“The Shell Collector”
Monday 22nd June   7.00 pm
Local author Robert Lyons will talk about his recently published book – a fictionalised account of a real-life 1970’s financial scandal. Robert is donating all royalties from the book to NHS Charities Together. To book click here.

The Highgate House Party continues on Boogaloo Radio on Friday evenings.

Tune in online between 5.00 pm and 7.00 pm to hear interviews and music DJ’d by Dan Carrier of Camden New Journal. Go to Boogalooradio.com and  click on TUNE IN. Check the Highgate Society Instagram account for updates.

Highgate’s own boutique distillery, Sacred Gin, will conduct a remote gin tasting, preceded by a reprise of Ruth Hazeldine’s illustrated history of gin delivered last year at 10A.

Monday 29th June 2020   7.00 pm

An illustrated talk by Elspeth Clements and David Porter

This is an online event delivered via Zoom. To book click here.

Monday 13th July 2020 at 7.00 pm

Travellers’ Tales: Vietnam is the next installment in the Travellers’ Tales series. Robert Hatfield leads a snap shot look-through, as he retells his time living in Saigon and traveling through the diverse and exciting country.

This is an online  event delivered through Zoom. To book click here.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdetXu2HUd9fqvgo8I6C7DTRmLBq0ghjW38leIE3Jk6LCYfVQ/viewform

In 1890 the Impressionist painter Claude Monet bought a property at Giverny, a village to the northwest of Paris. He redesigned the grounds and diverted water from a nearby stream to create a lily pond with a Japanese bridge. In these gardens he found an infinite source of creative inspiration for his late paintings, nowadays considered his greatest achievements.

Talks start at 6.00pm each Tuesday and will be delivered by Zoom. There will be a short question and answer session at the end, using the Chat facility on Zoom.

Please register for a Tuesday Talk by noon on the day of the talk.

Zoom invitations will be sent out on the afternoon of the talk.

NB Start time: 6.00pm
Waiting Room open 5 minutes before.
Booking will close at 12 noon.

Proposer: Paul Kafno, television producer and writer

Opposer: Martyn Bond, former BBC producer and foreign correspondent

Please join us to debate the live topic of the BBC, enlightened by the arguments of expert speakers, supported by ‘seconders’ from local sixth forms. Speakers from the floor will be able to make contributions to the debate, which will have the same format as usual.

Please note: start time 6pm

Booking closes at 12 noon

https://members.hlsi.net/Event-Booking/EventId/108

This month Catherine Budgett-Meakin interviews Martin Adeney.

Martin Adeney worked as a journalist, reporting on labour and British industry for the Guardian, Sunday Telegraph and the BBC. He had his own public relations agency and is the author of a book published just before the Brexit vote, ‘Baggage of Empire; reporting politics and industry in the shadow of imperial decline’.

At this time, the interviews will be on Zoom, but we hope they will be able to take place in the HLSI in due course.

Please register by 12 noon on Friday 17th July.
Zoom invitations will be sent out on the day.
NB Start time: 4.00pm
Waiting Room open 5 minutes before.

Monday 20th July 2020 at 7.00 pm

Claire Norton and Rachel Lock will be giving an informal talk about the Highgate N6 Mutual Aid group, from how it came into being and the way the community has come together, to the way it has worked across Highgate, and beyond.  They will be discussing other voluntary initiatives in the area, and inviting you to discuss how you’d like to be involved in the community going forward, with the hope that we can use the positive collective community response to the Covid-19 pandemic to benefit the wider community.  We hope you’ll be able to join us!

This is an online meeting delivered by Zoom. To book click here.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdfWBDhj0f79wdvt9L_kc27aYrrSbdH6c23fqCh2fv8L3XzPg/viewform

The story of the kitchen garden and the healing of the land

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRD4TVjQ9T4b0HXs-_kA-BoF9cPuaztsXRYtZNsrp7d6_2Vg/viewform

Join Tim Blanning, Professor Emeritus of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of the British Academy, on a journey down the valley of the River Danube.

