a whole week - The Wiltshire Artists Annual Exhibition.
In St Peter's Church, Marlborough from 10 am every day from Saturday 21st August up to and including Saturday 28th August.
Over 100 artworks, and good coffee and cake in the cafe in the church too!

This illustrated talk is presented in the Cheese Hall, Devizes Town Hall as part of the Devizes Food Festival. 10.30 on Thursday 30th September, price £10.

Food in Art? Join leading art historian Clare Ford-Wille for an illustrated talk on the representations of food in painting from Roman antiquity to the banquets of the Renaissance. An exciting journey through the symbolism and portrayals of all things edible in centuries of art.

Coffee and homemade cakes included.

Our Christmas Lunch will take place on Tuesday 7th of December at 12 noon for 12.30pm in The Town Hall. A local choir will provide musical entertainment. There will be a bar to purchase additional drinks. Tickets are £32 each for a three course lunch with a glass of wine or soft drink plus coffee and mince pies.

Click below to view or download details of the menu and the booking form.

Christmas Lunch Flyer   Download

Booking for this event closes on Wednesday 17th November.

High quality Shakespeare performed in a beautiful country garden, with covered seating.
July 4th - 9th, 2022
At Cleeve House, Seend, Wiltshire, SN12 6PG