PIRBRIGHT ART CLUB was 25 years old in October 2024! Created by art tutor Maggie Read, as a way of continuing art sessions for her students during the long breaks between Adult Education terms, it has become a thriving and successful club. All our meetings have taken place at Lord Pirbright's Hall on Pirbright Green (GU24 0JE) since we opened. LPH is also the venue for our exhibions and we staged our special 25th Anniversary Annual Exhbition at the end of 2024 with a superb display of paintings by our members. A few of our founder members are still taking an active part in the club activities. We have a reputation for excellence for the quality and presentation of the work on show at our annual exhibitions.
We attract a wide range of artists, from beginners to professionals, through Maggie's art workshops and demonstrations, via our website and by word-of-mouth. Maggie is a qualified tutor with many years experience teaching all aspects of drawing and painting in most media.
There are two separate groups in the club - Leisure Artists and Exhibiting Artists - each meeting for tutored drawing and painting sessions once a month. Members of both groups come together at our exhibitions, outdoor summer painting days and social events.
Welcome to our website - best viewed on a laptop or tablet!
CLUB NEWS
25th ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION - 2024
On Saturday November 30th and Sunday December 1st we staged a special 25th Annual Exhibition at Lord Pirbright's Hall. There were many visitors on both days and a good many artworks, including several framed paintings, unframed folios, prints and cards were sold over the weekend. Our "Small Pictures" table was particularly successful, featuring small framed works at affordable prices that buyers could take away on purchase seeming to be popular with our visitors this year!
As well as the Art Exhibition, the event had further attractions: a Xmas Cafe serving refreshments all weekend and a Craft Market on the Saturday, selling many handmade gifts and produce in time for Christmas. In addition there was a raffle on each day and the winners of our lovely hampers were delighted!
A truly successful 25th Anniversary Exhibition for the Club.
WINNER: PUBLIC VOTE FOR FAVOURITE PICTURE!
Colin Wood's watercolour painting "Larkin on TV" won the favourite picture at the exhibition, as voted by the public. Colin sold the picture, which is shown here, during the exhibition.
Second place was also taken by Colin, with his atmospheric painting "The Edge of All Things". This painting is currently on show at the Quince Cottage Gallery. Also showing is Colin's "No Birds" which has been selected for the Mall Galleries exhibition (see our News page for more details).
The photos below were all taken at the Exhibition!
RAILINGS EXHIBITION 2024
Pirbright Art Club's annual Summer exhibition, known as the Railings, because the artwork is displayed on the railings outside Lord Pirbright's Hall, Pirbright, took place on Saturday July 27th this year. There were many pieces of superb and original artwork on sale. See our Exhibitions page for more photos of the day.
Scenes from the 2024 Railings Exhibition
ART HOLIDAY
Maggie Read took a group of artists on a short art holiday to Bridport, on the Dorset Coast in early July 2024. Artists drew and painted scenes in West Bay, Charmouth, Lyme Regis, Symondsbury, as well as scenes from Bridport’s weekly market. The week was very successful, with many paintings completed as well as sketch books full of drawings. A typical Dorset coastal scene is shown here and many more pictures are on the Activities page.
PIRBRIGHT VILLAGE FAIR
Pirbright Art Club participated in this year's Pirbright Village Fair, held on Pirbright Green on Saturday June 8th. The fair was a great success and we managed to sell a couple of framed paintings and several mounts, cards and prints. This year's village fair had the Paris Olympics as its theme and several members managed to find the French spirit to add to the festivities. The two paintings were sold by Maggie Read and by Steve Wells - Chris Webb sold one of his prints - they are all shown below - see the Exhibitions page for further Village Fair photos.
Maggie Read's painting "On the Rocks!"
Steve Wells's painting "Old Harry Rocks"
Chris Webb's print of his painting "Quaint Street in Poole"
QUINCE COTTAGE GALLERY
In November 2022, we were delighted to be asked to put up a rotating display of our members' work at the lovely new gallery space in the former Pirbright Post-Office - Quince Cottage Gallery.
The proprietor, Lindsay Graham, has decided to open up her empty shop to showcase local creative talent, with Pirbright Art Club featuring as the main group of artists, as well as other local makers and craftsmen. This may now prove to be a long-term project and we were pleased to be able to use our own exhibition screens to hang our work in the lovely bow-front window.
This new venture gives us a great opportunity to have a permanent display of artwork that changes frequently. There has been lots of interest in the Gallery and we have sold many paintings, including all of those shown below. Our members should contact Maggie if they wish their work to be included.
