Dear Members,

Welcome to our November newsletter. October seems to have flown by. I have been enjoying some of the Petworth Literary Festival events, I hope some of you have too. I also visited the Renoir and Love exhibition at The National Gallery, beautifully curated. I now have Painting the French Riviera at The Royal Academy to visit before the end of January. Of course, there are lots of Christmas themed events coming up soon so plenty to look forward to.

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE RENEWED YOUR MEMBERSHIP FOR THE COMING YEAR. IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO ALREADY PLEASE CAN I REMIND YOU THEY ARE DUE BY THIS WEDNESDAY.  IF YOU HAVE NOT RENEWED YET PLEASE GO TO THE WEBSITE AND RENEW ONLINE. I SENT THE INSTRUCTIONS OUT AT THE END OF OCTOBER. ALSO, IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP, PLEASE DO LET OUR MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY KNOW. THANK YOU.

This month:

·         AGM 10.30 on Wednesday

·         Lecture this Wednesday

·         Visit to Knole Estate and Park this month

·         Review of October Lecture

·         Review of Special Interest Day

·         New Lecture year starts in December

This Wednesday, 4th November, our AGM will start promptly at 10.30. The Agenda was emailed to you at the beginning of October. You can also find this along with the 2025 AGM Minutes, Accounts for the year ended 31 July 2026 and our Programme of Events for 2027 on the website by going to Our Society and clicking on the Documents link.

Our Lecture this Wednesday is Viking Gods and Valkyries: The Art of Norse Mythology by James Vaux.

This lecture explores how Norse myths and legends have been portrayed in the decorative and fine arts over more than 1,300 years, to reveal quite how few depictions we have, and the sometimes sinister reasons we may not see them.

A last reminder to sign up for our Christmas themed visit to the beautiful Knole Estate and Park on Thursday 26th November. Our Visits Co-ordinator, Julie Rudkin, retires at the AGM so this will be her Swan Song. Julie will be taking bookings on Wednesday.

Reviews:

At the beginning of October, we had a fascinating Lecture from Tim Schroder, Thomas Cromwell, the Goldsmiths’ Company and the Mint. One of four titles springing from Timothy Schroder's book ‘A Marvel to Behold’, Gold and Silver at the Court of Henry VIII, the lecture looked at the King and his world through a rather special lens of the institutions concerned with gold and silver, the Mint (which made it into money), the jewel house (where the king’s plate was stored) and the Goldsmiths’ Company (which controlled the trade and supplied the royal goldsmiths). At the heart of all this sat Thomas Cromwell, who we all know now through Hilary Mantel’s novels, but who was shown in a rather different light.

The Special Interest Day on 14th October was a resounding success. Tom Flynn gave us two very engaging talks on Theft and Forgery in the Art World. He gave a comprehensive overview of the most significant and notorious cases of art forgery over the last 150 years and focused on the core motivations of art forgers, explaining how the majority of the most prominent art forgers started out as failed artists whose work was ignored by the dealers, auction house ‘experts’ and connoisseurs who function as the market’s ‘gatekeepers’.  In many cases, this rejection led to a desire on the part of the overlooked painters to exact a form of revenge against what they perceived as an elitist art world ‘club’ from which they were excluded. During the morning Tom referred to a number of films made featuring art heists over the years and he has been kind enough to send us a very comprehensive list of those films. I have attached this to the end of the newsletter. I hope you find it interesting. I am reliably informed you can find many of them still on Netflix and some other platforms.

Just a quick reminder of our Christmas Lecture A FESTIVE TALE: THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS MUSIC by Raymond Holden on Wednesday 2nd December. Your new Programme cards for 2027 will be ready for collection before the lecture and we will be having our traditional Mulled Wine (including an alcohol-free version) and warm mince pies after the lecture. Also, there will be the usual popular raffle, so bring your cash for a chance to win a prize. More on all of this in my next Newsletter.

I look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday. Coffee and Tea as usual 09.50 to 10.20. AGM starts10.30!

Very best wishes,

Paula Chabrel

Chair, on behalf of your Committee

www.theartssocietysouthdowns.org.uk

Please visit the website for current news, information on Lectures, Special Interest Days, Visits and booking forms.

