The merchants of seventeenth century Holland filled their town houses with paintings. A favourite subject was scenes of everyday life: depicting behaviour both good and bad. But these upright Calvinist citizens rejected Catholic Baroque melodrama. They wanted nothing to alarm the in-laws or corrupt the children. Innocent objects hint at adult themes: plucked chickens and lap dogs, lutes and virginals, oysters and artichokes, foot warmers and bed warmers. This is a world of subtle hints and double entendre, spoken through a language of symbols, emblems and motifs. 

Lynne Gibson is now working as a freelance lecturer in the History of Art, originally trained as a fine artist and has taught painting, drawing and printmaking in higher and adult education. She lectured as an art historian for the universities of Sussex and Bristol where she introduced 'Understanding Art' to the Lifelong Learning programme and residential summer schools. She gives talks, lectures and guided tours to a wide range of organisations and institutions including ARCA colleges, the National Trust, Art museums and Art societies. She has worked as a professional artist specialising in oil painting and etching. Solo and group shows have included the RWA, British Museum and the Barbican.

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10.00am – 3.00pm

(including lunch) £45

This Special Interest Day covers the life, art and times of one of Britain's greatest artists of the last hundred years, David Hockney. He truly made a bigger splash. He was essentially a figurative artist who painted or made artworks of subjects he loved. Despite brief dalliances with Pop Art and Abstraction, the art movement that most captured his imagination was Cubism, with its ability to depict people and places from different perspectives at the same time.

Ray Warburton has had a life-long love of art. However, in his twenties, Ray studied social sciences at the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies. These studies led to a career in health and social care, with art being an evening and weekend passion. But all that changed in 2011, when Ray became a guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Then from 2014 to 2017, he studied art history at the Open University, and then at the University of Buckingham, from where he gained an MA in the History of Art. And to cap it all, Ray became an Arts Society lecturer in 2017. Ray also knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end of lectures as he is a member of his local Arts Society in Blackheath.

(A Bigger Splash 1967 Tate, courtesy of The David Hockney Foundation)

10.00am – 3.00pm

(including lunch) £45

This Special Interest Day looks at who the Pre-Raphaelites were and what they were trying to achieve in their art.  It examines the biographies and careers of the key figures and how their work developed over the years.  It also explores the impact their work had at the time and the considerable influence they had on other artists.

Rosalind Whyte has a BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. She is an experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. She lectures at Tate, to independent art societies and on cruises.

  (Proserpine:  Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Tate Britain)