Jurassic Week at Park Hall Countryside Experience

Dear Blogger

Message from Farmer Richard of Park Hall Farming Experience.

It's Jurassic Week at Half Term! Don't miss our week of dinosaur fun in the May half term! The goats, rabbits, ponies, sheep and guinea pigs will be joined by Dora the Dino, who will meet and greet visitors every day. There will also be walkabouts with the newly born baby dinos. Find out more You can dig for fossils, complete the Dino Egg Trail, and enjoy loads more prehistoric activities. As well as our pig races you can also watch our hilarious daily dino race around the outdoor play areas! Tickets include access to the indoor and outdoor play areas, tractor rides, barrel train rides, role-play village, and meeting the animals, plus exploring the trenches, planet room, music room and science area. Jurassic Week will take place from 25th May - 2nd June 2024, 10am - 5pm. Tickets are cheaper when you buy them online... Adult & child tickets are £13.95 pp online or £15.95 pp at the farm. Under 2s are free. Buy Tickets Park Hall is now open from Wednesday until Sunday every week.  We hope to see you down on the farm very soon, >From Farmer Richard, the farm team and all the animals  ???????????????? Follow us on TikTok at @parkhallfarm!

Can you help? Lost - glasses in a purple case

Dear Blogger

Message from Jan Snell, Ruyton

LOST Prescription glasses in purple case If found please tel. 07989 621 247 

Willow Gallery newsletter

Dear Blogger

Message from Willow Gallery, Oswestry

WILLOW GALLERY Oswestry   Newsletter May 2024 View this email in your browser Open Studios 25th Anniversary Meet the Artists Evening Saturday 11 May, 5-7pm All welcome   See the associated Open Studios Group Show at the Willow Gallery until 22 June (Tues-Sat 10am-4pm) and at Oswestry Library until 24 June (Mon-Fri 9.30pm-5pm, Sat 9.30am-4pm)   BVA Open Studios and Art Trail 2024, featuring the work of 26 artists and 11 venues to visit in and around Oswestry, will run over the two weekends 8 & 9 and 15 & 16 June (10am-5pm)   View and/or download the printed brochure UPCOMING AT THE WILLOW Exhibition by members of the Shropshire Guild of Contemporary Craft 29 June-17 August Showcasing a wide variety of craft disciplines   Stitched Boundaries  29 June -17 August A new collection by textile artists Alison Holt & Suzette Smart A WAY OF SEEING WITH REG TURRELL WINDBLOWN   After a stormy night, I looked out of our sunroom doors and saw that the pot of tulips were behaving like white doves! I was intrigued by the style being so prominent, while the petals no longer kept their tight tulip shape. To capture the movement of the tulips in the wind, I made strong diagonals and let the petals flow into each other. The stamens were freely painted, while the style was carefully detailed to create contrast. I graded the background from dark to light using fluid washes to create more movement. UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AT THE WILLOW Learn a new skill or polish an old one. Classes take place in small groups with lots of advice and guidance from our experienced and talented artist-tutors.   Current one-day workshops with some places remaining: Portrait painting in acrylics, Felted art, Batik on fabric, Ecoprinting, Linocut printing and Clay sculpture.  In addition, we look forward to welcoming Peter Monaghan back to the gallery this summer. Working from studios in West Wales and Southern Germany, Pete paints in a fusion of abstraction and figuration. He is also an enthusiastic and encouraging teacher. At Pete's two-day workshop, Collage to Distraction (3 and 4 August), students will explore ways of moving away from direct representational painting towards a more abstracted image, without actually arriving at pure abstraction. Students will work in acrylic on board or canvas and use different materials to experiment with colours, shapes, layout and texture.   Please see our website for full details. THANK YOU ? DIOLCH YN FAWR Thanks to everyone who came along and supported last month's Spring Craft Fair. Also, a big thank you to all our vendors. Although the day saw lower than average footfall (indeed the whole town seemed for the most part quiet), there were lots of positive interactions throughout the day, and we hope you were pleased with your sales. Local authors selling their books at our Spring Craft Fair Left to right: Vicky Turrell, Bernard Pearson and Ron Turner Other Local Events & Information Encounter at the Darwin Oak Etching by Dan Llywelyn Hall The 30-edition etching was made to support the legal costs to rescue the Darwin Oak . More