2010 was a big year for the ASC for exhibitions. The ASC's last group exhibition, The Spirit of the Pen, was held in 2000 and after ten years, we held two group exhibitions, the planning for which commenced back in April 2009!

The Spirit of the Pen - A New Generation was held at Brush Farm House Gallery, Eastwood, from 29 May to 6 June and, at The Workshop Arts Centre Ewart Gallery, Willoughby, from 13 to 28 August. Both were great successes. We recieved 159 entries from 35 artists for the first and 69 entries from 23 artists for the second.

The opening night for the Brush Farm House exhibition was attended by the Mayor of Ryde, Michael Butterworth (who was overheard commenting that it was the best exhibition the City of Ryde had ever hosted) and Councillor, Vic Tagg. The exhibition was officially opened by the State Member of Parliament for Ryde, Victor Dominello. Special thanks fo Geoff Ford, who was our guest of honour. You can read his very interesting talk in the September 2010 edition of Colophon.

We were very fortunate to have Tim Noad, calligrapher, illuminator and heraldic artist for Her Majesty's College of Arms, London, opening the Willoughby Exhibition and giving an enlightened presentation.

 

small works on paper

Brush Farm House Gallery consists of several rooms which presented us with a large amount of hanging space to fill. One of the rooms is specially designed to allow items to be pinned to the wall directly. We decide it might be interesting to use one of the walls in this room to exhibit a group project of small works on paper, assembled into a collage.

An invitation was extended to all members of the ASC to participate in this special group project. They were asked to write out a quotation on the theme "A Thought For Today" and decorate it in any way, in any colour using any technique on any paper they liked. The only limitation was the size - they had to be 25cm x 12.5 cm, portrait or landscape.

This is the result - we recieved 64 entries from 26 calligraphers. Large sheets of black Canson Mi-Tientes paper were used as the background and the "Thoughts" were arranged and re-arranged many times unitl the right balance of works was achieved - this was quite callenging, but great fun to play with! Each piece was scanned prior to hanging as well, so we have the beginnings of what we hope will be another group project for next year.

Contributors:
Lexie Arlington, Lynetter Bryant, Suzanne Commerford, heather courtis, Sue Davie, Meg Dunworth, Sharon Eagle, Ronda Gaffey, Moya Harrison, Anne Innes, Beryl Irwin, Colleen Little, Patricia Madson, Diane Makris, Jenny Markey, Melinda Matthews, John McMahon, Elaine Moore, Alison O'May, Noreen Prendergast, Yvonne Reed, Julia Sandford, Katherine Stubbs, Linda Upfold, Maria Whitfield, Elaine Witton.