Somerton Group of Artists

Welcome to the Somerton Group of Artists.

Are you interested in art? Why not join us!

Here you will find a very friendly local artists group from Somerton and the surrounding areas, Somerset, UK. We welcome all new members who are interested in art. You don’t even have to be a painter yourself to get involved – you may just want to meet other people with the same interests. We are well established and have around 60 members of all ages and abilities.

We hold a year round programme of talks and demonstrations by professional artists with occasional day-long workshops. We have ‘painting together’ sessions and outside painting and sketching sessions in the summer. These are usually held with somewhere for lunch or tea nearby! In the winter, some members also meet weekly to paint together every Tuesday morning from 10am. to 12pm, and 3 times a year you can sign up for our popular Life Drawing sessions with a live model.

We hold an annual exhibition of our work, and all members are invited to participate.

If you are interested, or have any questions, please contact us for a chat or just turn up to one of our events or sessions. You will be made very welcome!

An evening with Virginia Mason 2nd June 26

On Wednesday Virginia gave us an interesting and enriching slide show when we left behind the current troubles of the world to immerse ourselves in Art.

Her theme ,”The creation and significance of intimate Space in Art a Journey from 1300 to present day”, led us from Giotto’s 1320 Nativity scenes featuring spaces offering shelter and safety for the baby Jesus, through to real rooms containing installations by contemporary Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota .Virginia shed new light on familiar work by the likes of Andrew Wyeth, Van Gough, and Degas and introduced us to modern installations, sculpture by Diana al Hamid, and paintings by contemporary artists like Kerry James Marshall. What they all shared was their use of such intimate spaces in many forms telling a story ,conveying an idea, or creating an atmosphere.

Virginia drew our attention to light airy spaces, dark eerie spaces, quiet, or noisy ones, safe spaces ,empty or populated, symbolic, nostalgic, and spiritual. We saw figures claiming their pace on a bench or a picnic blanket in public. Spaces were glimpsed through a door, or window ,or represented by a single chair or an empty bed ,as a personal space ,not yet claimed or just relinquished?

Much food for thought and inspiration,-another thoroughly enjoyable evening.