Barnard Castle and Teesdale Art Society will host their 67th annual exhibition on Friday, January 12.
About 40 works from the society’s 25 members will be on display throughout The Witham, in Barnard Castle, from the gallery through to the Dispensary cafe, in what promises to be a visual treat.
Members will present their various media works that are a culmination of a summer sketching programme that took them to a variety of locations around the dale.
Society chairperson Christine Hartas said: “Ideally we meet at a place with lovely coffee and cakes, or we meet at a member’s house afterwards.
“Langdon Beck is great because we can go indoors if it rains.
“We are out every week come rain or shine.”
During the winter, the society meets at Barnard Castle Guide hut, in Birch Road, every Monday afternoon.
The society itself has an interesting history, having been inaugurated in 1951.
Ms Hartas said: “The society was established by Douglas Pittuck, art master at Barnard Castle School.
“He seems to have found Darlington Art Society a bit too stuffy about trends in modern art, especially Cubism, and with like-minded citizen art lovers set up the Barnard Castle and Teesdale Art Society.”
Since then the society has met each week without fail, with the inaugural meeting taking place at the YMCA.
The annual exhibition has taken place at a variety of venues, including famously the upper room of the Market Cross, but this was abandoned, Ms Hartas said, after complaints that some people could not get up the stairs to view it. Other venues to host the exhibition include what is now Barnard Castle Library, in Hall Street, and Woodleigh, on Scar Top.
Tutors, such as Jane Young, Suzanne Williams, Alistair Brookes, Simon Wilson, Michael Horner and Alan Matthews, regularly attend meetings to offer their expertise on techniques and to offer advice.
Ms Hartas said: “We have some brilliant members with fine art degrees, we have some members with no formal qualification, and we have enthusiastic daubers, like me, who like to have a few hours a week to mess about with paint and paper, without ever expecting to produce anything resembling a work of art.”
She added that the benefit of the society is the opportunity to work alongside other artists and see how they approach the same subjects.
A preview evening will be held alongside the launch of The Witham’s spring programme on Thursday, January 12, and the exhibition will run until Saturday, February 10.
For more information visit bcastleart.wordpress.com.
