Annual General Meeting

The Kedfas AGM will be held on:

Thursday 21st January 2010

The Thurlestone Hotel

11.45 am

All members of the Society are invited and encouraged to attend.

Annual General Meeting

KEDFAS New Year Lunch

Members and Guests are invited to a New Years Lunch

The Margaret Amelia Restraunt

The Thurlestone Hotel

Thursday 21st January 2010

12.30 for 1.00pm

Details from:

Mrs S Wright, Higher Barn, 4 Scoldens Close, Modbury Tel: 01548 831 349

e-mail: wrightsusan@onetel.com

A Painted Mirror

Patricia Wright's brilliantly illustrated talk carried on an exceptionally high standard of this season's KEDFAS programme. Her examples of Medieval art vividly and humorously brought to life some of the more surprising aspects of Medieval life- a life which was often short and hard with death being very real and constantly present, and where much was dominated by the Church which was over-rich, over-mighty and over-indulged; when the frontier between heaven and earth was considered almost porous, so patron saints were fully expected to deliver defence in return for prayer and gifts. It was a time when marriage was almost a circulating currency yet the concept of romantic love was newly invented. Everything was expressed in art with an ingenious symbolism which, when so clearly and amusingly explained to us, peeled back the centuries and let us see our ancestors' lives in fascinating detail. Among many beautiful slides we saw a marriage contract being negotiated, passionate yearnings being expressed through a code of colours and jewels, a group of men and women enjoying themselves in a pub, and a communal bath scene- which might be X-rated today- being spied upon by a King in full regalia. In short, and as promised, Pat showed us a Painted Mirror reflecting life in an earlier age. What we had not expected was the fun and laughter!

Treasures of the Royal Collection

How could you possibly give the flavour of a collection of 485,000 items in one hour? Oliver Everett, Librarian Emeritus of the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, did just that, brilliantly and excitingly, in his October lecture to the Society. The Royal Collection represents the personal tastes of our sovereigns over the past 500 years- our present Queen added the first Turner, his magnificent watercolour of Windsor Castle; surprisingly non of her predecessors liked him- plus gifts, and even booty from some of our past wars. The greatest collectors were, in Oliver's eyes, George IV, George III, Charles I and CharlesII. The greatest vandal was Oliver Cromwell who sold much of the collection to fund his Commonwealth, much of which was later bought back by CharlesII who also bought some 600 Leonardo Da Vinci drawings. The statistics are mind blowing: 30,000 Old Master drawings, 80 Holbeins, 27 Van Dykes including the triple head study of Charles I (for a bust by Benini, Later destroyed by fire), 5 Rembrandts, 17 Stubbs, 1 Vermeer. And that is before you get to the amazing pottery, gold and silverware jewellery, Faberge Eggs, the Diamond Diadem (as seen on our postage stamps) and of course the Cullinan Diamond. Oliver Everett's great achievement was to put over all these facts whilst showing magnificent slides of many key works in the collection, so we could appreciate the full scope and scale of the Collection at the same time as absorbing the fine detail of many of the treasures.

Stained Glass of York Minster

This lecture had to be abandoned due to the speaker being taken ill during his performance.

KEDFAS Introduction

KEDFAS – COULD IT BE FOR YOU?

I must admit to feeling a bit wary when it was suggested that I join the newly formed KEDFAS – Kingsbridge Estuary Decorative and Fine Arts Society – back in 1993. Beyond sometimes “knowing what I like” I knew nothing much about any of the arts, decorative or otherwise, and a group with that name would surely be full of people who knew everything … about all of them. I would feel a complete ignoramus, frightened to open my mouth, and anyway what could they offer that would possibly interest someone with my common or garden tastes?

Luckily I was persuaded to try it and for the past 16 years the KEDFAS lecture has been a regular highlight of each month between September and June. Very often the less I have expected to be interested, the more I have enjoyed the talk. Some of the slides are quite amazing. The lecturers are all experts in their field and great enthusiasts, so they make each subject fascinating to everyone – whether you start by knowing anything about it, or nothing at all. And the subjects are so varied and often very unusual. Of course most of the lectures are about the works and lives of great painters, sculptors, composers, or ancient monuments and outstanding buildings etc, but this season for instance we also had a specialist detective who told us of his adventures and successes in tracking down international art thieves, even how they recovered jewellery and art objects hidden in false walls or buried in fields. Past lecture subjects have included The Original Olympic Games, Beds and Bedtime, Historic Pubs, Brighton Station, even “Bogs, Baths and Basins”! We have heard the Story of Chinese Jade, the Life and Times of Samuel Pepys, History of the Long Case Clock… the range of subjects is endless.

KEDFAS offers many other activities too: expertly guided visits to art collections, historic venues, important houses and gardens in the South West; occasional tours to interesting places overseas as well as at home; study days to look at specific subjects in more detail under the guidance of an expert tutor. All these are “optional extras” but the annual subscription of £36 per head covers the nine lectures (giving a very reasonable price of only £6 for each one) and each member also receives the arts journal “NADFAS REVIEW” free each quarter.

You can find out much more about KEDFAS by calling 01548 857507 or e-mailing kedfasinfo@yahoo.co.uk.

For a small donation you could even come to one of our lectures as a “taster”.

Try it – you may well find it’s for you!