THE  ABERDYFI ARTIST

It is a year since last I wrote a news-letter. The muse was not upon me in October and there seemed to be very little to report. I am searching now for inspiration. There has of course, been the AGM which I will cover in due course, but I always like to offer a little in the way of an hors d’oeuvre. I have a cutting which I kept from a newspaper in January. The writer was talking in a con-descending way about the art exhibited in certain areas of London on Sundays, I suppose like the displays on the banks of the Seine in Paris. He produced the remarkable sentence “The hierarchy of composition is overturned by fetishising the peripheral”. I have pondered over this at length and just when I begin to think I am getting towards what he means, I lose it again. In the end I have concluded that he has used a device such as one I enjoyed playing with at work. It comprised three columns each of ten unrelated words. The idea was to pick a three figure number, say 195 and take word one from column one, word nine from column two, word five from column three. The resulting phrase was meaningless but impressive when applied to a sentence. Our man has here split his words, but they can be linked  as, say, “The peripheral fetishising hierarchy” and perhaps then be applied to Britart as opposed to the street art he was talking about. Britart is peripheral to most of the population of the country, but seems to have a fetishising appeal to the hierarchy who set themselves up as arbiters of taste. All this is playing with words which is what my work device was about. I am sure that in this instance playing with paint is far more worthwhile so I will now shut up on the subject before they come to take me away! Let’s get down to Society affairs and that Annual General Meeting. The idea of holding it at the Yacht Club on a painting day seemed to meet with approval as we had a much higher attendance than of late, twentyone members were present.

In his address, Peter Coldham paid tribute to three stalwarts who had sadly passed away in the previous twelve months, Jack Harbottle, Teddy Kilner, and Helen Pierce. All had been keen, hard-working members and their loss was hard to measure. He talked of last year’s successful exhibition but said that we would need more entries this year as there would be more hanging space. We are hoping that new screens, to be purchased by Neuadd Dyfi, will be available for use. There had been good painting days with some excellent tutors, but we still suffered from a low attendance generally at all painting days. He said that with the best facilities in the Dyfi basin we needed more active interest in the activities of the Society and urged all members to pass on to friends the benefits of being in the Society. Stewart Carmichael was thanked for his excellent work as Treasurer over the past 14 years and was presented with a token of our appreciation both for all his work and for him and Sheila putting up with Committee meetings at their house. Jean Barratt was thanked for arranging the programme of events for the past few years. All other members of the Committee were thanked for keeping the Society running well. The proposed Constitution was accepted without dissent, this should now allow us to seek grant aid from the Arts Council towards the running costs of the annual exhibition. Vic Gowers kindly volunteered to print the Membership Cards, and a fine job he has made of them. Membership fee for this year remains at £8, but it was agreed that from 1 January 2005 it should rise to £10.

The officers and Committee elected for the year are:-

President                   Kay Morris

Chairman                  Peter Coldham

Vice Chairman         Jean Barratt

Secretary                   Bev Barratt

Treasurer                   John Hoyle

Programme Secretary         Doris Southgate

Committee members         

Peter Bartholomew

Stewart Carmichael

Ann Coldham

Doreen Greenaway

Special thanks are due to John and Doreen for volunteering to fill two important posts.

Next year’s AGM will be at the Yacht Club at 10.30am on Tuesday 15 March.

Summer Programme

Doris has prepared a programme for the summer months, copy enclosed herewith.

The dates of the exhibition are:-

Saturday 24 July      Pictures in

Sunday 25                Official Opening

Monday 26 until       Open to public

Sunday 8 August     Close & Pictures

                                    Collected

Membership fees for 2004

At the time of writing 42 members have renewed their subscription for this year. They should find a membership card enclosed herewith. Those who have perhaps forgotten will find instead a reminder in the shape of a renewal form. I look forward to hearing from them soon.

Painting Holiday at Bala

Robert May is running a painting holiday at Bala Lake Hotel from 20^th to 23^rd September this year. For details, please ring Robert. The Hotel is on the south side of the Lake, overlooking the water across some fine sloping lawns and offers good accommodation.

The Annual Luncheon has been and gone. About twentyeight of us enjoyed a very pleasant meal at Penmaendyfi, and excellent venue with splendid views down the Dyfi Estuary from the dining room. I enjoyed it so much I am thinking that we ought to replace the Autumn Buffet Supper, which has falling interest, with an Autumn Luncheon. Does anyone agree?

Details of the Exhibition, with entry forms, should be my next communication to all members sometime in late May/early June.

I enclose the first of a series of papers Kindly compiled by Vic Gowers which he thought might be of use to some members. This on is about ‘Reflections’.

More will follow with future issues. Thanks Vic.

Until then best wishes to you all and I hope you have a pleasant and productive Spring.

Bev Barratt

Gellygen Fach

Pantperthog

Machynlleth

SY20 9AY    

31 March 2004.

Last modified: 09/29/05