Our summer exhibition returned this month for the first time since 2019, and thanks to our members was a real success!

After a two year break because of the Covid pandemic, it was felt that it would be a smaller scale affair this year. Many of our artists have not been painting as much as usual because of the long break from Monday morning sessions, so would there be enough art works available to make an exhibition?

We needn't have worried.

The Cedar Centre was filled with 120 paintings and drawings, as well as two fabulous ceramics displays, and three sets of craft works, all from 22 different artists. Anticipating a smaller exhibition this year, we decided to do without the usual display screens and instead show the paintings on easels and table stands. It's fair to say we didn't expect so many exhibits so we were very much reliant on members lending us their stands, and thanks to everyone pulling together we were able to squeeze everything in. Thank you so much to everyone who provided either an artwork or a stand - we couldn't have done it without you.

As ever, we held a public vote amongst

visitors for their favourite exhibit. The

favourite was "Richard", a portrait by Kate Paskin, whilst the artist with the most votes (amongst more than one painting) was Neen Sidnell. Here is the winning painting (to the right).

We had 145 visitors on the Saturday when the Castor Festival was on, and another 48 on the Sunday. A recurring theme amongst the visitors' comments was how much they liked the new layout, with everything displayed on tables and easels, which made the room feel more open and paintings easier to see. We also had a number of expressions of interest in coming along to Monday mornings to join CASA, so hopefully we may see some new faces.

In total the exhibition led to the sale of four paintings and four ceramic works, as well as a decent number of cards and crafts.

Thanks again to everyone who helped to make the exhibition possible, and see you next year!

Thanks to Robert Paskin for the photos.