New Chairs of AMA, are presented with a red case, full

of documents. Don’t imagine red leather, with “AMA”

embossed in gold, beneath a crown. It’s more of a

holdall, with webbing straps, containing minutes going

back to the days of “Quink” and fountain pens. This is

what we were up to 30, 20 and ten years ago:

On 11th December 1984, the committee of the then “Leamington and District

Artists”, met at 7.30pm at the home of Vera Hearman. Members present

included Mo Enright, Jane Powell and Joe Mather. They discussed a £500 grant

from Warwick District Council and an application to the British Council to help

finance an exhibition in Brühl. It was agreed that the catalogue and invitation

should be “uniform in style and colour” and advertising space would be sold to

cover costs. In recent years, we have seemed so nervous of change, let alone

adventure. Is it time now, to take inspiration from the past?

By the meeting of the 8th December 1994 the name “AMA” had been adopted.

Attendees were Libby January, Sheila Roberts, Lesley Daniels, Ann Cole,

Rosemary Davies, Prue Rowe-Evans and Judith Tucker. Exhibiting at the Pump

Rooms and the need for a Pump Rooms Secretary were the main causes for

concern. Other worries were the vetting of prospective members, how to reject

applicants, whose work did not come up to standard, in a kindly fashion and the

need to be presented with enough work to come to a proper decision.

Jumping forward another decade, to the meeting of 4th November 2004, at Jane

Williams’ house, attended by Julanne Barry, Annie Brain, Chris Hawthorne and

Ann Power, the first item on the agenda was the Christmas social. The date is

not recorded, but it was timed for 11.30 to 1.00pm and fruit punch would be

served! Seemingly of lesser importance, down at item five, it was recorded that

proposals for an AMA website, prepared by Jane’s son, Ben, were read out and

“enthusiastically approved”, but with some concern about the cost.

Moving forward to the present, we have just had our Christmas social, where we

got through a case of wine and were entertained by The Gallery Trio. Thank you

to Sheila Graham for organising this. The committee are about to meet to discuss

plans, speakers, and new formats and locations, of which more news in the New

Year. Meanwhile, can I wish you all a very pleasant Christmas and encourage you

to come along to Eleanor Allitt’s talk about her work inspired by Greek myth

and her Cretan exhibiting experiences on Tuesday 2nd December and to put

Tuesday 3rd February in your diaries for a talk by Lizzie Cariss. Both

meetings are at 10.00am In the Baptist Church hall.

Katharine Barker Katharine.texcons@btinternet.com

Page - 1

Diary Dates

MORNING MEETINGS.

10.00am. Baptist Hall, Chandos

Street, Leamington Spa. Upstairs

room via the side entrance. If

you are late and the door is

locked please press the bell. The

meetings normally finish at

approximately 12.15pm. Car

Park opposite the Hall.

Morning Meetings

Tuesday 2nd December

Eleanor Allitt. Exhibiting in Crete

and latest work based on Greek

Myths

Tuesday 3rd February

Lizzie Cariss.

In this issue Marcella Spreadbury review,

Locally Made exhibition

Chrome Yellow 6 months old

Jane Williams recommends

Margot Bell exhibits next to

Royalty!

Subs are due—details p.3

Editors;

Katharine Barker &

Len Mackin

NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2014

Opinions expressed in this Newsletter are the views of the individual contributors, not the views of the Committee or AMA as a whole.

www.associationofmidlandartists.org.uk

Page - 2

Marcella Spreadbury, Painter of Icons, our November morning speaker

Most of our speakers are well known to at least some of our audience

and the type of work they do is often the specialist area of at least one

of our members, so in Marcella Spreadbury, painter of icons, who came

to our attention as the result of a chance encounter in Staples, we were

prepared for and got something new.