Art Crime Films referred to in Tom Flynn’s Talk

Needless to say, there are numerous films dealing with art crime of various sorts, but this short list refers to many of the films I mention in my talks on ‘Art Crime Cinema’, on ‘Fakes and Forgeries’, and ‘Art Theft’. I’ve included the director in each instance. Most, if not all, can be found on either Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.

The Duke (2020) — Dir Roger Michell (About Kempton Bunton’s theft of Goya’s Portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in 1961 to protest the TV licence fee) Dr No (1962) — Dir. Terence Young (The first film in the James Bond franchise, also Sean

Connery’s debut in the role, in which he spots Goya’s The Duke in Dr No’s lair)

To Catch a Thief (1955) — Dir. Alfred Hitchcock (About a jewel thief on the Riviera)

The Last Vermeer (2019) — Dir. Dan Friedkin (An account of how the Dutch art forger

Han van Meegeren faked Vermeers and was tried for collaborating with the Nazis) The Monuments Men (2014) — Dir. George Clooney (How the Allies formed a team of servicemen to rescue works of art looted by the Nazis)

The Train (1964) — Dir. John Frankenheimer (The story of Rose Valland, who helped foil the Nazi plot to move looted art from Paris to Germany)

Woman in Gold (2015) — Dir. Simon Curtis (The restitution of a Gustav Klimt painting stolen from its Jewish owners during the Second World War)

The Maltese Falcon (1941) — Dir. John Huston (Search for a mysterious bird sculpture starring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade)

Rififi (1955) — Dir. Jules Dassin (One of the first art crime ‘caper’ movies by a director later married to Greek Culture Minister Melina Mercouri)

Topkapi (1964) — Dir. Jules Dassin (An attempt to steal a priceless jewel from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul)

Tulip Fever (2017) — Dir Justin Chadwick (An enjoyable romance based on Deborah

Moggach’s best-selling book about tulip mania in Golden Age Holland)

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) — Dir. Norman Jewison (Theft of money by a gentleman criminal, starring Steve McQueen)

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) — Dir. John McTiernan (Remake of Jewison’s earlier classic but now about the theft of masterpieces, starring Pierce Brosnan & Renée Russo) Baltimore (2023) — Dir. Joe Lawlor (About Rose Dugdale’s IRA-inspired heist of the Beit

family collection at Russborough House, County Wicklow in 1974)

The General (1998) — Dir. John Boorman (About the second major IRA heist at

Russborough House and other Irish stately homes)

Entrapment (1999) — Dir. Jon Amiel (Catherine Zeta-Jones, an insurance agent, in pursuit of an art thief, Sean Connery)

Made You Look (A True Story About Fake Art) Dir. Barry Avrich (Documentary about the Knoedler Gallery art fake scandal that rocked the art world in 2011) (Netflix) Headhunters (2011) — Dir. Morton Tyldum (Gripping, edge of seat thriller about a man who steals works of art from private homes and replaces them with copies)

This is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist (2021) — Dir. Colin Barnicle

(Fascinating documentary miniseries about the 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart

Gardner Museum in Boston) (Netflix)

La Chimera (2023) — Dir. Alice Rohrwacher (Josh O’Connor plays Arthur, an

archaeologist-turned grave robber who teams up with the tombaroli to loot tombs in Italy) The Mastermind (2025) — Dir. Kelly Reichardt (Josh O’Connor again, this time as a struggling family man who plots to steal art from a suburban museum)

Museo (2019) — Dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios (In 1985, a group of criminals test out the security of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City to steal pre-Hispanic works of art)

We're delighted to share updates from three artists who are midway through their Dr Andrew Edney Bursary projects, each demonstrating remarkable creativity and professional development despite facing various challenges.

Jackie Eksi has been creating an ambitious labyrinth installation inspired by the 1986 film, working from her living room due to challenges in securing studio space in Southampton. She has completed numerous intricate elements including fabric backdrops, a tower incorporating film scenes, painted canvases, moving elements, and a doll's house. Jackie has found the project therapeutic, helping her understand why the labyrinth has become such an important symbol in her practice. While working without a dedicated studio has been isolating and placed pressure on her home life, she has been resourceful in using donated and waste materials. Jackie acknowledges this project as her "last hurrah" at this scale due to her declining capacity from health challenges and is seeking exhibition spaces for early 2026.

