Dear All

Good to see everyone and finally, we have some decent weather to speak of.

I started the meeting by having a look at some work in progress for our picture collections for June, which if you remember was inspired by Fred’s presentation earlier this year of his FRPS collection. However, rather than the full 20/21 images, I suggested that people just look at 5 but treat them in a similar fashion. Both Nigel and I presented our canvasses and following comments from Fred and the floor, we have both amended our original ideas, both of which are attached.

Comments on mine ranged from colour differences, to the order and also some of the chosen images, hence my changes. Comments were similar for Nigel’s set, including a suggestion for the centre pic. Anyone is free to present their own 5 image canvasses next month and these can be presented in any fashion, so it could be 5 in a row for instance. I hope our efforts have inspired people to look at this and I look forward to seeing what people come up with. Don’t forget, each set needs to come with a Statement of Intent, to help explain what it is you have done.

I then discussed Rodney’s idea and asked everyone to look out for an email from me on this in the coming days.

We then moved to our theme of the month, which was Bizarre. As you might expect, we are known for ‘bizarreness’ on this island of ours and people didn’t disappoint. Standouts for me were James W’s naked mannikin’s and Paul’s huge duck.

Paul also suggested an idea for next time and ‘3 colours’ was adopted as our theme for June – I wonder if people can think beyond flags?

Our outing to Battersea Power Station was postponed from earlier this month due to the weather and is now set for next Tuesday evening, 23 May, and all those wishing to go please let me know – 6 o’clock at Putney Pier, for a 6.15 sailing.

Finally, after our chat last month about AI, James K presented us with some images he had created using Ai software. Taking only a few minutes to produce, as you might expect on a ‘bizarre’ night, his requests to the software were pretty out there and I attach two of his pictures, both involving parliament. I am not sure whether this was his attempt to show us his true feelings for our democratic institution but they are both fascinating to look at.

We then called it a night – either see you next week on next month – cheers AW

Cover image: James Kirkland