Our meetings run from September to the end of May with a programme agreed in advance from suggestions from everyone in the Group. We continue in our ‘old–fashioned‘ way with books and articles which seems to suit everyone well and generates plenty of comment and discussion. A number of members do the presentations on the chosen artist and at Christmas and the last meeting in May we have all done five minutes or so on a painting with a Winter or Summer theme.

We started the year with Piero della Francesca, moving through the centuries to Cranach , 17th century Dutch landscapes, Holbein, Impressionist landscapes, Joseph Wright of Derby, Leonard Squirrell, Batoni, Delacroix, Dame Laura Knight, Toulouse-Lautrec, Diana Armfield and John Piper.

The programme from September onwards will concentrate more on Victorian and Modern artists and will include two photographers for the first time and an architect so that we don’t focus solely on painting.

It is surprising the number of artists and ‘movements’ we have looked at in the past ten years alone – just over 100 – we hope we don’t run out of ideas!