Marcella described how she had come to icon painting in retirement,

after a 40 year career as an occupational therapist, firstly attending an

art class, then, while on a weekend retreat, seeing an advertisement for

a short course in icon painting. Later, she was accepted on and

completed a four year course, Icons and Wall Painting at the Prince’s

School of Traditional Arts. As a result of this training, she has visited

Russia, Finland, Greece, Israel, amongst many other places, and is a

member of the British Association of Iconographers, http://

www.bai.org.uk/index.php

Producing an icon is a job of many stages, requiring multiple skills.

Firstly a board must be made up. Lime is good for this, but MDF or

plywood will do. Then it has to be covered with cloth (we were shown

an open weave, scrim fabric, possibly a cotton/linen mix), which is

applied with ten to 15 layers of rabbit skin glue and white chalk. This is

then sanded down to a silky finish. Red clay is then applied and

polished and gilding of appropriate areas carried out. Finally, paint, in the form of egg tempera, is applied, once again working in multiple

layers.

The design of an icon follows conventions and traditions, rather than

being a work of free expression. “Sacred geometry”, based on patterns

of circles, which form the halo, face, eyes etc, is at the heart of the design. Once drawn out, the design is transferred to the gesso board

and then the work table is set up with prepared egg tempera pigments,

a collection of natural brushes, water and palettes. A rough first layer

of colour is applied with a brush. This gives the first indications of the

drape of clothing and curls in the hair. Marcella keeps a detailed record

of colours used, in case repairs are needed in years to come.

Depending on humidity, the paint may be dry in as little as an hour.

Further layers are then applied, each building up colours and highlights. In Russia, a finished icon would

be coated with boiled linseed oil, but elsewhere varnish or furniture polish are preferred.

Having followed through the painting process of “St George”, we were able to admire the three

dimensional effects that this very stylised form of work managed to achieve. We were also interested

that St George, as all icons, had clearly shown ears, but a very small mouth. This indicates that an icon

hears, but does not speak. Some members of the audience disagreed and said that icons had certainly

“spoken” to them.

Marcella Spreadbury, with an example of her work.

Jane Williams, Pat Carpenter and Julia Hayes admire one of Marcella’s sketch books

Page - 3

We were interested in what appeared to some of us

to be a lack of real, spontaneous artist involvement, or

self expression, in the production of an icon. We

were assured that, despite the dictates of convention,

this was not a “painting by numbers” exercise and that

work can be scraped back, re-done and be influenced

by prayer. Completed icons are blessed, and Marcella

takes hers to an orthodox church in Pimlico.

Finally, appropriate music was put on and a single

candle lit, allowing us to see Marcella’s work in

something closer to the intended environment. Our

small audience were so taken with lighting effects and

the contents of Marcella’s sketch books, that coffee

and biscuits were almost forgotten. Truly, a talk with

a difference.

Katharine Barker

Icons painted by Marcella Spreadbury

An icon by candle light.

Marcella Spreadbury, continued

Margaret Condon wishes to apologise publicly and

unreservedly to Wendy Campbell-Briggs for her ill-

considered remark about her information panel in the

recent Newsletter review of the Gallery 150

exhibition. She completely withdraws her comment.

Moreover she now knows that Wendy did not intend

the written work for wall display, but as background

information that has, indeed, been widely welcomed

for its highly informative and professional content.

AMA Subscription The time has come to pay your annual AMA

membership subscription for 2015. Subscriptions now run from Jan 1st to Dec 31st,

2015. Payment is £20 and could you send a

cheque, payable to AMA, to:

Sheila Graham (Treasurer), 73, Leam Terrace,

Leamington Spa, CV31 1DE.

Sheila will confirm receipt of your payment with

an email.

LOCALLY MADE : Team work pays off

Page - 4

AMA members Wendy Campbell-Briggs and Corinna Spencer, and eight colleagues, are just coming to

the end of running a three week long art and design pop-up shop, “Locally Made”, in Livery Street,

Leamington. (The event closes 29th November) Those who visited will, I’m sure, have been as

impressed as I was by the very high standard of craftsmanship and artistry demonstrated by all who

took part. Many of us also marvelled at the very reasonable, nay almost “give-away”, prices on some

very beautiful items. The overall look was calm, subdued, and dominated by natural colours and

elegance. Ceramics played a major part, in particular much smoke fired and raku work, with contrast in

scale provided by three compelling ‘chalkboard paintings’ in black and white monochrome, and by

Armando Magnino’s original and superbly made wooden pieces.

