The Lake Artists Society: 1904-2004 - A Centenary Celebration

Jane Renouf
�35.00

Winner of the Lakeland Book of the Year 2005. The Lake Artists Society has survived through a century of many cultural and artistic changes, wars and economic crises, and has gone from strength to strength, continuing to present an annual exhibition which is recognised as of great importance.
This lavishely illustrated book is a tribute to all members past and present, whose work has enriched the culture of the Lake District and given pleasure to many thousands.

Published by :	Lake Artists Society
Published Date :	2004
Pages :	310
Format :	Large hardback.
Illustrations :	Colour and b&w photographs. Line illustrations.
ISBN :	954678508

The Lake Artists Society: 1904-2004 - A Centenary Celebration

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Review

William Gershom Collingwood was a remarkable man. He was secretary to John Ruskin in his years at Brantwood. An oil by Collingwood shows Ruskin writing at a table looking over Coniston. Art folios lie around the room, documents are piled on the floor and the waste basket bulges with rejected papers. A cat sleeps serenely on a leather chair.
And it was Ruskin, with his views on work and culture and tradition, who prompted Collingwood to pursue his dual careers as a painter and a writer. He wrote a History of the Lake Counties and researched and published extensively on the days of the Vikings in Cumbria.
As an artist he was among the finest of the many artists who drew inspiration from the Lake District landscape and shaped our sense of the living grandeur of our lakes and fells.
A hundred years ago, in 1904, in Ambleside, a meeting if artists determined to form the Lake Artists Society for the purpose of an annual exhibition. There were twenty-one members and Collingwood became its secretary. At the time he wrote to Alfred Heaton Cooper: "This thing will carry on longer than you or I "
And so it has. The Society celebrates its centenary this year. To mark this achievement Jane Renouf has written a superb book. The history of the Society is interwoven with the biographies of its members and guest exhibitors. There is a colour reproduction of at least one work by each artist.
There have been artistic dynasties. Alfred Heaton Cooper exhibited his soft, watery views but did not become a member. His son William set up his studio in Grasmere and has shown us how to look at the surrounding hills in a new way, seeing how the light sharpens the angularity of the rocks and water. His son, Julian, the third generation of the family, paints as though he had to "negotiate" with "the unyielding rock"
Five of the twenty-one founder members were brothers - the Tucker brothers from Windermere. Their father taught them to paint and "the boys all worked together in one large studio under the criticism of their parents." - it was no wonder they all became successful artists.
The Royal College of Art was evacuated to Ambleside during the Second World War, but it was a German refugee, Kurt Schwitters, who placed Ambleside right at the cutting edge of contemporary art. The "sad and hard-up" Schwitters scraped a living by painting portraits of locals and tourists and won prizes for his flower paintings, but in a barn nearby he created his masterpiece, the Merzbau, a fantastic collage of rubbish and scraps that became the final statement of his life.
Sheila Fell, the Royal Academician from Aspatria, was a member until her early death in 1979. For her, "Cumberland has never been painted as I would like to see it," Her Cumberland was a bare harsh landscape with potato pickers and haymaking.
Today's members of the Society include Venetia Holland from Caldbeck, Susan Glassford from Curthwaite, and Alan Stones and Heather Davies from the Penrith area.
They continue the long tradition of independently-minded artists painting their world, whether it be of landscape, people or flowers, and interpreting it for our benefit.
The Lake Artists Society has made an incalculable contribution to the cultural life of Cumbria. This wonderful book is a fitting tribute to a hundred years of artistic endeavour. - Steve Matthews, Bookcase.

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