June 20th 2015:
Our Society’s visit to see the exhibition “Into the Fields: The Newlyn School and Other Artists”
Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
We were greeted by Alison Bevan, the former curator of Penlee Gallery and now director of the Bristol Academy.
She introduced us to the exhibition “Into the Fields: The Newlyn School and Other Artists”, which included several of the paintings of familiar names, including Stanhope Forbes, Lamorna Birch and Laura Knight. Some of these we had seen before on our Cornish holiday, but seeing them again was not a problem! Alison is a lively, interesting and enthusiastic speaker so we could hardly wait to go round the exhibition at leisure and see it for ourselves. There was time to view modern sculptures of huge black shapes on the way, and a photographic exhibition by James Ravilious (brother of Eric) which in many cases echoed the agricultural theme of the “Into the Fields”.
Lunch was available in the Gallery, although it had to be queued for we hoped that Alison would improve the access and help eventually – only two people preparing, serving, waiting on, and doing the till, for a good number of people, not just our party.
After spending as much time as we wanted looking at pictures, we had free time so people scattered and there was plenty to see and do in the vicinity.
Richard and I took a taxi down to the SS Great Britain and thoroughly enjoyed the contrast. The extremely good presentation of the enormous ship and its history, was fascinating to all ages. We declined to climb the rigging, but wandered about the reconstructed interior for nearly two hours, before returning to the Academy and boarding the coach for the journey home, which we reached about 6 pm. Many thanks to Evie Knight and Stan Little for the organisation of a very successful outing, enjoyed by all.
Rosemary Harward
August 2015