THE latest community news from Aberystwyth

Rotary club

THE guest at last week’s lunchtime meeting of Aberystwyth Rotary was local artist Karen Pearce.

She began her talk with a brief introduction on her background.

She moved from Fiji to Wales as a child and attended Ardwyn Grammar School, where her art teacher was the late Hywel Harries.

At that time, she said “I didn’t think I was any good at art”.

Some years later, after attending classes where she learnt to draw, she had revisited Hywel Harries to thank him for ‘sowing the seed’.

She started her formal art training at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1998 and three years later completed her degree in Fine Art.

She followed this up with an MA project, with support from the James Pantyfedwen Foundation, which mainly focussed on painting local landscape scenes including Tanybwlch, Allt-wen, and Cwm Rheidol.

She is also a part-time tutor at the university, where she teaches community art classes at the arts centre.

Most of her contemporary work involved working ‘in series’, on local geographic subjects, developing a theme and going more deeply into it, picture by picture.

Karen has also worked in the past on semi-abstract still-life paintings published by the Art Group, London, and has sold her works through Habitat and IKEA.

She now paints mainly in acrylic, having also produced a number of works in oils and watercolour.

She had been “energised by the weather” and by light and space, ever since she had first come to Aberystwyth, and was happy to recognise that the work of J M W Turner, and the Caernarfon-based artist William Selway, had influenced her style.

Karen’s visual presentation included a number of her paintings of the Aberystwyth sea-front and townscapes, and of inland locations which appealed particularly to her, such as Cwm Rheidol and the Elan Valley.

Club president Michael Deaville thanked her for her interesting insight.

Bridge club

DECISIVE winners on the last evening of August were Keith Bellamy and Dai Hayes, with Sue Sherman and Pamela Woodhouse second and John Holmes and Alan Stein third.

Keith and Dai bid a Grand Slam in Spades with just 31 points between the two hands on Board 27. Dai made all 13 tricks with the finesse in clubs with a 50 per cent probability of success much more likely to work than the 16 per cent probability of dropping the opposition’s queen.

The winners on 2 September were Roger Boyle and Jeff Thomas. Pamela Woodhouse and Elenid Thomas were second. Ian Finlay and Doreen Anthony were third.

On consecutive two of the three boards in one set, East/West had only 6 and 5 points respectively out of the possible 40 available honour points and not surprisingly were the unlucky victims of small slams bid and made against them!

This Friday, they play in the Welsh Bridge Union Simultaneous Competition and a week later, in the Mid-Wales Simultaneous Ladies’ and Men’s Pairs Competition.

Aberystwyth Bridge Club normally plays twice a week in Waunfawr Community Hall, starting at 6.45pm with Friday being the main evening.

For further information, phone the club secretary on 01970 639229.

Choral society

THE Aberystwyth Choral Society was formed in 1970 by the late Geraint John and its 50th Anniversary Year is getting closer.

Now under the baton of Geraint’s successor, David Russell Hulme, rehearsals will be starting for the society’s 48th year concerts on Tuesday, 18 September, at 7.30pm in the Old Hall, Old College.

For its Christmas concert, the society will be performing a work by John Rutter and two works by the French Composer Gabriel Faure.

The Rutter work is his Magnificat, which was first performed in 1990, and is a setting of the biblical canticle Magnificat for Soprano Soloist, mixed chorus and orchestra.

The larger of the two works by Faure, is his Cantique de Jean Racine, a sacred choral composition based on a Latin hymn from the service of Matins.

Faure composed it at the age of 19 for mixed choir and orchestra.

The second Faure piece is his short but very popular Pavane for orchestra and mixed chorus.

The works will be performed in the Great Hall of Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Saturday, 15 December.

Over the summer, former chorister David Green passed away.

David was a very committed chorister who sang in the bass section for a good number of years until very recently when ill-health brought his singing days to a close.

The society is always looking to recruit new choristers in all four voices, and anyone interested will be welcomed at the rehearsals in the Old Hall, Old College.

The society operates a no auditions policy.

Further information is available from the chairman, June Wilson, on 07852 188184.

Printmakers

ABERYSTWYTH Printmakers have flown out to Santander in Spain to celebrate being part of the International Print Festival being held there this year.

Paul Croft, chairman and one of the directors of the group said: “It is quite a credit to the group that we have reached a stage where our work is being recognised on an international level.

“We aim to produce a high standard of work and we have proved that by being part of this international show our prints are of top quality.”

The Aberystwyth Printmakers, who have a workshop in the old college, has managed to get two displays accepted by the international selection committee at Santander.

One of the displays, Rivers of Gold, is going on a world tour including New Zealand and Australia.

It will be appearing in Aberystwyth Arts Centre in February 2019.

U3A

ON Thursday, 20 September, at the Morlan Centre from 2.30pm to 4pm, the start of the 2018-19 programme will commence with a talk by Michael Freeman with the title of ‘Women tourists in Wales during the 18th and 19th centuries’.

The talk includes extracts from the journals of a number of early women tourists to Wales and will be fully illustrated.

Michael Freeman was the curator of Ceredigion of Ceredigion Museum 1991-2012.

More recently he has been researching many aspects of the history of Wales, especially Welsh costume, tourists to Wales and the places tourists visit.

If you’re a member of a club, society or group, send your news to [email protected]