15th December 2022 - CHRISTMAS PARTY AND 40TH BIRTHDAY!

Today we celebrated not only Christmas, and the end of part one of a proper winter programme, but also 40 glorious years of the Eye Arts Guild.  Unfortunately the weather was not on our side as, although the sun shone all day, it was bitterly cold with thick frost on the ground, which I think accounted for lower than expected numbers.  However, a very good time was had by all.  The food was excellent.  There was a proper celebratory cake, carol singing, games and an extra Chairman's Project which inspired a host of completely different works.

Everything laid out and looking very festive.  Just waiting for a few more people to arrive...
And below, the festive food, then members discussing answers to the quiz and the fiendish quiz masters revealing the answers.  We also played pictionary in teams, which got very competitive!

Jackie and Sally P worked on these boards featuring past programmes and photos of members, locations, events, patchworks, from all the years. They will be made into albums for posterity.

Lesley talked about the founding of the guild and handed over to June, our one remaining  founding member, who had put together this reminiscence of EAG's beginnings.

'40 years ago I joined a small group of painters (adult) class at the Eye Youth Club building opposite the Guildhall. We had a small exhibition at the Guildhall, not a house then, but offices, which led to five of us enthusiasts to form our own Art Club.  We advertised to see if anyone else would be interested and we rented a room for the evening at the 4 Horseshoes in Eye. Several people turned up and so we formed a committee, with Ruth Shuttleworth as chairman, and 4 other members, Betty Thomson, Sylvia Parton, Thelma Hodgins and me.  Two of those were also members of the Bury Art Group, so we had access to their constitution, which we copied and still use today. It was decided to call ourselves Eye Arts Guild, because of our first exhibition held at the Guildhall.  We also had a demonstration that evening by Pauline (whose surname I don’t recall), a local artist, printing on scrunched tissue paper. 

From then on during the summer we would meet on Thursday evening at a member’s house to show our day’s work.  Then winter came and our meeting place was Stoke Ash Village Hall. Our very first demonstration was how to paint a still life in oils, by Dorothy Swanton. 
The membership grew and became popular. After Stoke Ash Village Hall we have had to move to bigger venues, so may we continue to meet, paint and enjoy the pleasure of painting and make great masterpieces!'

Next it was time to reveal the works inspired by the Chairman's Project '40'.  These were very varied, some required exposition, and some presentations were very funny. The first group are: June's mix of still lifes down the years - spot the objects you have arranged, Lesley's landscape from the spoil heap of a copper mine in Anglesey, Ian C's events from 1982 and John's 40 composed of Eye town hall and an artist's palette.

The next group - Noreen has used lots of images from EAG artworks to make a 40, see if you can see yours - and named members as stars.  Sally T's combines tea and art, Avril has painted 1940s children, and Jill used 40 flowers to make her numerals.

Frances has made leaves for a twig tree that name 40 artists, Sally P went with '4Teas', Harriet made 40 into an advent calendar referencing 1982, the year of her graduation, Madness in the charts, Channel 4 start up, and EXXON mentioning Global Warming in a letter, and Jane made a concertina of 40 portraits drawn on Thursday mornings - find your face!

Richard's needed a parformance - Everything Stops for Tea had a painting, a printed teeshirt, and a cup of tea produced by his elegant assistants - Sally L and Jackie hidden by props, Sally P visible.

Sally L had us all in fits with EAG-40, the only solution you will ever need, by the sound of it! Very ingenious.

Mine [Hannah] is a little animation made of 40 cells, the eye growing older as it goes along.

Lesley created a wonderful celebratory cake, beautifully iced, and more important, delicious!
Here she is cutting it.

Diana wasn't able to come because of a cough/cold, but she has sent photos of her contribution, and says,  'My 40 is a concertina book with 40 bits of my work going back to the early 80s in vaguely the right order, although I didn’t join the guild til 2000. Happy Xmas and Peaceful New Year to everyone.  Dx'

Finally, here is something from Liz, that was held over from last week.

The new Chairman's Project for April 2023 was announced today - 'Elements'
Get your thinking caps on. 
The next meeting is on 5th January, and will be organised by Ian C.  See you there!
And I will be blogging again then, so send me your contributions.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.