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

Shaftesbury Historical Society Lecture 061211 North Dorset Mills

Lecture on North Dorset Mills by Peter Stanier

Tuesday 6th December 2011Gold Hill Museum

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

The historic garden at Stourhead is famous for its autumn colour but there is plenty going on at Christmas too - so why not check it out

Stourhead is a magical at Stourhead, an eminent example of a landscape created by amateurs, its success due in part to the masterly siting of buildings round the lake, visible singularly or in combination from different points along the circuit walks. The grounds of Stourhead are second only to Stowe in completeness and extent of picturesque layout and furnishings. The garden was created from 1741 onwards, principally by Henry Hoare II and his grandson Sir Richard Colt Hoare

Christmas events include Beauty and the Beast presented by Joe Gladwin's Paperplays Puppet Theatre  with settings inspired by Stourhead Gardens this promises to be a magical experience ... in miniature! 4th December 2011. More Information: Stourhead Estate Office, 01747 841152, stourhead@nationaltrust.org.uk

Find out more about the latest news from the gardens by visiting the Stourhead Blog or the National Trust webpage

Find out more about historic parks and gardens in the AONB by visiting the Historic Landscape Blog

Art Exhibition at Devizes Museum - The Past is Another Country

Winter Exhibition at the Devizes Museum

The Past is Another Country: an Exhibition by the Elementals Art Group

Artwork inspired by the pre-history of Wiltshire.

The Elementals art group brings together the ideas and inspirations of six different artists under a central theme - Jenny Ford, Jan Knight, Julia Leyden, Christine Shorney, Josephine Sumner, plus guest artist Charlotte Sainsbury. Julia Leyden particularly has been inspired by the collections at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum. The project has been as much about the process of an idea, as the finished works of art.

The group studied archival maps and diagrams, artefacts in museums and photographic aerial views of the landscape - and walked and looked, and looked and walked! Rather than recreating the past they have distilled their own personal and emotional responses to the creations of the Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples of Wessex. Inevitably this involved straying outside Wiltshire to look at and compare sites and artefacts from other places.

Each artist has an individual ‘take’ on the project and this is reflected in the finished works themselves; which includes paintings, printmaking and mixed media, plus a twelve verse illustrated poem in book form and as a wall hanging. Exhibition will be on show in the Museum's Art Gallery from 5 November 2011 to 2 January 2012 at 41 Long Street, Devizes, Wiltshire. SN10 1NS