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Many long-standing members will have been shocked and saddened to hear of Peter’s sudden death. Our deepest sympathies go to his wife Glory.

Although Peter was not an artist he was an invaluable member for many years, serving on the committee first as treasurer then stepping up as Chairman when no-one else was prepared to take it on. As a non-artist he brought a fresh eye to the organisation of the Society, chairing the meetings, researching new speakers and becoming an ambassador for TAS, continuing to forge links with the local community by encouraging the involvement of young artists through Tiverton High School and Blundell’s School.

On a practical level Peter, with his background in business, was responsible along with Stuart Fowle for developing much of the IT technology which led to a streamlined administrative system for the exhibitions, the newsletters and the communications between the committee and the membership. This contributed to stemming the rising costs of running the society and his input was invaluable.

Equally at home pinning up calico in the Castle Primary School or chatting with local dignitaries and business people Peter was unstinting with his energy and commitment to the Society.

He will be much missed by his many friends.

Heather Strong (President)

We have been contacted by Leigh and Leigh Fine Art Photography with an offer for members to pick up some free, but used canvasses.

“Hi are professional photographers, we are having a clear up and have loads of canvasses used for our shows that could be reused? Do you think you have anyone that would like to collect them? 07971042033. Kind regards Lisa Leigh”

https://www.facebook.com/leighleigh.co.uk

CONTESTANTS for a new TV series for Channel 5

Please see the flyer below for all the information, but make sure to apply ASAP (watercolours@twofour.co.uk) as we will begin filming in early April!

(Filming will take place on week days and will follow all covid guidelines)

There is no need to write too long an email, just simply register your interest and Channel 5 will send you an application form.

Léonie’s commission will explore the place of the garden in modern society, and the impact of climate change. She is a photographer, and for this commission she is working with the metaphor and act of gardening and listening to the world of plants. In her own words:

“A Language of Seeds’ is a photographic series about love, growth, family, death and the archaic wisdom of plants. Responding to the extraordinary seed collection at RAMM, I intend to challenge our tech-based, growth-obsessed society through the lens of taking care of a garden and its nourishing forms of growth”.

Léonie Hampton

Find out What’s On rammuseum.org.uk/Whats-on

I hope you’re all keeping well and reasonably sane in these extraordinary times!

As we have had to postpone the AGM I would like to say a very big thank you via the website to Stuart Fowle, Hilary Tosdevin and Wendy Vlasto who are all leaving the committee after many years of dedication and hard work. Stuart stepped up with some trepidation to take on the role of Chairman when we so suddenly and sadly lost Hazel-Anne, he has filled the role very successfully and can look back on a job really well done, thank you Stuart! Hilary and Wendy have also put in many, many hours on our behalf and have been an absolute boon to the Society….thank you so much to you both!

I’m delighted that Phil Belsham has come forward to be our new Chairman, very many thanks Phil….he will be Acting Chairman until we can properly vote him in, but I know that will happen in due course and the whole Society will support him, very best wishes Phil.

Wishing all of you all the best, and looking forward hopefully to easier times,

Heather

Now that some of us who are not key workers or have been furloughed, thought it would be interesting to see if our members had been taking up new creative activities during the Covid-19 lockdown (2020).

Ainslie, has been doing the usual of more gardening and working on the allotment, and finding time to pick up colour pencils again.

Fay has been getting back to drawing and finding how to use pencils in pencil holders.

Another member, Linda, who is a chorister has been keeping her voice by walking around and doing voice warm ups. When not doing that, also rebuilding a rockery, picking up on old unfinished art works and some yoga.

Lola has been working on 3D art and produced these 2 wonderful Rabbit figures from paper mache.

Hilary, our current Vice-Chairman has been keeping busy…  At the moment with the weather being as it is I have not taken up a pencil, pen or paintbrush in anger!! I have however, tried to sit down at the piano for 20 mins or so a day to try and get back into playing.  I have a second hand drum kit in the summer house which I have tried out a couple of times, look forward to getting into learning that as well.

Need some inspiration to draw/paint? Then here is a little challenge for you. Without disclosing your actual address online! Do a sketch/drawing/painting of a view from your home.

Here is mine to get us started.

With the current situation where we have to quarantine, self isolate and social distance, keeping social is obviously something we are finding hard to do.

This is where social media can help. I know quite a few people are suspicious of using social media, but I’m actually a big fan of it. You just need to be aware of what you are doing and posting to stay safe.

My own personal recommendations are, don’t post personal information or family information. Always take with a pinch of salt, posts from unknown sources. If you don’t like a post, block them or scroll on past. Don’t get drawn in to political or reglious “debates”, they are never debates, they just turn nasty! 

Heck, that all sounds very negative, but the positives are, keeping in touch with family from different parts of the country, finding new ideas, finding like minded people from around the world, being able to be inspired by others, show off your art to others, even sell if you want to.

TAS has had a Facebook page for quite some years, and has been mostly run by Karen de la Harpe (thank you Karen). The page is a great way of promoting TAS to the wider Facebook audience, and can be viewed and liked by anyone, which is good for TAS.

But to add to this, and for TAS members benefit, we have now created a TAS Group as part of the Facebook page, many thanks to Ali Cooper for suggesting it, and helping me set it up. The benefit of the group, is that we can control who joins, and that will only be TAS members. 

The idea of the group (and again this is all down to Ali), is that we have a place to share WIPs, completed work, catch up with each other, chat about art, chat about being creative etc, etc. I have put in place a few rules, which mirror my comments above, no politcal or relgious debates please.

I do urge you to consider joining Facebook and joing the group, it will be a great way of keeping in contact over the next few weeks/months.

Link to our Facebook page is:  https://www.facebook.com/TivertonArtSociety/

Other Social Media you may like to use

Twitter: great for for following like minded people, but can get a bit intense with people sharing others comments. (https://twitter.com/?lang=en-gb)

Instagram: Ideal for artists and creators, you can showcase your work and be inspired by others. Again, excellent if you are looking a for niche subject. (https://www.instagram.com/)

Pinterest: Another excellent platform for visual artists and creators. Ok, not so much social interaction with this one, but fantastic for collecting visual ideas, references, and a showcase for your art/creations etc. (https://www.pinterest.co.uk/)

YouTube: Fantastic for learning new skills and picking up ideas, and much much more, many an hour can be lost watching great inspiring content! (https://www.youtube.com/)

For interest, I have 1 Twitter account (not art related, but aviation niche), 3 Instagram accounts (one for art/illustration, one for photography and one for a fun cute toy photos, don’t ask!) , 2 Pinterest accounts (one for collecting references and one to help promote my art/illustration/creative works) and 2 YouTube accounts (just starting to get in to video creation, as I have to do that as part of my full time job, so one is used for practice videos, and the other for creativity videos).

If you are selling your art/crafts, all of the above, including Facebook can be used to help market your work.

I hope this has been of some help.
Stay safe and keep well.