Landscapes of Thomas Hardy's Wessex opens tomorrow

Landscapes of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex: Works by Dave Gunning, David Inshaw and Rob Pountney

Venue: Small Exhibition Gallery / Salisbury & South Wiltshire MuseumDate: 14 Jan 2012 - 14 Apr 2012
Time: 10:00 - 11:30 

A collaboration between three artists who have depicted the dramatic landscapes and ancient archaeological sites of Hardy’s Wessex landscape.   Key works were specifically selected by the artists to show their varied and eclectic response to the places in Wiltshire that Hardy wrote about.  Ranging from compressed charcoal drawings, prints, steel etchings and oil paintings, the work of Dave Gunning, David Inshaw and Rob Pountney is displayed in the Museum’s upstairs gallery.  

By personally selecting a small number of key pieces from their huge bodies of work, these artists give a unique glimpse into their own reactions to their art.  They are showing what they consider to be their most revealing and emotional responses to a landscape they have got to know intimately, both through Hardy and through their own experience of it.

Lecture on the Saxons of Wessex in Shaftesbury

Saxons in Wessex - Tuesday 7th February 2012 - Adrian Green

Lecture organised by the Shaftesbury & District Historical Society
Venue: Anna McDowell Garden Room, Gold Hill Museum, Shaftesbury

Time: 2.30pm

Tickets: £2.50. Shaftesbury & District Historical Society members free.

Last chance to see 'Art in the Shadow of the Chase' at the Dorchester Museum...but the exhibition is moving to Salisbury in May if you miss it

'Art in the Shadow of the Chase' is a free exhibition opening at Dorset County Museum, Dorchester on the 22nd October. Focusing on artists who have been inspired by the Cranborne Chase. The exhibition runs until 21st January 2012

"Cranborne: Art in the shadow of the Chase" is a ground-breaking exhibition about the artists who over the last hundred years have found in Cranborne Chase and its hinterland a landscape of ‘bare bone’ beauty and retreat.

The paintings, drawings, sculpture and other artwork  in the exhibition have come from a variety of sources, and range from early neo-romantic work of the 1920s to contemporary work specially made for this exhibition. The list of artists is extensive and includes painters: John Craxton, members of the Nicholson family (Winifred, Ben, E.Q., Tim), Lucian Freud, Derek Hill, Augustus John, Henry Lamb, Katharine Church (Kitty West),  Frances Hodgkins, Nora, Amy and Gabriel Summers, James Allardyce, Peggy Rankin, Christopher Row, Mavis Freer, Ursula Leach, Brian Graham, John Hubbard, Paul Jones, Howard Pearce and John Hitchens. There is also sculpture by Elisabeth Frink, Peter Thursby, Ian Middleton and Ann Catherine Row; pottery by Richard Batterham, Chris Carter, Lucy Yarwood and Leonie Summers; glass by Joseph A. Nuttgens and  textile rugs by Louisa Creed and Rod Hill.

In spite of all the changes which have occurred in the last hundred years with increasing urbanisation of the countryside, the Chase has remained topographically intact. It is still a breath taking landscape, an area of outstanding beauty, sparsely populated with large estates small hamlets and villages. It remains an ‘island’, a place apart, and it is this isolation, along with its unique landscape which continues to attract artists today. Like threads of  a mycelium there continues to be  connections between places, painters and their art. Pulling together the work of artists from the recent past and some of those working today, the exhibition will affirm the special qualities of Cranborne Chase and its hinterland and demonstrate that it retains the power to inspire artistic creativity and new progressive art. 

The exhibition is to be accompanied by a richly-illustrated publication Circles and Tangents :  Art in the shadow of Cranborne Chase, _written by curator, author and artist Vivienne Light FRSA.

Exhibition on Thomas Hardy's Wessex opens in January in Salisbury Museum

Landscapes of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex: Works by Dave Gunning, David Inshaw and Rob Pountney

Venue: Small Exhibition Gallery / Salisbury & South Wiltshire MuseumDate: 14 Jan 2012 - 14 Apr 2012
Time: 10:00 - 11:30 

A collaboration between three artists who have depicted the dramatic landscapes and ancient archaeological sites of Hardy’s Wessex landscape.   Key works were specifically selected by the artists to show their varied and eclectic response to the places in Wiltshire that Hardy wrote about.  Ranging from compressed charcoal drawings, prints, steel etchings and oil paintings, the work of Dave Gunning, David Inshaw and Rob Pountney is displayed in the Museum’s upstairs gallery.  

By personally selecting a small number of key pieces from their huge bodies of work, these artists give a unique glimpse into their own reactions to their art.  They are showing what they consider to be their most revealing and emotional responses to a landscape they have got to know intimately, both through Hardy and through their own experience of it.

See the AONB exhibition on the Medieval Chase this Saturday in Tisbury

This Saturday, 3rd December, the AONB team will be taking part in Tis The Season 3pm to 7pm on Tisbury High Street. The event will feature the normal festive cheer such as carol singers and santas grotto. The AONB team will also be attendance with our trailer featuring an exhibition on the Medieval Chase and a photographic exhibition in the Hinton Hall celebrating our 30th Anniversary.

Hope to see you there

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Dororthy Treasure of the Wiltshire Buildings Record describes a little historic cottage in Ansty on the WSHC Blog

This month the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre blog describes historial research into a charming cottage in the Village of Ansty, Wiltshire.

http://www.wshc.eu/blog/a-little-cottage-in-ansty.html

Shaftesbury Historical Society Lecture 030112 The Early History of Norrington Manor

The Early History of Norrington Manor by Betty Trehair

Tuesday 3rd January 2012

Lecture organised by the Shaftesbury & District Historical Society
Venue: Anna McDowell Garden Room, Gold Hill Museum, Shaftesbury
Time: 2.30pm
Tickets: £2.50. Shaftesbury & District Historical Society members free.
Further Information: Tel: 01747 852157 or email Gold Hill Museum