One of the artists told me what a splendid team effort there had been to get the shop up, running and

ready to receive its customers. Everybody had got on, worked

together and nobody had disappeared or moaned. This willingness

to work for the communal good came over in the arrangement of

the show. It would have been all too easy to give each artist their

own corner, with name plate and CV on the wall, but, in shopping

terms the hanging was more professional. This was a display for the

customer, with different artists’ work interspersed, rather than a

series of mini shows competing for attention and, as such, created a

pleasing harmony, not always seen in gallery arrangements.

On my visit, there was every indication of sales success. I trust they

have done really well.

Wendy and Corinna’s colleagues were Iris Assing, Miranda Miller,

Elena Cecchinato, Sonali Bolar, Zoe Petrie, Nicola Richards, Sally

Larke and Armando Magnino. Well done all!

Katharine Barker

Work by Corinna Spencer

Page - 5

Chrome Yellow Arts is 6 months old!!

Jonathan & Suminder and Sueli are pleased to announce that we have a new & fresh display of artworks by

local artists on show at the Chrome Yellow Arts shop in Leamington Spa - including works by 7 AMA

members.

This display is part of our desire to develop the Chrome Yellow arts shop into an art-hub for the Old

Town of Leamington - hopefully helping in the regeneration of the area.

The prices for the original artworks range from £20 to several hundred pounds and will be on display for

at least 3 months throughout the winter.

Although space is limited we are always interested in taking in more artwork - particularly as and when

we sell the works already on display; if you are interested please contact us.

The first 6 months have flown by at Chrome Yellow Arts and we have all loved the experience of starting

this venture - The Leamington art shop is here to stay!

Thanks for your support,

Jonathan & Suminder and Sueli

A sample of artwork currently on show

at Chrome Yellow

Jane Williams writes, “Grayson Perry's brilliant Reith lectures have just

come out as a small book called 'Playing to the Gallery'. Definitely on my

Xmas list. If you missed the lectures it will be an entertaining and

fascinating read.”

Margot Bell writes, “I had a small reduction woodcut print in the final

exhibition of the 200th anniversary year of the Royal Birmingham Society

of Artists. Called "Birmingham and Beyond", it was a prestigious

exhibition in which they had invited many honorary presidents from

societies around the country including the Royal Institute of Oil Painters,

the Royal West of England Academy,the Royal Watercolour Society, the

Royal Society of Marine Artists, etc. etc.. There were even two water

colours by the Prince of Wales and my print was on the same wall, two away from his! Ken Howard RA, was there standing under one of his

paintings.”

Members notices

Page - 6

AMA member, Heather Bailey, exhibiting with Artmix at Chipping Campden Town Hall.

ARTMIX Returns to Chipping Campden for 7th year ! This talented and versatile group of local artists from Shipston and surrounding villages, is returning to the Upper Town Hall in Chipping Campden for its 7th pre-Christmas ARTMIX Contemporary Exhibition, on Saturday 22nd 10-7pm and Sunday 23rd 10-4pm November.

Venue : Art Trail Studios

6 Livery Street Leamington Spa

1st December - 3rd January

9am— 6pm

Page - 7

Members Notices and What's On

CHRISTMAS

OPEN

STUDIO

ELEANOR ALLITT

Paintings, Prints,

Books, Cards

COLIN PURDY

Natural edge Bowls, Boxes

You are invited to visit

2 New Cottages

Village Street, Offchurch

Leamington Spa CV33 9AP

07928 218463

eleanor.allitt@btinternet.com

Saturday 6 December

Sunday7 December

11 am — 9 pm

Wine

Page - 8

Members Notices and What's On