Julian Newton

Lesley Bruce

The sun is actually shining whilst I write this – wow, what a pleasant change (well it was when I first started writing).

Thank you to everyone who came along in January, an excellent turn out.

We started the meeting this month with a clip from the BBC’s Countryfile programme, which featured the amazing artist Andy Goldsworthy (if you don’t know him he literally moulds the natural world into the most incredible structures – just take a look at these). As well as an artist he is also a photographer – what an inspiration he is.

This month’s theme was on Christmas Decorations, which despite being a touch uninspired didn’t stop members stepping up to the lens with some excellent work. Thank you to all you participated. The theme chosen for February is ‘Vanishing Points’.

One of our founding members, Justin Welch, is currently on an assignment in South Wales and sadly cannot make our meetings, so it was fun to catch up with him at the meeting via the internet. We were richly entertained by pictures from his recent trip to the Far East. For those who missed it, you can look at his gallery on his website.

A quick mention for one of our new members, Nick Gale, and his suggestion we might like to take a look at the website – pixoto.

As a reminder, in brief – my suggestion for this year’s exhibition was that we enter the Wandsworth Arts Festival Fringe event in May, with an exhibition entitled ‘A Day in the Life of Putney’, which we would then exhibit at The Exchange in Putney (the excellent spot outside Waitrose). It was my idea that we allot a third of our space to the main theme and then give us all a little space to promote something of our own. I would also like to engage with a couple of local schools and see about mentoring a couple of art students and have them engage with what we are doing.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 19th February and I look forward to catching up with you all then.

Andrew Wilson