EXPLORING COLOUR, TEXTURE AND PATTERN THROUGH MULTI ART MATERIALS
‘After the serious business of the AGM was complete and we had all eaten our fill from the wonderful buffet, the large table behind which the committee had sat was transformed, covered with all sorts of painting materials, boards and paper. Margaret Petterson Merritt then set us to work on our first exercise. This involved us all standing around the table, and painting on the sheet of paper in front of us “the essence of ourselves”. A mere thirty seconds were allowed for this. We then all moved to the left and set to work on the painting of the person standing next to us, again for about half a minute. This continued around the table until we had all added our contribution to each portrait. The finished paintings were laid out on the floor so that we could all view the results. Many of the portraits captured their subject remarkably accurately, considering how many people had worked on each of them. It proved an interesting exercise and forced one to look hard at the other members of the group, and to wonder at the different way others see us. As a new-ish member, I appreciated the opportunity to get to know other members of the Society a little better by working together in this relaxed, informal way.
After creating crowns for our own portraits, we went on to more experimental exercises with colour. These involved lots of water, ink, powdered dyes and created huge amounts of mess, which most people protected themselves from by donning black plastic bin bags over their clothes. There were some very exciting results, which were soon littering the floors of the studio where we were working. I’m sure for many of us, the chance to work experimentally in this way, exploring new approaches and working as a group, is one that we all appreciated. During the normal working week there is seldom the time to spend in this way and I’m sure the afternoon workshop was a welcome opportunity for all those who took part.’
© 1993 Jessica Turrell
After three years in the chair, Phil handed over to Elizabeth Terrell.
In May, the Society was invited to hold an exhibition at the Kunstverein Gallery in Coburg, Germany, for which the previous A3 poster was once again overprinted with the relevant details. Alex, Ruth, Joan, Edward and Jessica attended the opening.
BSOE EXHIBITION, KUNSTVEREIN COBURG
‘After all the organization of the exhibition, the actual arrangement of a trip to Coburg for the opening was left very much to the last minute! After many phone calls to ascertain the best route, five intrepid enamellers set forth. We met at the airport. This was no mean feat as Jessica Turrell travelled down from Bristol the day before and left her London accommodation at 3 am to take a bus and train. Edward Heath left Highgate by mini cab at 5:30 arriving before anyone at half the price of my cab. Ruth Rushby was driven by her husband John from Kew. Joan MacKarell spent the night at my house as New Cross was such a distance and her car was still minus a door from her stay in Bristol. (The garage had provided her with first a door for the wrong side of the car, and their second attempt to replace it was a door for the right side, but more dented than the one they had removed). We left by taxi from Kensington about 5:15 and in a daze (I had not had time for coffee and without my morning caffeine I am a zombie) I quickly checked that I had remembered the air and rail tickets for everybody, passport and money-ok when Joan suddenly realized that she had left her passport at home. A quick U-turn and another taxi sent her back to Erlanger Road and I proceeded to Heathrow. I arrived without further incident and got into a queue for British Airways and was quickly joined by Ruth, Jessica, and Ted. We obviously looked suspicious as we were taken out of the queue and whisked off to a special security unit to have everything x-rayed including my empty shipping crate as I was hand carrying my plique-a-jour bowl, given special stamps and we were totally scrutinized. We explained there was another yet to come and we were assured that we would all get seats together.
Into the waiting area where we finally had some breakfast. We were all getting nervous. We had a four hour train trip to Coburg ahead of us and it was not direct-we needed to change trains 2 or 3 times. Still no sign of Joan.
Joan finally appeared with passport in hand, £55 less for the taxi fare, but still cheerful. I can also add here that she had forgotten rather vital bits of underwear and camera but had remembered to pack her swimming costume.
The train we were to take to Coburg left from the Airport lower ground floor and with our interpreter, Ruth, we were soon on the correct platform, and with only 10 minutes to wait we were being carried towards Frankfurt.
We managed to find seats together in the smoking section and we had about an hour before our first change of trains. Ruth was a star and our fears of the 8 minutes to dash to the correct platform were elevated by her excellent German and that the train was on time. (Would we be so lucky at the next change?)
Looking at the schedule and realizing that it was after lunch, we decided to be brave and miss the next connection and have a snack. We found ourselves in a smoke filled restaurant with one other table occupied. The menu was limited, but we found something to keep us going. Naturally when our German-speaker Ruth left us to go to the ladies, a man from the other table asked us if we were Edward’s wife and daughters! and he gave Edward a knowing look.
We arrived in Coburg 25 minutes late due to a delayed train but Kurt Neun was there to greet and welcome us.
We were extremely pleased to arrive at Herr and Frau Neun’s beautiful modern home, hidden behind lilac and other screening greenery. Their house was filled with enamel objects and paintings. Even the door pushes were enamelled. We were grateful to collapse and freshen up before dinner.
That evening we saw the Kunstverein for the first time. It was hard to imagine the space for our 1st International exhibition from the photocopy sent to us. Their exhibition hall is very exceptional. The building is purpose-built and modern. It gives the immediate impression of being clean and very white. As you walk into the large reception area, there is a desk and skylight. To the right there is a large room set up for lectures, we later discovered that they had a hidden movie screen and automatic window and skylight closings to perfectly darken the room for daytime lectures. There was also a grand piano used for concerts. The main exhibition room was to the left of the entrance hall. It again was white lit with skylights as well as artificial light. There were moveable walls to make display easy for panels and picture rails so the paintings could be placed as desired. They had several types of cases for the jewellery and the variation of size and lighting gave a good range to choose from when so many types of enamelled objects were to be arranged for viewing. We later discovered that they had a workshop with anything you might require to mount an exhibition. There were tools, mounting boards, large display stands, packing cases, and paint. What a well organized and beautiful set up!
Saturday was our first full day in Coburg. We spent the morning checking prices with the master list as our shippers had forgotten to give Kurt the paperwork! We spent several hours getting everything ready for Sunday morning when the exhibition was to open.
Having satisfied ourselves that all was well, we returned to the house for a filling lunch and then with Frau Neun travelled to the hill overlooking the town of Coburg and the “Veste” Gothic Castle on its summit.’
© 1993 Alex Raphael
