Upcoming Exhibition For ROI Vice President Ian Cryer

ROI Vice President Ian Cryer is currently engaged in Painting a series of paintings for an one man exhibition entitled "A year On Exmoor" . The exhibition which runs from May 6th to 1st of June 2013 at the Churchgate Gallery, Porlock, West Somerset. The show will feature more than 60  oil paintings  reflecting the life and landscape of this beautiful part of Somerset. This show follows a similar exhibition in 2001 called "A Year in West Somerset" at the Lynda Cotton Gallery, Watchet.

Ian Cryer said "I love a big challenge or theme to work on, it really focuses my energies and I am finding no shortage of idea's and inspiration on the moors and in the sheltered villages of West Somerset. "

Powerful Exhibition for Naomi Alexander ROI

 

After 6 months at The Museum of Florida, Naomi's exhibition, Once Upon a Time in Lithuania, has come to an end. It was not a selling exhibition but it has become political due to its subject of Jewish homes and killing fields of Lithuania.

 

Naomi writes: " I have been caught up in two different histories...one is rewriting history...in Lithuania. It became very unpleasant for me....and I will not go into details. It is next to be seen at the Shipley Art Gallery and Museum , Gateshead , in June 2013, and no doubt will carry on because of its nature!

 

"It has previously been shown in Leicester University, Lithuanian Embassy, London Jewish Cultural Centre and The Vilna Gaon State Museum in Lithuania, where I informed the American Ambassador ( for two hours) and the British Ambassador of the situation of Jews  before the Holocaust in Lithuania. It became a big event as I was also on state TV and radio. I am now preparing for a new residency....Art Deco in Miami in conjunction with UNESCO World Heritage City,Tel Aviv, Modernism and Bauhaus. "

 

 

Naomi's book Once Upon A Tim in Lithuania, published by David Paul books is available on Amazon via this link:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Once-Upon-Lithuania-Naomi-Alexander/dp/0954848217/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350382013&sr=8-1

You can see more of Naomi's work on her web site: http://www.naomialexander.com/

 

ROI Masterclass Event

Yesterday more than 50 people attmeded the annual ROI masterclass event held at the Picturecraft Gallery in Holt North Norfolk. There were splendid demonstrations by ROI members David Curtis and Roger Dellar and the gallery also hosted a small exhibition of ROI members work, Here are some pictures from the day.

Inspiring Film

Provisional ROI member Adebanji Alade is featured in a new 9 minute documentary on his life as a compulsive sketcher. It's a great film which you can view below.

Tim Benson at Kensington Gore Art Fair

Tim Benson ROI will be exhibiting a number of small paintings at the 20/21 Art Fair in Kensington Gore with Panter and Hall Gallery from Thursday 13th until Sunday 16th September. For more details please click on the following link. http://www.britishartfair.co.uk/

Last Chance for Tickets For ROI Masterclass

Sales for the forthcoming Masterclass at Picturecraft in Holt, Norfolk, have been selling well but there are still some seats available. This is a wonderful opportunity to watch two of the master demonstrators of the R.O.I. David Curtis and Roger Dellar paint for the day on Sunday Sept 30

Last years Masterclass was a great success and many were sorry to have missed it.

The tickets include both demonstrations, a grand picnic lunch, free draw for a painting, a fully stocked Art shop with discounts on materials.

So now is your chance to grab the last of the tickets by telephoning Picturecraft on 01263 711040 today to get full information of the day and book your place.”

New Book On Oldest ROI Member

A new book on the artist Cavendish Morton - 101 not out - is to be published on July 29. Written by Bella Janson it is an account of many converstaion she has had with the great man who was made a Senior Honoray Member  of the ROI. Here's some more imformation from ther author:

Conversations with CAVENDISH MORTON offers a rare opportunity to glimpse into the changing

cultural life of Britain over the last century through the eyes and lively recollections of an artist whose life

spans those one hundred years.

Born in 1911, Cavendish Morton has been well known as a painter, designer, teacher and tireless

 

promoter of twentieth-century art. This book about his life and work is based on conversations between

the artist and Bella Janson, with dialogue exploring Morton’s early years, his work in East Anglia, along

with his subtle and atmospheric scenes of the Solent familiar to so many on the Isle of Wight, where he

now lives. Morton’s conversations are peppered with fascinating anecdotes, his keen mind and

wonderful memory never failing to enchant.

Also included is a selection of over 170 colour images illustrating his life and representing some of his

best work in all genres.

Snapshots from his remarkable life

His parents provided a scientific and creative home education. His father, Cavendish Morton,

was a photographer who specialised in theatrical and society portraits (many of which are held at

the National Portrait Gallery), while his mother Joan was a novelist who wrote under the name

 

of Concordia Merrel. She was immortalised in 1910 as the Kodak Girl, when the poster was

basrd on one of these photographs

Being taught the drums by Buddy Gilmore of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra which came

over from America in the early 1920s.

 At the age of fifteen, along with his twin brother, being hired out to help build a fishing boat on
the sands of St Ives during the year of the Great Strike;

At eighteen having his picture of Sir Thomas Lipton’s J Class yacht Shamrock V accepted by the

Royal Academy for its Summer Exhibition

Documenting the race for speed in the skies and becoming friends with those airmen who went

on to win the Schneider Trophy over the Solent in 1931;

Producing illustrations of ships at Portsmouth Naval Dockyard and planes for aircraft

manufacturing companies before World War II;

Involvement with the Norwich Twenty Group with Jeffery Camp and Mary Newcomb among

others to promote the appreciation of contemporary art in East Anglia;

Working for Sphere magazine as an industrial artist;

Chairing of Gainsborough’s House Society during a crucial phase of its development;

Painting the construction of Benjamin Britten’s brainchild, the concert hall at Snape Maltings

near Aldeburgh , painstakingly recording its destruction by fire in 1969 as well as its rebirth from

the ashes.

At the usual age of retirement kindling another painting career on the Isle of Wight until

blindness settled over him at the age of ninety-two.

Morton’s work as an artist never stood still and the pictures in this book form the backdrop to a life well

lived. Bella Janson was drawn in by his stories and zest for life when still a teenager. Her career as an

independent film-maker, photographer and writer has centred on telling the stories of people and places.

Over the years she has produced shows for the National Trust, the Natural History Museum, English

Heritage, Zoological Society of London and the Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre. In 2008 she started

recording her conversations with Cavendish Morton and working with his family to produce this enjoyable

record of one man’s journey through life as an artist.

More information here: •  bella@bellajanson.co.uk  •  http://www.bellajanson.co.uk