Dear Member
The Annual Summer Exhibition
The Annual Summer Exhibition: Tuesday 18th August to Sunday 30th August.
Our 84th Annual Exhibition is fast approaching and preparations are well in hand. August is our busiest month and all your help will be appreciated for setting up the exhibition. Most volunteers will already have been in touch with Wendy – if not, and you would like to help, please contact her as mentioned below.
Stewarding: We have increased to 3 stewards (4 over weekends and busy times) to allow time for greeting visitors, encouraging voting for the People’s Choice and commenting in the visitors’ book.
If you are new to exhibiting with Cookham Arts club and would like to have the support of a member who has stewarded previously, please feel free to contact me.
To enter your name for stewarding, click on this link: Steward Booking Form (changing your view of the form to 50% will make it more user-friendly).
Exhibition arrangements are as follows:
Saturday 15th August: Artists bring paintings (framed and unframed) and greetings cards to hand in from 10am to 11.45am. Please don’t forget the Greetings Cards form. Selection takes place in the morning and templating (planning what goes on each screen) after lunch.
HELP – we need lots of volunteers to porter in the morning on that day. Please contact us if you are available. We would like volunteers to come from 9.30 am – 12.30, or after lunch 1.30pm – 5pm, to help move paintings and tables during templating.
Selection Panel: Arrive at 9.45 am.
Members: Barry Wisbey (lead), Diane Large, Janine Thomas
Non- members:
Zoë Duncan – Printer and Watercolour Artist https://www.zoeduncanart.com/
Patrick Jaeger – Contemporary Abstract Artist https://www.patrickjaeger.com/about/
Sunday 16th August: Craft hand in 1pm
Screen erection from 10 am and hanging the pictures from 11 am.
At 10 am Good Gym and other strong volunteers are needed to put up screens, please.
At 11 am volunteers are needed for hanging pictures, an easy job, as all screen layouts are planned during templating. In the afternoon we need people to clear away tables and prepare the hall for Preview Night.
Your help will be greatly appreciated. Please contact us if you are available.
Monday 17th August, Preview Evening 7- 9pm.
All members are welcome to come along. We invite Guests who have previously supported our exhibitions.
Tuesday 18th August the Exhibition opens at 10 am. It runs until Sunday 30th August.
Sunday 30th August: A bell will be rung at 4.45pm and the end of the Exhibition will be announced. The hall will be cleared, for health and safety reasons, of everyone except those who have a job to do. Craft exhibitors may begin to collect their unsold work. Will all other exhibitors please go around to the side door to wait and buyers go into the lobby. This will make it much quicker and easier for everyone to prepare the tables for checking out. Paintings may not be taken down by artists before 5pm.
At 5pm exhibitors and buyers will be invited back in to collect their unsold paintings and their purchases.
If you are unable to be there yourself, please send someone to pick them up on your behalf.
After taking your pictures down you must check them out. Do not forget your reserve, unhung, unframed work and cards. All artists must check out with Freddie!
At 5.15pm Dismantling Team start to pack-up screens etc. We would appreciate strong volunteers to help dismantle and store the screens and other equipment, please.
The club will not be responsible for paintings left behind.
The committee appreciates your help and would like to thank you all in advance.
Sponsorship for the Summer Exhibition
We are looking for sponsors for this year’s Summer Exhibition. We are also looking for raffle prizes. If you have any suggestions or contacts at local businesses, pubs and restaurants who might be able to offer a raffle prize such as a goods or a voucher, or any other form of sponsorship, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact us if you can help.
TIP OF THE MONTH
For the best presentation at our SUMMER EXHIBITION, we ask members to pay particular attention to the framing of their work. We hope this little reminder page via the link below, will help ‘old timers’ as well as newcomers to arrive on handing-in day with pictures ready to hang and not ‘in need of repair’.
We will charge for any repairs possible to still exhibit your painting, if we cannot repair, we will withdraw your entry.
Recent Club Events
Monthly Meeting
On June 7th we had an absolutely wonderful outdoor painting trip to the Wraysbury Park bowls club.
The weather was kind and the members really friendly and jokey. Andy, the club chairman warmly welcomed us and we were duly plied with tea and biscuits.
The setting there is so peaceful and unique, it’s like a secret pocket of Berkshire full of quaint and intriguing buildings, including the windmill of course.
The place has an old-fashioned atmosphere about it and most of the local people we spoke to loved living there, with a few regaling the history of some of the interesting features, such as the Splash, which was up until a few years ago a ford but it is now, sadly, dry owing to the stream being diverted to provide irrigation for a local farm.
All in all we had a splendid day.
New Arts Critique
Jan Gasca, on 18th June, stepped in at the last minute to run our New Arts Critique, when the planned artist had to withdraw.
He gave us some good comments and advice about the super selection of paintings which members brought along. Thank you if you participated and thanks to Jan for an enjoyable afternoon.
The winner of the prize for our favourite picture, of some very colourful ladies, went to Pam Hammond.