Janet Moore's Oil Painting "Great Chanfield Manor Gardens, Wiltshire"
Frank Fuller's Oil Painting "Pirbright Pond"
Steve Wells' Oil Painting "Till the Cows Come Home"
Jenny Griffith's Oil Painting "Red Path"
Sue Pallot's Oil Painting "Horsing Around"
David Hardcastle's Watercolour Painting "Pirbright Shops"
Colin Wood's Watercolour Painting inspired by a Larkin poem
Maggie Read's Oil Painting "Constantine Bay"
Colin Woods Watercolour Painting "The Glare of Sure Extinction"
2021
After Lockdown - the recommencement of 'live' sessions happened in July 2021.
Earlier, Maggie had e-mailed all members to say: "I do hope we have managed to keep you engaged with the club over the past months (of lockdown). I know that some of you have enjoyed trying out the various 'themes' and many have viewed my demo videos, whether on YouTube or via links to my Google photo albums.
Several members took part in a project to create the "Pirbright in Art" book, which was being put together by the local Church committee as a 'fund-raiser' book featuring images of Pirbright, by local residents and art clubs. Members sent in their drawings or paintings of local Pirbright scenes, some of which had been produced on Maggie's Summer Outdoor Painting Days in previous years. We were delighted with the finished product, which was published just in time for the Pirbright Village Fair on September 4th. Many paintings by our members feature in the book, which we helped to sell on our stall. (Copies are £10 each and can be ordered through the Church website or bought from the Quince Cottage Gallery.)
Pirbright Church by Alison Clarke
Little Girl Statue by Maggie Read
We had two Meet and Draw outdoor sessions in May 2021 and they were well attended by members, giving them a chance to catch up with each other after many months and to do a bit of drawing too! See photos in our NEWS section.
We produced a Spring 2021 Pirbright Art Club Newsletter - in the midst of the last Lockdown! Please click on the logo to see the PDF version.
This edition was dedicated to the various ways that some of our members used their time during the latest enforced isolation, when even the weather was against us all, keeping us all indoors and encouraging us to get down to some of the things we don't usually find time for - a plus-side to the Covid restrictions perhaps?
2020
Our 2020 'Virtual' Annual Exhibition was displayed throughout December 2020 on the website. The exhibition was very successful with many of our artists participating and over a hundred paintings for sale. The online exhibition was well received and many people commented on how professional it looked. A significant number of artists sold paintings and we are glad we were able to show some of our members' latest work.
During the 2020 Lockdown, members continued to be actively involved with the club by following the monthly 'themes' from home. Maggie was available to advise or critique work via WhatsApp or by email. Members were encouraged to post their own work on our Facebook page. From May 2020, members could access YouTube videos specially created for their own group. These short films were mainly to give inspiration to members to keep going with their art. Maggie's finished demonstration pieces were sent to members as an attached jpg as well as appearing on the website later. Two of these final pieces are shown below and some appeared in the "Virtual" Annual Exhibition.
FRIDAY CLASS 2020
Maggie's Friday Morning Painting Class, which was running 'virtually' via WhatsApp during each period of lockdown, also re-opened 'live' in late September, at Lord Pirbright's Hall, until the hall had to close again in November! When they were unable to meet in person for weekly classes, members posted images of their latest work (following that week's theme) at various stages of completion, for Maggie's advice and comments. Some examples of Friday Class lockdown work on the themes of "Still-life, in the style of the "Scottish Colourists" and "Garden Shadows", are shown here (right and below). See further examples on Maggie's website: www.maggieread.co.uk
MAGGIE READ
Maggie took part in Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year, as one of the Wildcard Artists, at the West Reservoir Centre in Hackney. This was the second heat filmed at this location. This heat was filmed on one of the hottest days in August 2020. The episode was televised in February 2021. For more photos, see News.
2019
20th ANNIVERSARY CHRISTMAS SOCIAL
Our 20th Anniversary Christmas Social, held at the Worplesdon Golf Club, in mid-December, 2019, was well attended by over 50 members and friends. The golf club did us proud with an excellent venue, superb food and first-class service. This was an occasion to remember!
During the event we were entertained by magician, Chris Scade, and then singer/ songwriter Dean Dyson, who serenaded us with his guitar during and after our meal - some of us even ended up dancing. Everyone agreed that the Social was a great way to end our 20th Anniversary year.