Milly Aburrow has used her bursary to undertake a beginner's stained glass course, developing foundational skills with adaptive techniques suited to her access needs. The project has exceeded her expectations, with the new medium integrating naturally into her existing artistic interests around British seaside culture. Milly has purchased equipment enabling her to continue developing skills independently, and is now working on a new body of work translating her research into stained glass pieces that explore nostalgia, artifice, and emotional memory. She plans to produce resolved artworks for her professional portfolio and future exhibition opportunities, describing the grant as "ginormous financial aid" that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.

Sea Shucksmith has taken their project in an evolved direction from the original plan, creating and exhibiting a new large-scale artwork called Male Gaze that pushed them beyond their comfort zone. They have developed significant new printmaking skills and secured a flexible, affordable studio space (£25/day in a friend's basement) that accommodates their fluctuating energy levels. This has led to important reflections on what "bigger" means in their practice—shifting focus from physical scale to ambition, impact, and accessibility. Sea has secured two new workshop-leading opportunities with Disability Arts in Surrey and the British Psychological Society, attended Make Art Brighton for networking, and is planning to exhibit in Artists Open Houses while platforming five other local artists. They're exploring how to create work with larger impact that remains materially and economically accessible.

All three artists have demonstrated resilience, creativity, and thoughtful adaptation in the face of challenges, using their bursaries to develop both their technical skills and professional networks while staying true to their artistic visions

Some examples of work on the theme "Bird Creations" are posted in our Gallery

Three Outside In artists have been awarded this year’s Dr Andrew Edney bursary. Below are the three artists and what they plan to do with their bursary.

Jack Bull

Jack will use the bursary to work with a photographer to take professional, high quality images of his recent artwork. Jack will hire a studio space in Brighton which provides lighting, backdrops and technical support. Jack will work with photographer Chris O’Donovan who will take photographs of Jack’s work. The images will then document his artwork and be added to his website. This will help Jack with his professional practice.

Julia Oak

Julia is using the bursary to research and explore what happens to artwork after people die. She wants to take this opportunity to find homes for her work, to explore options which will help her and also help other artists and their families or carers in the future. It will aim to help future proof it’s life. Julia will use part of the bursary to work with a mentor, exhibition and printing/communication translation costs. Part of the bursary would be a hard copy version of the research that could be available to art groups and individuals that are non-digital.

Yasmin Crawford

Yasmin Crawford is a Fine Art Photographer, Visual Artist and multidisciplinary collaborator. She will use the bursary to support her with the creation of her art, printing on different materials such as chiffon, silk and cotton, framing, and travel for two exhibitions. The bursary will support her travel and the development of her artworks and networks. These types of events are wonderful, and creative, allowing her to show her artwork in different forms but most importantly support people with difficult health problems and support public education on relevant scientific topics.

To see examples of the artists' work, click HERE

We are proud to announce the opening of a new Arts Studio at Bury Primary School, decorated and refurbished by volunteers and supported with Society funds.

The Studio can be viewed during an Open Day between 9:30 - 11:30am.

The Andrew Edney Bursary

Our Society has entered into an exciting new partnership with the award-winning charity Outside In. Founded and based at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, but operating independently and nationally since 2017, Outside In provides a platform for artists who find it difficult to access the art world for reasons including health, disability, isolation or social circumstance. It does so through exhibitions, artist support and professional training programmes.

The Arts Society South Downs will deliver an annual bursary of £1500 to Outside In, which will be divided between eligible artists living and working in Sussex and Hampshire. It will enable at least three recipients each year to advance their skills by purchasing art materials, attending a course in their discipline or expanding their artistic horizons through travel. 

The bursary, which will run for a duration of ten years, was made possible through a legacy left to The Arts Society South Downs by our former member of many years, Dr. Andrew Edney, veterinarian, art lover and philanthropist. We hope it will pave the career paths of many artists who would not otherwise have found the support they deserve.

The first round of the Andrew Edney Bursary was launched in April, and applications are now open. For more details, see  https://www.outsidein.org.uk/news_and_events?item_id0=18309. 

The image reproduced here is 'Sugar-Glider vs Octopus' by Outside In artist Carlo Keshishian.