​​                                     30 YEARS OF

                                BICESTER ART CLUB.

Bicester Advertiser Friday 18th May 2012.

Pamela Clapton, events manager,Bicester Art Club.

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          It all started back in 1987 when I had been attending Bicester Adult Education at BCC.

I took a painting & drawing course with Mary Lister along with about 15 other people.

At the end of the second year Mary suggested we now go and "do our own thing", form our own club and told us that the room we used was available on Wednesday afternoons.

    Three of us asked the other members if they would be interested and if they agreed we would arrange it.

There was Beryl Atkinson who approached the centre manager and she was happy to help us to set up the club.

   We named ourselves Bicester Art Club and Beryl was asked to be our secretary, I was asked to be the treasurer and Don Warren our chairman.

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   When Beryl left Bicester in 2001, Muriel Law took on the secretary's tasks. We kept all the class members & gradually our number grew to 24 & we had to form a waiting list.

   Over the 25 years we've had more than 60 different members through the door but apart from a dip about 10 years ago our number have been steady at 24 which because of limited space is a comfortable number.

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In 2006, we moved to a room attached to the Bicester Methodist Church where we soon settled happily.

Maggie McHattie is now our chairman,

Donald Robinson secretary, and

I (Pamela Clapton)am now events manager.

I am the only member now who has been with the club since the start and I feel very proud of our achievements.

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    Over the 25 years the club has had demonstrations by local and more distant artists, and workshops which we hope to repeat.

   We have three planned demonstrations to look forward to this year.

 We have had exhibitions most years either in our club buildings or at other venues,including Oxford Town Hall,Woodstock Museum,the Bletchingdon Equestrian Centre tea room which is now The Oxfordshire Inn, The Mill at Banbury, St Edburg's Church, Bicester, and Brill Art on the Hill exhibition held annually.

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   We meet eight months of the year (with a two week Easter break) and we don't meet in July/August and December/January.

   In the summer break we have two outdoor painting days, and we've had very mixed weather on these occasions.

 We've painted in Garth Park, Bicester, Allen's Lock, Upper Heyford, Brill Windmill, Thrupp, by the canal, Stratton Audley by the lake, Cottisford Lake, Marsh Gibbon around the village, Chesterton pub and village, Stoke Wood.

   We have lots of fun on these occasions and usually take a picnic.

    We also do life paintings at the club on occasion.

 We had a motorbike to draw one year and recently our secretary posed as a fisherman,with all the fishing equipment and he caught a model fish!

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  We have a annual outing in July some of which have been to SAA All About Art in London, The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition the last two years  and a trip to Art in Action at Waterperry this year.

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