The Culture of Ukraine with Rosamund Bartlett – Thursday 2nd November 2023
Despite Storm Ciaran, Rosamund Bartlett braved the weather and disrupted travel conditions to travel from Oxford to Grayshott Village Hall arriving just a few minutes late to give her lecture - and what a fascinating lecture it was. An expert on Russia and Ukraine, Rosamund, lecturer, author, translator and researcher, traced the development of Ukraine’s multi ethnic and multi faith history and culture from the ...
“Creating an Imaginary World – Theatre Design From Temple to Playhouse, Into the Picture Frame and Out Again” with Bertie Pearce – Thursday 5th October 2023
We were able to welcome back Bertie Pearce, but this time not on Zoom, and once again he kept the audience entranced with his dynamic personality and inspiring lecture, not to mention a lot of laughter. Bertie has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University and a Diploma Internationale from the ‘Ecole Internationale du Theatre, Jacques Lecoq. He is also a member of the ...
Monochrome to Polychrome – How colour transformed the Art of Garden design
On Tuesday 17th October the Arts Society Grayshott was pleased to welcome Timothy Walker, retired director of the Oxford Botanical Gardens, for our Special Interest Day: ‘From Monochrome to Polychrome - How Colour Transformed the Art of Garden Design’. Some of the earliest gardens were those in monasteries which were planted to provide herbal remedies. By the 15th/ 16th centuries when fortified dwellings began to ...
The History Of Opera
Jamie Hayes started his most interesting lecture on the History of Opera by quoting W.H. Auden ‘No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.’ Opera seems to have been started by a group of ‘Nerds’ artists, statesmen, and musicians living in Florence around 1561 - 1633. They decided to recreate the storytelling of Greek drama through music - ...
Visit to Hever Castle – Tuesday 13 June 2023
Hever Castle, as we see it today, is a glorious pastiche, one very rich American’s idea of an English baronial residence. Nevertheless, it retains its place in history because of its association with two of England’s queens. It was the childhood home of Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, and the home of his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, after her divorce from the king. ...
Selfies, Self – Expression, Celebrity and Victorian Carte De Visite by Mark Hill – Thursday 1st June 2023
Author, lecturer and “Antiques Roadshow” expert Mark Hill gave an enthusiastic and riveting talk on his abiding interest and hobby of collecting Victorian “Carte de Visite” - nothing to do with visiting cards, but a portrait photo mounted on a small piece of card that became popular in the mid-19th Century with the invention of Daguerreotype photography. Looking back through history, he showed how we ...
Visit to the V & A Museum and the Donatello Exhibition on 27 April
What a pleasure it was to be back at the V. & A. again; whilst a few of our members had been recently most of us had not ventured there since before lockdown. Sculpture exhibitions are fairly rare but this one was a real treat and I think it surprised many just how interesting and absorbing it proved to be. Donatello was born in Florence ...
The Colossal Art & Architecture of Egypt’s Boldest Pharaoh by Lucia Gahlin – Lecture – 4th May 2023
For our May lecture we were transported to Ancient Egypt by Egyptologist Lucia Gahlin who gave a fascinating talk about the art and architecture of Ramessis ll, Egypt’s boldest Pharaoh. During his exceptionally long reign of sixty-five years (1279 -1213) and having lived until the age of ninety, way beyond the life expectancy of the time, (he outlived his wives, his priests and his children) ...
Where Leonardo Meets Picasso The World’s Most Expensive Art by Ian Swankie – Thursday 6th April 2023
Ian Swankie is an art scholar and guide for the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Galleries and is also an official London Tourist guide who is passionate about his subject. In this interesting lecture, he looked at art by famous past artists which are not in National Museums and Art Galleries, (since those are very difficult to evaluate), which have fetched over US$100 Million ...
Conard Wood to Fangorn Forest – Trees in Art and Literature by Justine Hopkins – Special Interest day Wednesday 22nd March 2023
Art historian and freelance lecturer Dr Justine Hopkins gave 3 outstanding lectures on the place of trees in art and literature spanning Biblical times to the beginning of the 21th century for this Special Interest Day. 1 - Growing the Human Brain : Trees from Biblical Times to William Blake In her first lecture, Justine set out how trees have played an enormous part throughout ...
Ways to Look at Paintings by Alice White – Thursday 2nd March 2023
Alice White, who is an oil painter and Art tutor at the University of the Arts and UCL in London, gave a stimulating talk on how artists as “makers of art” have broken the boundaries of the way paintings have been made throughout history and how medieval art effectively paved the way for the modern art that we see today. Both Rembrandt and Turner were innovators, ...
The Art and Craft of John Piper – by Jo Walton – Thursday 2nd February 2023
At our February meeting we had an enthralling lecture from Jo Walton, an expert on Art and Architecture of 15th century, with wonderful illustrations of the art and craft of John Piper. He was a multi talented artist. He studied and painted buildings old and new, rustic and grand, secular and religious. He painted abstract works, used collage techniques and water colours, created and designed ...
