Parish Mag Article May 2022
Thursley Exhibition was held annually in the hall from 1974 – 1984. It was an art and craft extravagance organised by Margie Crawfurd and Georgina Harvey, both residents of the village. Although it started small, as a vessel to allow local artists and craftsmen to display and sell their works, it grew into an important and widely acclaimed showcase for artists from all over the South of England.
It reached national prominence in 1982 when it was covered by The Field, and this is an extract from their piece:
Art and Craft Ascending
The Rise and Rise of a Village Exhibition in Surrey.
The Thursley Village Exhibition is now seven years old. It was started as a charity benefit and grew into an informal showcase for artists and craftsmen all over the south of England. Its stature is now such that it can shake hands on equal terms with established galleries.
The setting is a Victorian hall in Thursley, a Surrey village which was once a centre of iron making and where one can still see the iron pits and hammer ponds. Nearly 200 paintings and sculptures by 50 artists as well as furniture, silver, glass, ceramics and bookbinding will be exhibited from 25 September – 3 October.
Among the equestrian artists is Juliet Jeffrey who is showing a hunting scene from an unusual angle. “It was my own first view of the hunt, looking through the horses’ legs with the hounds bounding in. When they set off it becomes a blur with the flurry of hounds and horses coming and coming and it is this I have tried to capture”. Her other paintings depict Appleby Horse Fair, the big gypsy fair held every June, and one of her favourite subjects – pony sales at which the groups of ponies provide a very paintable series of patterns.
Juliet Jeffrey has also illustrated several books including one of Gypsy Poems and Ballads. For some years she was married to Peter Ingram, one of the five gypsy waggon builders in the country and has painted a considerable oeuvre of gypsy life in a style which is an interesting blend of realism with abstract undertones.
Paintings of people with their favourite horses and other animals, once the mainstay of the itinerant artist, is again becoming a popular art form. The resurgence of interest of this type of portraiture takes the equestrian artist Susie Whitcombe as far as Australia where she goes to paint animals, for some of the big livestock owners.
Miss Whitcombe’s oil on canvas Summer Afternoon, Frensham, in this exhibition depicts three gleaming coated ponies reflected in the limpid waters of a large pond framed in trees and bushes (most likely Frensham Great or Little Pond – Ed).
Earlier, in 1980, a press release from the exhibition organiser’s read:
For the last six years the Thursley Exhibition has encouraged local artists to exhibit their work. During this period, the organisers have steadily improved the standard of work submitted, kept overheads down and prices low.
This year in a bold step to raise the quality again, the organisers have invited a number of artists/craftsmen, who, whilst having local connections, exhibit widely.
William Pye is one of our country’s leading sculptors. He will exhibit a stainless-steel work in the garden and his” Californian Bronzes” in the hall. John Donald is designing a collection of ten pieces of jewellery especially for this exhibition.
Faith Shannon, from Puttenham, who has just been awarded an Arts Council grant, will exhibit a book she has bound, and her husband, Sandy Mackilligan, a piece of furniture. Lorne Mackean, whose bronzes are in the royal collection (seen in the forefront of the photographs below – Ed), has something at the foundry for us and George Taylor, one of Edward Barnsley’s protegees, will exhibit some wood carvings.
From Thursley itself we have Peter Hanauer’s glass bowl, Salli Tomlinson’s “Companions”, as seen on television recently, and the work of the Thursley weavers. Among our favourites at the Royal Academy this summer were Joyce O’Shea, from Godalming, Christopher Harrison from Cranleigh and Cavendish Morton from the Isle of Wight. All will be showing at the exhibition.
This is an opportunity to see an unusual exhibition in a particularly pleasant, informal and rural setting. It opens on Saturday 27th September for nine days.
