51st Brentwood Art Society Annual Exhbition

The Society's Annual Exhibibition will be helld in the Becket Gallery, at Brentwood Library from 28th November to 28th December 2009. A Preview Evening will be held on Friday 27th November. There will be sixty five exhibits representing twenty five of the Society's members and they include abstract, as well as figurative subjects in water colour, oil, acrylic, block print and other media.

The subject of the painting here, which David Smith will be exhibiting, will be recognised by all those familiar with Brentwood. It illustrates what was until rcently the home of Cooper's furniture store and which now houses a range of small retailers. This detailed work is in itself a record of the changing face of the town.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Chairman's Message

Please encourage friends and family to come along to our Preview and share a galss of wine with us. The Mayor of Brentwood will open the exhibition, which promises to be an exciting one this year. We look forward to seeing you there.

Anna

.

Whitstable Painting Trip

In September this year, the Art Society marked its return after the Summer break with a weekend painting trip to Whitstable. Gillian Robinson was the tutor and as usual, provided an interesting focus for the group before they set off for the seafront, the harbour and neighbouring areas.

We were fortunate to have as our base a room in Whitstable's modern Arts Centre, a wonderful building inspired by sailing vessels and located right on the seafront. On the lower floor is a large gallery and during our visit the exhibiting artist was stood at an easel demonstrating his work. There is also a cafe in the building, so everything we needed if the weather was not kind to us but as the sun shone throughout our trip everyone was able to work outside on both days.

Whitstable has a lot to offer, apart from its busy harbour lined with stalls selling a vareity of fresh seafood. There are boutiques, restaurants, bars and plenty of reasonably priced areas to park. A good deal of Whitstable's charm lies in the understated, slightly shabby appearance of its many wooden buildings. Despite the hotels, guesthouses and other tourist attractions, the place feels like a working town that has not allowed itself to become too tourist oriented.

Whatever the particular interest of the artist, be it seascape, landscape, still life, architecture or people, our surroundings supplied them all in abundance. Gillian even brought along some natural form items that could be used as foreground images to the wonderful choice of backdrops.

The first of our evenings was spent at the Rose In Bloom pub, which overlooks the sea and served really tasty food. Our meal on the second evening was at the Chestfield Barn, an attractive thatched building with a galleried retaurant.