LAG August 2022 exhibition report

A sunny, successful exhibition weekend

It was great to see, and welcome, so many visitors to our  annual three-day, August Bank Holiday exhibition. The lovely, sunny, warm, dry weather helped  visitor numbers return to somewhere close to pre-Covid levels, both to Lacock village itself and, as a consequence, to our exhibition.  We'd like to say a huge 'thank you' to everyone who visited our exhibition over the weekend, including local people, those on a day out with their families, and visitors from further afield in the UK and abroad. As ever, in addition to human visitors, it was a pleasure to also welcome a variety of well-behaved four legged friends!
A fun, friendly atmosphere prevailed and we are most appreciative of the many compliments we received about the standard of art on display.
Thanks to all members who supported the exhibition, whether by exhibiting and/or assisting in its set-up and close-down. 

Serendipity

One serendipitous moment stands out from the exhibition. Fred Taylor, one of our member artists, often paints superb, highly detailed, realistic paintings of locomotives and his painting of the 'Penrice Castle' train was on display at our August exhibition. This train was built in June 1949 by the Swindon Works (GWR/British Railways) and retired from service in February 1965.
By co-incidence, Graham Cripps and his daughter visited our exhibition on Sunday, out on a day-trip from Swindon. It transpires that not only did Graham recognise the Penrice Castle straight away, he actually worked on the train as a fireman for seven years in the 1950s! It was touching to see how moved Graham was by the memories that Fred's painting evoked for him and was a tribute to the quality of Fred's work.  He then saw one of Fred's prints of another train - and he had also worked on that one too! Special thanks to Graham for letting us include this in our report. 
Photo of Graham Cripps courtesy of Greame McFaull.

Graham Cripps, who worked on the 'Penrice Castle' in the 1950s.

Artworks sold

Fred Taylor's painting of the 'Penrice Castle'.

It's great to report that £2,283 worth of artworks were bought over the three day exhibition, just over double the amount of sales achieved from recent exhibitions earlier this year and in 2021. We sold a total of 39 pieces of art and 94 greetings cards, also a significant increase. Our thanks to everyone  by so generously bought a painting or card in support of our art group. 

Visitors' vote

Our fun 'visitors' vote' again featured throughout the exhibition and proved popular. Visitors voted for their favourite painting on display; this is just for fun, there is no prize, however, the artist whose painting receives the highest number of votes always appreciates the accolade.
In total, 241 visitors cast a vote, and 106 paintings received a vote. 
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And the winner, with 11 votes, is ... 
"Summer Evening Breeze" (shown below) by Kay Smith (acrylics). Congratulations Kay!
A close runner up with 10 votes was "Bluebell Woods" by Maggie (aka Tracy Warne), followed by Mike Wilson's "Sorting the Catch" , in hot pursuit with nine votes. 

Tip for art group members on artwork transportation
Large, framed paintings can be heavy to transport to exhibitions and may be vulnerable to damage if they are not wrapped and packed carefully. Karen Road, a LAG member, highly recommends using "Stiffy Bags" (please, no jokes people), a lightweight, bag designed specifically to protect art during transportation. You can find out all about them here.

And finally ...
​As one Lacock Art Group exhibition closes, the next one looms on the horizon.
To find out when our next exhibition takes place, please visit our events page; we will release more information about it nearer the time.
Thank you.