AUCHTERARDER TIMES

 

 

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN AND AROUND AUCHTERARDER...

 

ART NEWS

 

 

Winter Delights

 

November and December see plenty of events for those wanting to avoid the poor weather.  ‘A Quartet of Painters’ is an exhibition featuring artists well known to the area.  Sue Garrett-Cox, Petronella Haldane, Sarah Hill and Iona Leishman will exhibit their strong, painterly range of landscapes and still life paintings at the Smith Art Gallery in Stirling until the 30th November.  All four have trained with the renowned expressionistic artist Peter MacLaren.  “This is a brilliant opportunity for us,” said artist Iona Leishman, who is a member of the Glasgow Art Club.  “We’ve been painting together for over five years and will be showing over 40 paintings which represent many happy hours outside in all weathers!”  www.smithartgallery.demon.co.uk

 

Returning to her roots is Perth-born artist Claudia Massie.  Having spent her time growing up in the Scottish Borders and living in Cumbria for a time, Claudia has recently moved back to the area.  “It’s such a beautiful place, with endless possibilities for a landscape painter”, said Claudia.  “I spent a lot of my childhood in Perthshire, as my grandparents lived near Dunkeld, so I have a lifelong attachment to the area…I have already found great places to paint here and look forward to exploring the landscape further.”  Claudia recently featured at The Mall Galleries in London as part of a group exhibition in aid of UK Youth and will be exhibiting in several forthcoming winter exhibitions in Scotland.  www.claudiamassie.com

 

Want to try your hand at painting this November, well, why not try out the ‘Sketches to Paintings’ workshop at Shinafoot Studios?  The workshop is being run by Perthshire-artist and tutor Margaret Evans, who earlier this year had her latest book on painting in pastels published by Harper Collins.  Margaret said, “The workshop is about taking sketches that are done on-site or, photos that can be sketched from, and developing them into paintings by exploring the painting process of composition, design and colour themes to make them more creative instead of trying to copy nature”.  The workshop runs on the 22nd and 23rd November and only a handful of spaces remain.

www.shinafoot.co.uk

 

Finally, the Ruthven Gallery hosts their Winter Exhibition from the 7th November.  The exhibition features new work from some of the gallery’s regular artists such as Louise Balaam, Hugh Kirkwood and Arie Vardi.  Also on show are several new artists: Yvonne Healy, Colin Povey and Jennifer Robson.  Colin was brought up in West Lothian, painting under broad sweeps of grey clouds and green swathes below.  His landscapes reflect his love of these romantic panoramas and reveal his passion for the drama of that landscape.  Having graduated from the Glasgow School of Art earlier this year, the exhibition is a chance to see this artist in the early stages of a promising career.

www.theruthvengallery.co.uk

 

 

 

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The 50+ walking group continue with weekly ‘moderate’ walks, and soon we hope to start longer hill walks (NOT Munros!) once a month.  The indoor bowling season has started again and those interested will be getting together to book at Dewars in Perth. We had our first Sunday lunch in September at the popular Foulford Inn, and the next, in November, will be in Perth.  Our next outing is by coach to Glasgow Concert Hall on 19th November for Bizet’s opera ‘Carmen’.  And we have already booked 45 seats for the 2009 Edinburgh Tattoo!!  In December we have our annual ‘Christmas Cheer’ lunch, this year again at the ‘Famous Grouse’ in Crieff. At our January meeting we will be remembering the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, with Andrew Clegg.  For further information please contact

 

Liz  (684194)  Mary (664914)  or  Paddy  (662340

 

 

 

 

 

COMMUNITY CHURCH CENTRE NEWS

 

 

Community Church  Centre

spotlight on youth

 

 

 

 

 

Past readers of this column will know that we are making great strides towards the start of building a new Community Church Centre to the rear of the Parish Church. Despite the credit crunch, people and organisations continue to give and pledge money as we home in on the funds that we need to start building work. In these uncertain times, such generosity and support is magnificent and greatly appreciated!

 

The new centre will serve the whole community in Auchterarder. Perhaps you don’t realise just how much is already going on throughout the week and so here’s a flavour of what goes on outside our Sunday morning services, with the spotlight in this article focusing on activities for the town’s younger folk.

 

 

Gridlok is our Sunday evening youth group. Activities range from our very own mini Olympics to jammin’ on guitar, from tubing to film nights, with loads of chat and something to eat along the way.

 

We are involved in running 3 scripture union groups in the Community School of Auchterarder, for P4/5 and P6/7, as well as ‘Ignite’, our SU group in the secondary school, which meets on Thursday lunchtimes in the school.

 

As Christmas approaches there are lots of opportunities for children to get involved in this year’s nativity service and, especially with such a great family occasion in mind, the more kids that are involved, the better it will be!

 

If you want to know more about the nativity service or any of our youth activities, just go to www.auchterarderparish.org or phone our youth worker, Chris White on 660152. Alternatively, come and join in with dozens of kids and their parents on any Sunday morning for breakfast at 9.15am, followed by our newgen service.