Talks start at 6.00pm each Tuesday and will be delivered by Zoom. There will be a short question and answer session at the end, using the Chat facility on Zoom.

Please register for a Tuesday Talk by noon on the day of the talk.

Zoom invitations will be sent out on the afternoon of the talk.

NB Start time: 6.00pm
Waiting Room open 5 minutes before.
Booking will close at 12 noon.

Monday 7th September  7.00 pm 2020

A talk by Ruth Hazeldine on the history of ice cream

“There is more to the story of ice cream than just the pleasure of eating it. It has a long social history, as well as a culinary one. The first written record of ice cream being eaten in England is in 1671 at a feast held for Charles II. The first printed recipe was published in 1718 by Mary Eales, Court Confectioner to Queen Anne. Where did this delicacy originate? Well, you’re always safe if you say “China”, and in this case it’s true: records from the T’ang Dynasty in about AD 618 refer to iced milk mixed with flour and camphor being served at court. Sounds horrible, doesn’t it?

Soon afterwards the method made its way to Italy, where it was much improved by the addition of fruits and sugar and by 1672,  90 different flavours were being offered at the Café Procope in Paris.  I will show you a picture of me standing outside the shop, with an ice-creamy smile on my face!. In fact, it felt like Eating Winter with a Spoon!”

Ruth Hazeldine

This is an online Zoom event. (Click here for advice on how to participate.)

Pre-booking on Eventbrite is essential – click here. The Zoom meeting link will be sent by email on or before the day of the event.

Image: detail from ‘Spoons Looking Right’ © Jason Sumray, oil on canvas. All rights reserved

What’s in a Jug?  Paintings and etchings by Jason Sumray     11-24 September 2020

For his Highgate Gallery show ‘What’s in a Jug?’ Jason Sumray brings together a series of oil paintings and etchings that are invented Still Lifes.  He takes ordinary objects and gives them new meanings;  grouping and juxtaposing them as if they are protagonists in table-top dramas.

The series began with an interest in images where the human presence was still strongly felt but figures were absent.  Drawers are half open, stools and chairs empty, plates, cutlery, jugs and serviettes left on the dinner table.  Jason’s purpose was not to create a direct or distinguishable narrative, but rather to offer triggers that evoke potential meaning.  In time, he has become more concerned with a different kind of ‘narrative’ played out in his imaginary theatre world of objects;  where, in the tradition of Still Life, the things seem to exist autonomously regardless of human involvement, and what is important is their relationship to one another and to the empty space.

Several paintings in the exhibition deal with a preoccupation with the theme of ‘Spilt Strawberries and Cream’;  images that were begun as a response to Chardin’s quietly evocative ‘Basket of Wild Strawberries’ (1761).  Jason felt he wanted to upset Chardin’s delicate and finely balanced conical construction.

Jason’s interest in the language of light and dark has been extended into the discipline of etching using solely black ink.  He loves the blackness of the medium and how it’s possible to play with the way the forms emerge or disappear into the darkness, where edges are lost and then re-emerge.  He etches from his paintings;  they inform each other.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London.  He has exhibited in various galleries in London and elsewhere and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions.  He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017.  His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012.  In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer.  Jason gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art and was awarded Distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings.  In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

For further information please contact Jasonsumray@yahoo.co.uk www.jasonsumray.com

Image: detail from ‘Spoons Looking Right’ © Jason Sumray, oil on canvas. All rights reserved

What’s in a Jug?  Paintings and etchings by Jason Sumray     11-24 September 2020

For his Highgate Gallery show ‘What’s in a Jug?’ Jason Sumray brings together a series of oil paintings and etchings that are invented Still Lifes.  He takes ordinary objects and gives them new meanings;  grouping and juxtaposing them as if they are protagonists in table-top dramas.

The series began with an interest in images where the human presence was still strongly felt but figures were absent.  Drawers are half open, stools and chairs empty, plates, cutlery, jugs and serviettes left on the dinner table.  Jason’s purpose was not to create a direct or distinguishable narrative, but rather to offer triggers that evoke potential meaning.  In time, he has become more concerned with a different kind of ‘narrative’ played out in his imaginary theatre world of objects;  where, in the tradition of Still Life, the things seem to exist autonomously regardless of human involvement, and what is important is their relationship to one another and to the empty space.

