Action! Abstract Paintings from the Swindon Collection 8th of February- 31st May

This exhibition opened on Saturday the 8th of February. Two postcards have been printed to help with advertising, if you can distribute any postcards, please go along to the Museum and Art Gallery when it's open, alternatively, Rose Earle's newsagents on Newport Street and the Plough on Devizes Road have stocks of them.
They are 'Action Painting' by George Melhuish:

and 'Girl Selling Flowers' by Desmond Morris.
 This is what Barry Leighton says about the painting:
'Girl Selling flowers is Morris' tribute to Diana Dors, especially with reference to the big red lips . "Those lips haunted me" Morris said when I spoke to him at the museum years ago. Know wot you mean Desmond!'

Looking forward to seeing the exhibition.

Talks and Trips for 2014

The talks will be held this year on the final Friday of the month, starting in March.
On the 28th of March, the first talk is by the renowned Bryn Walters talking about 'Lost Chalk Cut Hill Figures of Wanborough'. Obviously  I can't include one here, so I borrowed an image from Wikimedia of Uffington white horse:

 

Uffington White Horse. Image Wikimedia Commons

On 25th of April, we have Andy Binks talking about the Swindon Society, entitled

 'The Swindon Society, gone but not forgotten'.

The 30th of May talk will take place, but is still under discussion.

On the 27th of June, Mike Yates will talk about Ralph Bates.

We hope to have 3 trips this spring and summer,  with dates still to be confirmed:

• Marlborough College -March 21st
• Buscot House

There's Lots of Excitement at SM&AG

The Museum and Art Gallery was buzzing when I visited on Saturday, there was the merry sound of people looking at things, chatting and enjoying themselves. With a new hang due to open on Saturday the 8th of February, there's even more to look forward to. Here's a photo of the poster:

Sophie Cummings, curator of SM&AG said about the exhibition:

'To help wake the museum from a period of dormancy, I wanted to fill the gallery with colour, light and energy, and we shall be staging an exhibition entitled “Action”, featuring the non-representational works in the collection, starting on 8 February and running till the end of May. George Melhuish’s three abstract paintings were the inspiration for developing the exhibition; Melhuish and Stephen Buckley will be featured artists in a display that takes in Hilton, Cook, McLean, Hodgkin, Ayres and Fell.

Alongside these great works, we will also feature some recent acquisitions from our slowly developing collection of contemporary British painting. Visitors will be able to enjoy works by Andrew Crane (recently featured in exhibitions in Belgium and Switzerland) and Freya Purdue (who also has works in public collections in Rugby, Falmouth, Kendal and Suffolk).'

 Also there's a find the bicycle activity for children:

and Pick of the Month, last month it was teapots, this month it's skiing equipment:

Although not as comprehensively stocked as many museum shops, there are plenty of reasonably priced items for sale. I particularly like the long tongued creatures, my favourite being the snail.

More on Clifford Wight

In response to the excellent Mike Yates article on Clifford Wight. I've been reading the biography of Diego Rivera by Bertram D Wolfe.  When describing the mural at California School of Art, 'The Making of A Fresco', he points out that Rivera's assistants including Wight are depicted on the scaffold.
Wight, if the self portrait is anything to go by must be the one in the hat.

Paul Daw's Talk Revealed 6 Stone Circles in the Swindon area.

Paul Daw is an enthusiast, when he  found a passion for ancient stone circles, he began a quest to survey all 600 sites where they are found, so far he claims to have visited 500 sites. He surveys them by dowsing; to find the position of a missing socket where a stone was situated in a circle is indicated by the rods twitching when held over the exact spot where the stone was buried.
If you Google 'Paul Daw stone circles' you will find lots of information about his finds, methods, and the organisation he is setting up 'Stone Circle and Henge Trust'. Today there is an article in the Whitehaven News about him: http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/stone-me-it-s-britain-s-newest-stone-circle-1.1083957
Paul showed us lots of slides of stone circles, some with forts built around them, many with stones moved from their original positions, but I found the information about the Swindon stone circles was the most interesting, I knew there were 2 stone circles in Day House Lane shown on the map below:

 But to find out there was one bisected by the M4 just below Ladder Lane was fascinating. Paul Daw thinks the reason Stone Circles were built was so people could trade goods  and socialise with each other. This would make sense since this is a very old route from Marlborough to North Wilts.

 Chedworth Gate is built on another stone circle, remains of which can be seen there today:

There is another stone circle under Coate Water, and on the site of the play area as can just about be seen by this map of Swindon:

Here are the Grid References:

Thank you to Paul for your fascinating talk, and for allowing me to take photographs of your photos.

CLIFFORD WIGHT by Mike Yates

Clifford Wight, a painter and sculptor, is best known for being an assistant, secretary and translator to the well-known Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886 – 1957). Wight helped paint many of Rivera’s best-known murals, both in Mexico and in the USA. He is also known for his own mural work in the USA. But, very little is known about Wight himself and we are usually only told that he was “born in England in 1900” and that he “died in England in 1960, or 1966”. In fact, he was born in Swindon and this article will fully identify Wight. It will, for the first time, give the correct dates for both his birth and death and will also explain why Wight has not previously been correctly identified

To read more go to the Clifford Wight page on the right

Journal Winter 2013

New to the blog is a chance to read the Friends of Swindon Museum Journal online.  To do this go to the pages section on the right and read on.

Sylvia Gosse in The Obstacle Race

The Printer by Sylvia Gosse

Many people admire this painting above all others in the Swindon collection and I was interested to find it in Germaine Greer's book "The Obstacle Race'. An interesting read that many might find dated seeing that woman artists are more widely represented in galleries and the media.  Although opportunities have increased and we do see more high profile women in the arts it is surprising that there are not more when you visit art schools and galleries around the country to find that the male to female ratio not over weighted with men.

A Talk by Paul Daw on the Neolithic StoneCircles and Henges of Wiltshire 20th January at 7pm at the Sun Inn

This looks interesting, it isn't a Friends talk, but wanted to help publicise it.

Neolithic and BA Stone Circles and Henges of Wiltshire - talk by Paul Daw

A talk on the Neolithic and Bronze Age Stone Circles and Henges of Wiltshire will be given by Paul M Daw at the Sun Inn, near Coate Country Park, Swindon
Admission: free
Cambridge historian Paul Daw has been researching and visiting over 500 stone circles and henges in England over the past 15 years. As a professional surveyor, he has been recording and drawing plans of these sites, and gives talks all over the country on this part of our history which is unique to British culture. In January 2013 he became the Secretary & Treasurer of the Stone Circles and Henge Trust. The talk will cover all the stone circles and henges in Wiltshire with an emphasis on stone circle sites in Swindon, many of which have been destroyed. Prior to the talk there will be an exhibition of the sites in Wilts.

Journal Covers No. 1

When we reintroduced a Journal in the early 2000's it was decided a cover would be a good idea.  Looking through my computer files I found a folder of old covers and thought a feature of them on the blog would be a good idea. This is the first entry, as I add the covers each will be placed in the pages section to the right so you can get to see them all as they are gradually added.

The earliest Journal cover (c. 2002) I could find although I am convinced there are some earlier ones.  Not sure what the theme was here but it seems to be about accessibility by showing a small child being engulfed and bewildered with the many different subject headings which are all linked and would probably be easier to understand if exhibited that way.  He appears to be wearing a Nike T-Shirt.