Jack Blyth
Donald Stephenson
Hello! You are very welcome and thank you for visiting our page on
navenby.net.
Please browse through our paintings and if you would like to comment on our work we
look forward to hearing from you.
A brief word about how the group got started. In April 2001 Navenby Methodist Chapel
invited artists and photographers to stage an exhibition. This was very well received
and it highlighted the depth and breadth of talent in Navenby Village, ranging from
the absolute beginner through enthusiastic amateurs to professional artists. The
following year Donald Stephenson and Jack Blyth were returning from a demonstration
evening at Carlton-le-Moorland & District Art Group and the talk got round to
organising another exhibition, again limited to residents of Navenby. At the same time
it was recognised that several Navenby artists were not able to get about easily and
some did not want to go out during the evening. The decision was taken, therefore, to
investigate the setting up of an art group in Navenby.
Donald and Jack persuaded several artists to contribute work and, in November 2002,
an exhibition was staged in St Peter’s Church. During this exhibition and following a
lot of enquiries, the plans were laid for the formation of an art group. Because there
was already a group called the Navenby Archaeology Group (NAG) the name chosen, to avoid
a clash of acronyms, was the
Artists of Navenby. After looking at various premises in Navenby they
settled on the Church Hall.
Rather than start with a formal, rigid organisation, the Artists of Navenby
was set up as a meeting of like-minded people who could gather together regularly. No
formal tuition is given and demonstrators are not hired. The group, which now
numbers about 45 artists who live and practice their art in Navenby, meets every
Thursday from 10am to 1pm for which the current charge is £1.50. This covers the
availability of tea, coffee and biscuits ad lib. The average attendance is
around 14 although we have occasionally had many more. We now stage an annual
exhibition in St Peter's Church, usually in May and in autumn we run a coach trip
to some distant art gallery.
If you live in Navenby and would like to join us simply turn up on a Thursday morning
or give Donald or Jack a call. They are both in the telephone directory.
We hope you enjoy our small exhibition on these pages. From time-to-time we will add
further examples of our work.
If you would like to comment on our work, or to enquire about purchasing a painting
or obtaining rights to use an image, please contact the artist at
003662
News and Events will be posted here
2009 Art Exhibition
Well, it's all over for another year. This year's exhibition was a victim of the foul weather we had over the weekend of 16th and 17th May but, nevertheless, we will still be contributing just over £500 to St Peter's Church maintenance fund. We sold a total of 17 paintings, well down on last year's total of 29.
Everyone in the group would like to offer their sincere thanks for those who bought pictures, took part in the raffle, gave us sponsorship, made donations and enjoyed the refreshments. It is also heart-warming to receive so many nice comments about our work.
Next year we shall be holding the exhibition in June to coincide with the Navenby Open Gardens event, probably during the second weekend of June. I'll keep you posted.
Jack