Maldon Art Club (MAC) 2015 Open Exhibition
This years’ summer exhibition returned to its June date at the Moot Hall, Maldon on 26th and 27th June.
The exhibition catalogue revealed that there were 118 framed pictures displayed on the ground and first floors of this iconic building, together with several unframed portfolios of work. Of the framed works on display 86 were by MAC members and32 by local and professional artists keen to exhibit with us.
The Moot Hall is perfectly situated to attract visitors but disappointingly, we recorded 154 people willing to browse among the art, have coffee and Sue’s lovely strawberry cakes, (against 197 last year).This year the weather was perfect on both days – perhaps too perfect and potential visitors may well have ended up at Promenade Park or at a BBQ instead of at the Moot Hall with us! As with previous “Open Exhibitions”, people commented that they were impressed with the quality and variety of the work on display. A number of visitors went one step further and purchased some of the paintings.
The exhibition “official opening” was held on Friday evening and undertaken by the Chairman of Maldon District Council –Peter Elliott, who was accompanied by his councillor wife, Helen. Peter explained that they have two sons who completed fine art degrees and he has seen a lot of galleries and exhibitions in recent years. During his tour of the exhibitionPeterwas very complimentary about the high standard of the MAC work on display.
Peter judged the MAC painting and MAC drawing prizes(restricted to MAC members), taking his responsibility very seriously. For the painting prize he short listed four, then reduced that to two, taking them both in to better light to make his final judgment.The drawing prize was from a very small selection and he felt the choice was, by comparison,quite simple. The winners were:
£50 Painting prize - Jo Madge’s “Il de Re scene”
£30 Drawing prize – Len Joyce’s “Nicola”
Robert Nutt selected the Chairman’s prize winner as follows:
£40 prize - Debbie Heapy’s “Puss”
Congratulations to the winning artists from the committee and all MAC members.
Overall the exhibition was considered to be asuccess despite the slightly disappointing visitor numbers. It would appear that very hot sunny weather “kills” the High Street and rain seems to do the same thing. It is rather difficult to guess what we should wish for next year!! Running a successful exhibition over 2 days is not an easy thing to do. MAChave to thank non-MAC artists, Julie Miller at the Moot Hall plusPeter Elliott and his wife for their significant contributions. Thanks from the MAC committee are also extended to the club members who gave their time planning, stewarding, baking, sign making and general fetching and carrying – particularly Gary Fell, without whose help we wouldn’t have been able to set up or dismantle the exhibition.
Our exhibition boardswere made smarter by their being painted a very smart shade of grey and a big vote of thanks goes to the painting team who gave their time to this exercise.
The raffle first prize was the pastel seascape painted and donated to MAC by the artist Geoff Thorpe. A number of people had their eye on this one and we sold £109 of raffle tickets as a result. The draw was undertaken on Sunday by the non-MAC members retrieving their paintings and the winners were:
Pastel painting - Cathy Wilesmith
Basket of fruit - Joan Dolan
Bottle of wine – David Cooper
Photos of the event on page below:
Ground floor Ground floor 1st floor
1st floor 1st floor 1st floor
Peter & Helen Elliott Len Joyce & Peter Elliott Sue & Brenda Sue’s lovely cakes
MAC painting prize MAC drawing prize Chairman’s prize Raffle prize winner