Introduction

Yesterday I watched the National Gallery film "Titian: behind closed doors" this exhibition was right at the top of my to do list. It takes a long time and much negotiation to put together exhibitions like this so it was particularly sad that the doors had to be closed a mere three days after opening.

The film explored Titian's fascinating life and artistic achievements, as well as showing us the suite of paintings Titian called his "poesie" because he considered them to be the visual equivalent of poetry. A number of experts were called upon to discuss this suite of paintings depicting classical myths, including Mark Hudson who wrote "Titian The last days".

Mark Hudson was particularly resplendent in a yellow and green checked suit and bright yellow shirt. I have read his book so was interested to see him, his colourful attire presented a different picture to my mental image of him. The book is full of detail and I frequently had to look up the pictures being discussed, so I could gain the most benefit from his knowledge of Titian.

The documentary is worth watching, it was on BBC Two so probably still available on catch-up.

Looking through the posts on our forum, with ideas of how to spend our time, I am very grateful to all those contributions.They will I hope, contribute to our mental well-being and enable us to encourage and support those around us.

I would like also to give heartfelt thanks to all key workers and volunteers who are working so very hard to help and care for all of us. It is their efforts and courage that is enabling us to find our way through this crisis which is affecting the entire country.

Thank-you all.

Today as I was listening to the Today programme on radio four I heard The Arts Society mentioned. This must be a first and it will be interesting to see if their iniative sparks interest in our society.

I will give the quiz a try and let you know how I got on! Thank-you Anne.

Take the Quiz: Pallant Gallery, Chichester

We visited The Pallant as part of our Arts Society trip to Chichester, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.

If you enjoyed the guided tour, see if you can identify the highlights of this great collection. Just click on the link below.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/06/the-great-british-art-quiz-set-by-pallant-house-gallery-chichester?CMP=share_btn_link

Thank-you Chris, it is amazing how time speeds by, with such a wealth of offerings from galleries, museums and theatres. It would be interesting to know which sites have been of particular interest to our members.

Finally got in to the Forum. Well done to my committee colleagues for setting this up. There seems to be so much going on on-line that it's keeping me very busy!! I trust everyone is keeping safe and well.

I would be delighted to see posts from our members on this forum. If you prefer not to post, but would like to make a comment or add some news, please email me and I can post your comments for you.

Take care and keep well.

"Listen: there once was a king sitting on his throne. Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honour. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I 'A feather on the breath of God' That is how Hildegard of Bingen describes herself.

The subject of one of our cancelled lectures I am sure many of us were looking forward to learning more about this remarkable personality of the Middle Ages. I first heard Hildegard's name mentioned when some music caught my attention one Sunday as I was preparing lunch. I enjoyed it so much that when it finished I paid special attention to the composer and so discovered Hildegard of Bingen. The programme was Private Passions on Radio 3 which may be familiar to some of you.

I have since bought a cd of her music so I can enjoy listening to her sequences and hymns when I wish.

The good news is that we hope to be able to rebook the lecturers for 2021 and so may have this lecture next year.

Tidying and sorting through my bookshelves I have come across more titles that I always intended to read again. As a general rule I give my fiction choices to friends or charity shops but hold onto my non-fiction. Two books that I chose to keep and plan to read again are Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons and The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. Both offer an escape from our present situation. From Cold Comfort Farm comes Aunt Ada Doom who "saw something nasty in the woodshed" and Flora Poste arriving at the farm to stay with her unknown relatives and heroically deciding to sort their chaotic lives out. This is a treat to read for the first time and then again at times like these.

I hope all our members are keeping well and look forward to reading some of your own posts on our very own forum.

Reading Anne's post about a society outing last year, reminded me of our trip to Portsmouth the year before and a day spent at The Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. In planning the trip my focus had been on visiting Chichester and the Isle of Wight. The final day's visit to the Dockyard didn't leave me feeling particularly excited. How wrong I was, it was a fascinating place and whereas I had worried that there wouldn't be enough for people to do, I could have easily spent another day there. The tour round the Mary Rose was enlightening, with parts of the ship seemingly coming to life with sailors busy with their daily lives. All clever technology I know but impressive. The tour round HMS Victory made me appreciate just how cramped conditions were for the ordinary seamen, even the officer's conditions weren't much better with their tiny cabins and basic washing conditions.

Good advice ☺

Good luck with your grandson and poetry Cheryl. If it involves chocolate, monsters or dinosaurs, the gnats attention span might improve 😁

I wrote earlier this morning that I was scheduled to take a poetry lesson for my two grand-children. We looked at two poems, "There was an Old Man with a Beard" by Edward Lear and "The Leader" by Roger McGough. I thought we needed something light hearted and Edward Lear certainly ticks that box. Lovely to see them, not sure about the lesson. For some mysterious reason my nine year old grandson kept popping up and down and disappearing from view. But at least I tried !!

Please do let me know if you have viewed our forum. Just a brief "hello" would be tremendous, I quite understand if you prefer not to write more. Take care everyone.

https://www.kettlesyard.co.uk

Last year we had a great Arts Society Welwyn Garden outing to Kettle's Yard. I thought you might want to revisit the museum and enjoy again the quirky and delightful house and gallery. The link above takes you into the web site where you can enjoy a virtual tour.

Thank you so much Linda for joining the forum. I agree with you about missing seeing the grandchildren. We have been using Zoom also and at ten o'clock today I am due to take a poetry lesson with my two grand children. I am not sure how that will work out but I will let you know !

Well done Cheryl and Ian for setting this up. I have been doing a lot of digging the garden as I wasn’t able to do it last year and the ivy has taken over. Unfortunately my knees are feeling the strain as the ground is hard. I am now trying to link up with bridge friends to play with them on line. At my age I find remembering all I have been taught a bit of a challenge so if I don’t play for three months I will get in a right muddle. My husband Rob and I received a lovely food hamper from our family in Singapore yesterday. It was such a surprise and we were very touched. We find it hard living so far apart and not seeing our 3 grandchildren regularly. They have a completely different lifestyle to ours. Rob and I miss seeing our two grandchildren in Essex because we are social distancing but we use Skype and now Zoom which helps.

I hope to see many more of you joining our forum today. I have always thought it would be a good idea to have a forum which we could use to share ideas, knowledge and feedback of how our lectures and outings have perhaps led onto further exploration of particular topics.

I recall a lecture from 2010 called "From Greece to the Normans, the splendour of Sicily" given by Dr. Paul Roberts which led to my interest in Sicily and a holiday there the following year. My interest had also been awakened by a book titled "The Leopard " by Guiseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa. This novel set in Sicily in 1860 about the decline of a traditional way of life, is an excellent read and a book which I always promised myself I would read again. Now is a perfect opportunity.

Well done for getting this forum set up Cheryl. I shall look forward to the day when the talks at WGC can resume. Enjoy your walks.

I certainly hope so. We need lots of interesting comments and I think general news and views. In speaking to some of our members who live in Welwyn Garden, I have been impressed with the service they have been receiving from Waitrose. Residents at Peel Court are able to phone in orders and Waitrose brings the orders to them. There also seems to be many kind hearted people helping where they can.