Norwich 20 Group

Thanks very much to the many visitors who came to our opening evening on Monday 3 June!

At the Undercroft Gallery, Norwich

Annual exhibition N2024G daily until Sunday 16 June 2024

View from the show:

Tuesday 7 November

At the Chapel, Park Lane, Norwich NR2 3EF.

With thanks to Charlie Ditcham, a Norfolk-based artist freelancer with a background in film and TV, for his talk about his practice.Ditcham works with digital video, sound, and photography at his studio in Great Yarmouth.

Over the past year Ditcham has collaborated with painters, sculptors, and contemporary dancers on a range of funded audio-visual projects, while also running community animation workshops with children aged 8-10.

Tuesday 3 October, from 7.30pm at the Chapel, Park Lane, Norwich NR2 3EF.

Very big thanks to Carrie Clarke and Marek Jeczalik for sharing their art practice

Carrie and Marek are our newest licentiate members, who graduated from Norwich University of the Arts in June.

A reminder that we hold meetings regularly on the first Tuesday of each month.

All are welcome – group members and not – to come along, just turn up to the chapel.

Good to see many friendly faces at our September meeting, our next ‘open’ one – to bring artwork to display and discuss – will be on Tuesday 9 January.

Thanks to the many visitors to our third group exhibition of the year, from Saturday 16 September – Sunday 1 October 2023

Thanks to everyone who came to our huge exhibition at the Undercroft Gallery of work from life drawing workshop regulars.

With 10-12 drawings from each artist made at our scout hut workshop, and as the title suggests, more – other artworks in 2D and 3D media, figurative and not, to complement the drawings.

From Village People magazine July/August 2023

So very sorry to post that John Rance died in March 2023 – our thoughts to his family and friends.

We commemorated John’s creative output in our annual exhibition in June.

John wrote:

My work involves both painting and sculpture and often the two mediums will overlap into what is effectively a 3D painting/relief sculpture. I have worked with a variety of materials using what best suits the end result, welded steel, bronze casting, plastics, etc. though currently I’m principally working in wood. I like to work a material against its natural qualities to set up questions in the mind of the viewer.

My work in wood will often look like folded paper which of course is not possible with a hard product like wood so it creates a small perceptual mystery I’m also extremely interested in colour (at heart I am a colourist) and how colour works both physically and emotionally in both the mind and eye of the artist and the reception in the onlooker.

My other love is Life Drawing, I think it is essential for an artist to stay in touch with the core values of observational drawing and the disciplines involved.

What lies beneath, Oil on canvas

Tropical nights, Oil and collage on board

Deeper, Oil and collage on board

Summer, Emulsion on wood

Thanks to everyone who attended our opening night.

The exhibition continued daily until Saturday 24 June, open from 11am to 5pm.

Group members were present in during these times, to discuss the show with visitors.

Joint event with the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society on Tuesday 20 June.

Thanks to everyone who came, and for an engaging question and answer session at the talk end.

Group meetings at The Chapel, Park Lane, Norwich NR2 3EF from 7.30pm

Tuesday 3 October – New Licentiate members

Thanks for giving a great welcome to our recent graduates from Norwich University of the Arts who have been invited to join the group for a two year period, talking about their art practice.

Thanks to everyone who made our first meeting of the Autumn on Tuesday 5 September such a lively evening, with plenty of art to see, from group members and others.

Please note that everyone is welcome to bring art among to open meetings.

All are welcome come along to meetings in months of January – April, also June, and September – December

May is for members and proposed members only, and there are no meetings in July and August.

2024 meetings – these are usually the first Tuesday of the month.

Very pleased that artist Simon Bill gave a talk, as a joint event with Norfolk Contemporary Art Society – the venue for this was the Undercroft, during our group exhibition in June:

The subject of Visual Perception featured strongly in the teaching of art until the 80s, when it was dropped because it was not commensurate with Critical Theory. The orthodoxy of Critical Theory is in decline, whilst the study of perception as a branch of neuroscience has advanced rapidly. The response to these developments has been slow in art schools – this talk offered an introduction to Visual Perception and a survey of the subject as it stands today. 

Simon with two images from his Op Art murals on Great Yarmouth seafront:

Tuesday 6 June  – The role of arts to engage people with the Earth crisis

May – Welcome to our two new members, Natasha Day (former licentiate member) and Rachel Furze.

Tuesday 4 April
Thanks to everyone who came along to a busy evening at the chapel for an open meeting format – with plenty of artwork brought along to display and discuss.

(Photo from a previous open meeting)

For more information about meetings and membership: www.norwich20group.co.uk/about

For ‘open’ meetings – all are welcome to bring artwork along – we advise bringing something that you can easily carry, and can be displayed on a table or leaning on a side table or chair against a wall.

Tuesday 7 March 

Another ‘open’ meeting, where artists – both group members and not – shared ideas and showed both work in progress and recent art.

Tuesday 7 February, which had a Q & A format, thanks to Christine Allman and Jos Wickham – group members who each talked about their work, with questions posed by Peter Baldwin and Martin Battye.

Tuesday 3 January 2023 – Good to see old faces and new at our first meeting of the year with plenty of artwork displayed and discussed.

Tuesday 6 December – our annual party celebration!

Tuesday 1 November

Thanks to everyone who came to our meeting, where four recent NUA Fine Art graduates gave talks about their art practice.

A priviledge to hear from Jo Bellamy, Carl Durban, Catherine Swain and Luke Underwood, our new licentiate members:

Tuesday 4 October

Format – an ‘open’ meeting – with works in progress brought along to display and discuss.

Good to see a mix of familiar faces and new, thanks to all for attending.

Thanks to everyone who came along to our September meeting too, also an ‘open’ meeting, noting all are welcome – with or without artwork.

Please check here for updates and our newsletter for any changes to dates.

All are welcome to our meetings, noting that the May meetings are for members and proposed prospective members only.

Thanks very much to artists who brought their work along in May 2022.

We’re very pleased to welcome four new members:

Christine Allman, Craig Frost, Sally Hirst and Helen Ireland.

Thanks to members and visitors for making a successful return to meetings this year, here’s a photo from Tuesday 1 March.

2021: Lovely to hold our festive party meeting on Thursday 9 December.

Thanks to everyone who came along on Tuesday 2 November – with talks about their art practice by recent NUA graduates, Jennifer Lovatt and Natasha Day.

With thanks to Natasha, giving her talk in the photo below here, and Jennifer too!

Poster image – David Woods, Blue without green

Thanks to so many visitors for coming to the opening of our first group exhibition of the year, in the Yare Gallery, Great Yarmouth.

Plus to all those who visited over the almost four weeks which the show ran – with work on show from more than 50 group members, in six rooms over three floors of the beautiful gallery space.

Here are a few images from the opening night: