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Located in the Heart of Test Valley
On Tuesday 09 July, the Art group plans to visit Mottisfont Abbey for a day of plein air drawing and painting.
The Mottisfont gardens are renowned for their elegance and colourful planting, especially their roses in the early summer.
This trip will provide our members with many sources of inspiration!
For more information, please contact the Art group leader, Trevor McCullough, at:
The Art group was blessed with a beautiful summer day in June to visit the Watts Gallery and Artists Village near Guildford.
After an hour’s driving by minibus we arrived and took a short walk, before being greeted and given maps and a talk on what we could see during our day visit.
The Arts and Crafts Village has a gallery devoted to the work of George Frederic Watts, together with two other exhibition areas. The house, named Limnerslease, is the purpose-built home and studios of George and his wife Mary, and nearby is the Watts Chapel which is a fine example of her work. Unfortunately, the previous day, a bus had backed into the Lych Gate. Due to the damage caused, we were not allowed access to the church, for health and safety reasons.
We stayed together for the tour of the Limnerslease house and studios which gave us a wonderful insight into the work of both George, and especially Mary Watts, who worked mostly in the fields of the British Art Nouveau style: bas-reliefs, pottery, metalwork, and textiles. It was she who designed, built, and maintained the Watts Mortuary Chapel in Compton and also built and maintained the Watts Gallery for the preservation of her husband’s work.
The group spent the remainder of the day exploring as they wished but coming together for lunch.
The special exhibition at the time of our visit was an amazing collection of clay sculptures by Halina Cassell. She had collected clay from all over the world and made similar, but different, small intricate sculptures for the exhibition. We very much enjoyed the exhibiton.
The day ended with most of us browsing the lovely things on offer in the shop before the return journey with our trusty driver Robert Kemp.
Jane Leishman
Eleven Art group members joined this engaging event, on 11 April 2023.
Our original plan was to visit the special exhibition of Norman Thelwell’s artwork in the morning, then to sketch in the Mottisfont garden after lunch. With a forecast of rain in the afternoon, we changed the plan.
On arrival, we took up positions in various parts of the garden and began sketching with pens, pencils and charcoal. We then met for lunch and progressed into the house to view the exhibition.
The Norman Thelwell exhibition was on two levels in Mottisfont House. The top floor housed Thelwell’s early work and the lower floor many of his original published cartoon works.
The early work exhibited included a self-portrait done at school when aged 11. On the top of this pencil drawing his teacher had marked in red pen a tick and ‘V/G!’ – his talent had been recognised at an early age.
During his time in the army during World War II, Thelwell developed his painting skills with wonderful watercolour studies of the people he was with and the places he visited. For all of us who were aware only of Thelwell’s cartoon skills, this part of his work was a revelation and a recognition of a very great talent.
The second part of the exhibition housed many of his original published cartoon works and reflected his long association with the magazine Punch. In addition to the political cartoons there were many jolly scenes involving country life, with very fat ponies and their Pony Club riders’ exploits!
The promised afternoon rain began: most visitors had headed for home, so we had an almost empty gallery to ourselves and were able to spend time up close to the work on display, all of which was greatly appreciated and enjoyed.
Website: National Trust – Mottisfont
with thanks to Jane Leishman for organising this event and for the write-up!