Past lectures

	Thursday 19th September 2019 Lecturer: John Osborne Heaven on Earth: The Art of Byzantium This fascinating lecture looks at the main characteristics of the art of the Orthodox Church from the time when Constantinople was established as the capital of the Eastern Roman – and Christian – Empire
	Thursday 20th June 2019 Lecturer: Alexandra Epps Art of the River Thames through Artists Eyes This is going to be a lovely lecture for a June day. The River Thames has inspired artists for over three hundred years and continues to do so today.
	Thursday 16th May 2019 Lecturer: Sue Jenkins St George: A visual history from the 7th to the 19th century of this soldier, dragon-slayer and saint Although a patron saint in many countries, the earliest documented mention of St George in England comes from the Catholic monk the venerable Bede.
	Thursday 18th April 2019 Lecturer: James Taylor Great Ocean Liners 1800 - 1950 Following his very popular AGM lecture last year on the Art of the Postcard and the many requests for his return, James is back to tell the extraordinary story of maritime design through art.
	Wednesday 3rd April 2019 – AGM Morning Lecturer: Howard Smith Rupert – The ‘Anthropomorphic’ Bear Come and hear how Mary and Herbert Tourtel and others created Rupert over 100 years.
	Thursday 21st March 2019 Lecturer: Julian Halsby Pierre Bonnard – Painting with Light Bonnard is one of the most popular modern artists, and Julian will explain this popularity by looking at his life and work. He started out in Paris producing lithographs influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec,
	Thursday 21st February 2019 Lecturer: Tony Rawlins Art in Advertising Fine art has provided advertisers and their agencies with a great deal of material to use in their campaigns.
	Thursday 17th January 2019 Lecturer: Dr Paul Roberts Last Supper in Pompeii For the Romans, getting together to eat and drink, in a pub or at a banquet was a central part of life and this lecture celebrates the Roman love affair with food and drink.
	Thursday 15th November 2018 Lecturer: Claire Walsh Jane Austen’s Christmas Before the Victorians reinvented it, the traditional Christmas was a very different affair.
	Thursday 18th October 2018 Lecturer: Tony Faber Indians, Buffalo & Storms – The American West in 19th Century Art Artists were never far behind the explorers who opened up the west of America in the C19th century and they have left us a powerful, if romanticized, record of the country and the people that the
	Thursday 20th September 2018 Lecturer: Leslie Primo The Sublime in the Everyday: Vermeer and the Delft school of painting This lecture will begin by tracing Vermeer’s origins, his early training and influences and how he came to the genre of painting domestic interiors.
	Thursday 21st June 2018 Lecturer: Nicholas Henderson How to ‘read’ the English Country Church (Part 1) A summer’s afternoon walk, the typical country church. This lecture will help you look at the architecture outside and inside, the church furniture, those mysterious nooks and crannies, high and
	Thursday 17th May 2018 Lecturer: John Ericson The Wind in the Willows Revisited through its illustrators The beauty of Kenneth Grahame’s prose is widely acknowledged but the story is so full of wonderful imagery that it almost demands to be illustrated – despite this, when first published in 1908 it
	Thursday 19th April 2018 Lecturer: Pamela Campbell-Johnston Celebrating the Royal Academy 1768 – 2018 Britain’s oldest fine arts institution will be celebrating its 250th Anniversary in 2018.
	Wednesday 4th April 2018 – AGM Lecturer: James Taylor Brilliant British Humour in the forgotten Art of the Picture Postcard: Artist-drawn postcards were the most popular art form from the Edwardian era to the outbreak of World War II.
	Thursday 15th March 2018 Lecturer: Marilyn Elm For the love of Flowers Flowers with their infinite variety of perfume, colour and form have always provided such joy for the human soul and an inspiration for art and design over the centuries.
	Thursday 15th February 2018 Lecturer: Peter Medhurst The Music and Life of Johann Sebastian Bach A much anticipated visit by a very popular speaker. Through the telling of Bach’s story and through the exploration of some of his finest music, Peter Medhurst attempts to unravel this most comp
	Thursday 18th January 2018 Lecturer: James Wright Historic Graffiti This fascinating lecture by the architectural historian James Wright looks at some of our ancient English Castles and Great Houses through the eyes of the artisans and stonemasons that built them.
	Thursday 16 November 2017 Lecturer: Christopher Bradley Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh This is one of the most famous legends used by storytellers and artists alike, with Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar becoming universal symbols and representations, such as the three ages and races o
	Thursday 19 October 2017 Lecturer: Simon Rees Art, Design and Opera - The Role of Art & Design in Opera Productions This lecture will look at the important part art and design has played in the staging of Opera over the last 400 years and how staging and settings have become key elements in productions of this u