Several paintings in the exhibition deal with a preoccupation with the theme of ‘Spilt Strawberries and Cream’;  images that were begun as a response to Chardin’s quietly evocative ‘Basket of Wild Strawberries’ (1761).  Jason felt he wanted to upset Chardin’s delicate and finely balanced conical construction.

Jason’s interest in the language of light and dark has been extended into the discipline of etching using solely black ink.  He loves the blackness of the medium and how it’s possible to play with the way the forms emerge or disappear into the darkness, where edges are lost and then re-emerge.  He etches from his paintings;  they inform each other.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London.  He has exhibited in various galleries in London and elsewhere and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions.  He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017.  His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012.  In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer.  Jason gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art and was awarded Distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings.  In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

For further information please contact Jasonsumray@yahoo.co.uk www.jasonsumray.com

Image: detail from ‘Spoons Looking Right’ © Jason Sumray, oil on canvas. All rights reserved

What’s in a Jug?  Paintings and etchings by Jason Sumray     11-24 September 2020

For his Highgate Gallery show ‘What’s in a Jug?’ Jason Sumray brings together a series of oil paintings and etchings that are invented Still Lifes.  He takes ordinary objects and gives them new meanings;  grouping and juxtaposing them as if they are protagonists in table-top dramas.

The series began with an interest in images where the human presence was still strongly felt but figures were absent.  Drawers are half open, stools and chairs empty, plates, cutlery, jugs and serviettes left on the dinner table.  Jason’s purpose was not to create a direct or distinguishable narrative, but rather to offer triggers that evoke potential meaning.  In time, he has become more concerned with a different kind of ‘narrative’ played out in his imaginary theatre world of objects;  where, in the tradition of Still Life, the things seem to exist autonomously regardless of human involvement, and what is important is their relationship to one another and to the empty space.

Several paintings in the exhibition deal with a preoccupation with the theme of ‘Spilt Strawberries and Cream’;  images that were begun as a response to Chardin’s quietly evocative ‘Basket of Wild Strawberries’ (1761).  Jason felt he wanted to upset Chardin’s delicate and finely balanced conical construction.

Jason’s interest in the language of light and dark has been extended into the discipline of etching using solely black ink.  He loves the blackness of the medium and how it’s possible to play with the way the forms emerge or disappear into the darkness, where edges are lost and then re-emerge.  He etches from his paintings;  they inform each other.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London.  He has exhibited in various galleries in London and elsewhere and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions.  He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017.  His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012.  In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer.  Jason gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art and was awarded Distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings.  In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

For further information please contact Jasonsumray@yahoo.co.uk

www.jasonsumray.com

Monday 14th September 2020   7.00 pm
This is an online Zoom event – booking details below

In conversation with Martha Halford-Fumagalli, local author Robert Lyons will talk about his recently published book, a fictionalised account of a 1970’s financial scandal.

THE SHELL COLLECTOR tells the roller-coaster story of Guy Magnus, an ambitious, unprincipled young share-dealer. The story has a number of threads. One is the personal rivalry between Guy and a stockbroker friend, Harry Griffin. They bet a lunch at Maxim’s in Paris on who will be first to ‘show’ a fortune of £1 million.

During the late 1960s Guy wheels and deals his way towards his fortune. By 1973 he is ready for a major deal. Harry’s route to wealth is his shareholding in an ill-managed conglomerate, Britton Trust.

Britton Trust is an ideal asset-rich target for Guy. He sets up a £100 company, Westchurch, as the vehicle for a £20 million take-over bid. A merchant bank, Ulster & Cayman, provides the finance, conditional on Guy giving his personal guarantee for the repayment of its loan.