Our Summer Party
And finally: Our 2026 Summer Party on July 5th was a very enjoyable event.
As always, you brought along a lovely selection of goodies to eat. The weather was fabulous and we were able to spend all the time in Rita’s lovely garden. She provided lots of sun umbrellas at the tables, and seats in the shade of the big oak trees. The quiz caused lots of lively discussion among the groups and the raffle items seemed well appreciated especially by the two sisters (I wonder who they might be?) who took home all the alcoholic prizes!
Rita was thanked with a gift of flowers and her next year’s membership of the club – holding the party three years in a row is certainly above and beyond the call of duty!
Events in August
Sunday Painting
Even before the Summer Exhibition, why not join the Outdoor Painting group on 2nd August, 10am – 4pm, as we visit Waltham St Lawrence village?
The small village centre has an attractive timbered pub, near the local church, village hall and cottages, offering typical small village scenes. Car parking available on The Street, just pass the pub on your left and park a bit further down the road, with the pub for facilities. At the end of the day, Robert has kindly offered refreshments at his house, just a short drive away (we will give directions on the day).
Coming Soon
Cookham Arts Club Holiday 2027
Monk Coniston overlooks the northern end of Coniston Water and was donated to the National Trust by Beatrix Potter. HF Holidays manage the 30 roomed 4-star hotel and the National Trust manage the grounds and arboretum which slopes down to the lake shore.
CAC are planning a week’s painting holiday from 11th – 18th June 2027. Brochure single rooms with full board are priced at £1,199 but if we can gather a group of at least 10 people there is a group reduction of £205 per person to £994 with an optional supplementary payment of £35 for a premium room.
If 2 people are willing to share a twin room there would be a small reduction of £35 per person to £959.
A £200 deposit would be needed by mid-September with the balance payable in March/April.
Please contact us by September 1st if you would like to join with other members on this always enjoyable club holiday.
Holiday diary from the Cookham Arts Club Holiday 2026
For a taste of what a Club holiday is like, Rachel, who has recently returned from the 2026 trip has kindly written these notes: we do hope it will inspire you to come along to the Lake District in 2027.
We had a great time in Church Stretton, although the weather was rather hot, we all found nice shady places with a view to paint. The first day was spent in Ludlow where we were spoiled for choice with the castle, the interesting historic buildings and Morris dancers.
We visited Acton Scott heritage farm. This was a fascinating living farm with everything based on the farming methods used across the 19th century, using actual techniques and machinery of the era. The farm also has a rare & heritage breeds conservation programme. We saw fields being ploughed using shire horses and even got to meet the gorgeous, majestic creatures up close. The farm had a steam rally for Father’s Day on the day we visited which added to the great atmosphere of the whole place and even the tea shop/cafe was in keeping with the era. Everyone had fabulous painting opportunities and we all had a splendid day.
Some of us visited Dudmaston Hall, while others visited the David Austin gardens, we all had a very good day at each venue. The David Austin gardens were fabulous; the place had several historic gardens with original planting and heritage plants in them. The rose gardens were filled with the heavenly scent of roses and the whole place was beautiful and peaceful.
Dudmaston hall is great historical house and grounds with a lake. The house accommodates a small art collection that was well worth seeing, too.
Stokesay castle (which is not a castle but a fortified Manor House) was a delightful, compact enclave with a very pretty church that has puritan wall paintings inside. The beautifully preserved Manor House and distinctive bright yellow gate house offered a splendid painting view. Some of us sat in the barn to paint the gatehouse in lovely cool shade with swallows dive-bombing us, while others sat in the shade of the church under a tree to paint the manor house and the church.
Attingham Park was a very large imposing regency house surrounded by parkland and a river.
On our penultimate day, we all opted to stay local, going for short walk either into Church Stretton itself or in the nearby Rectory woods, before it became too hot and we returned to the air-conditioned hotel to finish any paintings/drawings.
The rectory woods (which are maintained by a dedicated team of volunteers) were magical, with a secret pool at the bottom and because of the nature of the land all the trees were lopsided and misshapen. There was even one with a face!
During the week we had a small exhibition raising money for the HF Pathways fund. We raised £33 and Ruth Daniel’s painting was voted the favourite.
On the last evening, we had another exhibition of our paintings and drawings and invited fellow guests to vote for their favourite with a £1 coin. Barry and Gill were joint best paintings and we managed to raise £84 for the air ambulance.
All in all, everyone had a fabulous holiday.
Tuesday Painting Workshops
At Cookham Dean Village Hall, Church Road, Cookham Dean, Berks SL6 9PY, from 1.40pm to 5pm.
| Tuesday Painting: cost £2 A topic, appraisal, tea and cake |
Tuesday Extra: cost £2 Painting, tea and biscuits |
| August 4th: An animal or landscape in the style of Aboriginal art. | August 11th: Paint what you like |
| August 18th: A mythical creature | August 25th: Paint what you like |
Yours sincerely
Robert Jones
Newsletter Editor