Month: November 2016

A thank you from Newnham
Lots Road Group artist Sarah Richardson was formally thanked by Dame Carol Black, Principal of Newnham College Cambridge, this weekend for her portrait of former student and Observer columnist Katherine Whitehorn, which has been accepted into the college’s permanent collection.
In a letter to the artist, the chair of Newnham’s Valuable Possessions Committee said she felt Sarah had, “captured something of the essence of her [Katherine’s] personality and humour”.
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Portrayed! at Newnham College Cambridge

The Lots Road Group’s IWF UK Portrayed! 25 years of inspiring women exhibition continued its tour this weekend, visiting one of the few remaining Oxbridge all-women colleges – Newnham College Cambridge.

Principal Dame Carol Black welcomed AGM Associates, students, fellows and invited members of the public, plus sitters and artists to the well-attended event on Saturday.

Rosalind Gilmore – one of two former Newnham students, alongside Katharine Whitehorn – spoke of the trust the IWF UK sitters had needed to show the Lots Road Group at the start to make what had proved to be such a successful collaboration.

PORTRAYED! GOES TO NEWNHAM COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE

The Lots Road Group is proud to announce that Newnham College, Cambridge is to host PORTRAYED! 25 YEARS OF INSPIRING WOMEN this Saturday, 12 November to coincide with the Newnham Associates AGM.  The exhibition will be open to them, students, fellows, staff and invited members of the public.

Two of the inspiring women sitters were educated at Newnham college – Rosalind Gilmore, private secretary to five Cabinet Ministers, painted by Mark Stevenson, and veteran journalist Katharine Whitehorn, painted by Sarah Richardson.  

The Lots Road Group is delighted that Katharine Whitehorn’s portrait has been accepted into the permanent collection of the college.  In addition Katherine Firth’s portrait of Barbara Mills, the former DPP, has been accepted into the permanent collection of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

The exhibition, which has been touring since May 2015, commemorates the silver jubilee of the International Women’s Forum UK. It features four of the founders of the lWF UK and the first 12 chairs, including Celia Goodhart, a Visitor of Oxford University; champion racing driver Jean Denton, the first woman to hold a ministerial post at the Northern Ireland office; Barbara Hosking, former speechwriter for Harold Wilson.

If you missed it, you can see the exhibition catalogue here Price £17.29 +p&p.

Mark Stevenson’s portrait of Rosalind Gilmore
Sarah Richardson with her portrait of Katharine Whitehorn
Katherine Firth’s portrait of Dame Barbara Mills

In a world of selfies – self portraits offer something different

In a world where selfies – which capture a moment in time – are commonplace, self portraits offer something different, capturing a life lived up to that moment.

The Lots Road Group’s latest exhibition The Art of Reading (Waterstones Gower Street until 30 Nov) includes self portraits of the artists who have contributed their portraits of others reading.
The catalogue contains them all and is available for a special exhibition price in store or online via blurb.co.uk/b/7438580-the-art-of-reading £17.59.

Art of Reading PV – a huge success!

Last night’s Private View of the Lots Road Group’s latest show The Art of Reading, in association with BookTrust, was attended by more than 150 people.

Speeches by this year’s theme leader, Hilary Puxley, and BookTrust’s Meredith Niles underlined that the exhibition aimed to be a celebration of the pleasure of reading.
Meredith spoke about how reading is so integral to family life that when, quite separate to the show, she had asked LRG artist Elizabeth Shields to paint their eldest son William, they found the truest reflection of his personality was to depict him curled up with a great book on his kindle.
Hilary spoke about the popularity of the theme with artists and explained that all the images in the show, which runs at Waterstones Gower Street from today until the end of the month, are accompanied by narratives which together give a palpable sense of the joys of reading.
If you’re quick, you can buy the catalogue in store for a special exhibition price, or you can buy it online via blurb.co.uk/b/7438580-the-art-of-reading £17.59.
Here are some of the artists with their portrait and sitters – including Michael Bond, Julian Warrender, Natasha Farrant and Caroline Dawnay.