The day the take-over is completed, a secondary bank collapses and share and property values plummet. Westchurch is unable to repay its loans and Guy has to meet his personal guarantee. Meanwhile Harry Griffin has achieved the sale of his Britton Trust shares and become a millionaire. But in a final twist, it is he who pays for lunch at Maxim’s.

The author was born in Leeds and is a graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford. He became a director of a large retailing group which itself became the victim of a company take-over. He knew ‘Guy Magnus’ socially, and met a number of the other characters during his business career. He and his wife have lived in Highgate for more than fifty years, enjoying the musical and theatrical life that London has to offer. They have two children and six grandchildren, aged from one to 23.

This is an online Zoom event. (Click here for advice on how to participate.)

Pre-booking on Eventbrite is essential – click here. The Zoom meeting link will be sent by email on or before the day of the event.

Image: detail from ‘Spoons Looking Right’ © Jason Sumray, oil on canvas. All rights reserved

What’s in a Jug?  Paintings and etchings by Jason Sumray     11-24 September 2020

For his Highgate Gallery show ‘What’s in a Jug?’ Jason Sumray brings together a series of oil paintings and etchings that are invented Still Lifes.  He takes ordinary objects and gives them new meanings;  grouping and juxtaposing them as if they are protagonists in table-top dramas.

The series began with an interest in images where the human presence was still strongly felt but figures were absent.  Drawers are half open, stools and chairs empty, plates, cutlery, jugs and serviettes left on the dinner table.  Jason’s purpose was not to create a direct or distinguishable narrative, but rather to offer triggers that evoke potential meaning.  In time, he has become more concerned with a different kind of ‘narrative’ played out in his imaginary theatre world of objects;  where, in the tradition of Still Life, the things seem to exist autonomously regardless of human involvement, and what is important is their relationship to one another and to the empty space.

Several paintings in the exhibition deal with a preoccupation with the theme of ‘Spilt Strawberries and Cream’;  images that were begun as a response to Chardin’s quietly evocative ‘Basket of Wild Strawberries’ (1761).  Jason felt he wanted to upset Chardin’s delicate and finely balanced conical construction.

Jason’s interest in the language of light and dark has been extended into the discipline of etching using solely black ink.  He loves the blackness of the medium and how it’s possible to play with the way the forms emerge or disappear into the darkness, where edges are lost and then re-emerge.  He etches from his paintings;  they inform each other.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London.  He has exhibited in various galleries in London and elsewhere and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions.  He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017.  His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012.  In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer.  Jason gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art and was awarded Distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings.  In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

For further information please contact Jasonsumray@yahoo.co.uk www.jasonsumray.com

Image: detail from ‘Spoons Looking Right’ © Jason Sumray, oil on canvas. All rights reserved

What’s in a Jug?  Paintings and etchings by Jason Sumray     11-24 September 2020

For his Highgate Gallery show ‘What’s in a Jug?’ Jason Sumray brings together a series of oil paintings and etchings that are invented Still Lifes.  He takes ordinary objects and gives them new meanings;  grouping and juxtaposing them as if they are protagonists in table-top dramas.

The series began with an interest in images where the human presence was still strongly felt but figures were absent.  Drawers are half open, stools and chairs empty, plates, cutlery, jugs and serviettes left on the dinner table.  Jason’s purpose was not to create a direct or distinguishable narrative, but rather to offer triggers that evoke potential meaning.  In time, he has become more concerned with a different kind of ‘narrative’ played out in his imaginary theatre world of objects;  where, in the tradition of Still Life, the things seem to exist autonomously regardless of human involvement, and what is important is their relationship to one another and to the empty space.

Several paintings in the exhibition deal with a preoccupation with the theme of ‘Spilt Strawberries and Cream’;  images that were begun as a response to Chardin’s quietly evocative ‘Basket of Wild Strawberries’ (1761).  Jason felt he wanted to upset Chardin’s delicate and finely balanced conical construction.