than 106,000 people have signed a petition to save the 550-year-old tree known as the Darwin Oak. Given the name because it stands not far from the childhood home of Charles Darwin, it is one of nine ancient trees due to be felled to make way for Shrewsbury's North West Relief Road. Campaigners say this will be a dark day for the environment, devastating an important piece of green space. Known for his landscapes and portrait paintings, award-winning Dan Llywelyn Hall has exhibited throughout the UK. WONDERFUL WHITTINGTON One of the best festivals of its kind in the UK, Whittington Music Festival returns from 16-19 May. This year the festival welcomes violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason and jazz duo Zoe Rahman (piano) and Rowland Sutherland (flute), alongside many other world-class musicians. Details at www.whittingtonmusicfestival.org.uk. Art World Long-lost Gustav Klimt painting sells for €30m   A painting by Gustav Klimt that reappeared after nearly a century has been auctioned in Vienna for €30 million (£26 million). The unfinished, unsigned work, Portrait of Fräulein Lieser, shows a young woman enveloped in a rich cloak adorned with flowers against a fiery background. It was painted in 1917, a year before Klimt's death. Many prominent works from European artists went missing or were destroyed at the hands of the Nazi Party during the Second World War, and Klimt's work was by no means an exception. The portrait was originally commissioned by the wealthy Jewish industrialist Lieser family, though the exact family member depicted in the painting remains unknown. It was passed to the Lieser family following Klimt's death and last seen in the mid-1920s. The family was subsequently targeted by the Nazis, their possessions seized or destroyed - and the portrait, known only from a single black-and-white photograph, was presumed lost. The painting went to a bidder from Hong Kong, who wasn't identified. Lost Turner watercolour fetches £96k at auction   A lost watercolour sketch by one of our greatest landscape artists has sold at auction for £96,000.   The JMW Turner painting of Hampton Court Castle in Herefordshire, was found amongst a number of 'not very exciting' watercolours and prints left for decades in the attic at nearby Kinsham Court. The painting depicts the castellated country house from a south-easterly direction across the River Lugg. It was probably completed in 1796 when the artist was just 21.   Newly-discovered watercolor sketch of Hampton Court Castle by JMW Turner c1796 Photo courtesy of Minster Auctions   The painting was not signed but has been verified. 'The signature is in the style,' says painting expert James Pearn. 'Turner had all sorts of little idiosyncrasies: the way he drew the trees, the way he filled in the shadow, the way he put various combinations of animals together. They're quite comparable to other examples of his work at this time.' At the auction in Leominster, there was interest from around the world. The painting was eventually sold to an unknown 'phone bidder. Francis Bacon's final portrait of lover George Dyer sells for £6.82m at auction   Dublin-born Bacon completed Study of George Dyer a year before his lover's death in 1971. It went under the hammer at Sotheby's last month, fetching £6.82 million. The bold, bleak portrait, with characteristic use of distortion, will feature in the National Portrait Gallery exhibition of Bacon's portraits later this year. Dyer was 29 when he met the 54-year-old Bacon in the autumn of 1963. Legend has it that Dyer had broken into the artist's house - but according to Bacon himself, they actually met in a pub in Soho. The men quickly became wrapped up in a tempestuous relationship, and George became the artist's greatest muse, appearing in more than 40 paintings over the course of Bacon's career. Francis Bacon (left) and George Dyer in 1965 Photograph: The Estate of Francis Bacon/John Deakin Collection A vibrant, not-for-profit art space packed full of contemporary artwork from local and national artists. We host exhibitions, art classes, craft fairs and other community-focused events - bringing together creative individuals and art lovers from our local communities and beyond. CONTACT US Tel: 01691 657575 email: willowgalleryoswestry@gmail.com Website: willowgalleryoswestry.org Facebook: Willow Address: 56 Willow Street, Oswestry, Shropshire SY11 1AD Gallery/Café open Tues-Sat 10am-4pm (3.30pm café last orders) Closed: Sundays/Mondays/Bank Holidays Editor: Hilary Moorcroft May 2024 FORWARD TO A FRIEND       DAVID BANNISTER Pump House, Maesbury Oil on paper