Jason’s interest in the language of light and dark has been extended into the discipline of etching using solely black ink.  He loves the blackness of the medium and how it’s possible to play with the way the forms emerge or disappear into the darkness, where edges are lost and then re-emerge.  He etches from his paintings;  they inform each other.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London.  He has exhibited in various galleries in London and elsewhere and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions.  He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017.  His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012.  In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer.  Jason gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art and was awarded Distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings.  In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

For further information please contact Jasonsumray@yahoo.co.uk www.jasonsumray.com

Image: detail from ‘Spoons Looking Right’ © Jason Sumray, oil on canvas. All rights reserved

What’s in a Jug?  Paintings and etchings by Jason Sumray     11-24 September 2020

For his Highgate Gallery show ‘What’s in a Jug?’ Jason Sumray brings together a series of oil paintings and etchings that are invented Still Lifes.  He takes ordinary objects and gives them new meanings;  grouping and juxtaposing them as if they are protagonists in table-top dramas.

The series began with an interest in images where the human presence was still strongly felt but figures were absent.  Drawers are half open, stools and chairs empty, plates, cutlery, jugs and serviettes left on the dinner table.  Jason’s purpose was not to create a direct or distinguishable narrative, but rather to offer triggers that evoke potential meaning.  In time, he has become more concerned with a different kind of ‘narrative’ played out in his imaginary theatre world of objects;  where, in the tradition of Still Life, the things seem to exist autonomously regardless of human involvement, and what is important is their relationship to one another and to the empty space.

Several paintings in the exhibition deal with a preoccupation with the theme of ‘Spilt Strawberries and Cream’;  images that were begun as a response to Chardin’s quietly evocative ‘Basket of Wild Strawberries’ (1761).  Jason felt he wanted to upset Chardin’s delicate and finely balanced conical construction.

Jason’s interest in the language of light and dark has been extended into the discipline of etching using solely black ink.  He loves the blackness of the medium and how it’s possible to play with the way the forms emerge or disappear into the darkness, where edges are lost and then re-emerge.  He etches from his paintings;  they inform each other.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London.  He has exhibited in various galleries in London and elsewhere and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions.  He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017.  His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012.  In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer.  Jason gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art and was awarded Distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings.  In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

For further information please contact Jasonsumray@yahoo.co.uk www.jasonsumray.com

Image: detail from ‘Spoons Looking Right’ © Jason Sumray, oil on canvas. All rights reserved

What’s in a Jug?  Paintings and etchings by Jason Sumray     11-24 September 2020

For his Highgate Gallery show ‘What’s in a Jug?’ Jason Sumray brings together a series of oil paintings and etchings that are invented Still Lifes.  He takes ordinary objects and gives them new meanings;  grouping and juxtaposing them as if they are protagonists in table-top dramas.

The series began with an interest in images where the human presence was still strongly felt but figures were absent.  Drawers are half open, stools and chairs empty, plates, cutlery, jugs and serviettes left on the dinner table.  Jason’s purpose was not to create a direct or distinguishable narrative, but rather to offer triggers that evoke potential meaning.  In time, he has become more concerned with a different kind of ‘narrative’ played out in his imaginary theatre world of objects;  where, in the tradition of Still Life, the things seem to exist autonomously regardless of human involvement, and what is important is their relationship to one another and to the empty space.

Several paintings in the exhibition deal with a preoccupation with the theme of ‘Spilt Strawberries and Cream’;  images that were begun as a response to Chardin’s quietly evocative ‘Basket of Wild Strawberries’ (1761).  Jason felt he wanted to upset Chardin’s delicate and finely balanced conical construction.

Jason’s interest in the language of light and dark has been extended into the discipline of etching using solely black ink.  He loves the blackness of the medium and how it’s possible to play with the way the forms emerge or disappear into the darkness, where edges are lost and then re-emerge.  He etches from his paintings;  they inform each other.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London.  He has exhibited in various galleries in London and elsewhere and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions.  He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017.  His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012.  In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer.  Jason gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art and was awarded Distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings.  In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

For further information please contact Jasonsumray@yahoo.co.uk www.jasonsumray.com

Image: detail from ‘Spoons Looking Right’ © Jason Sumray, oil on canvas. All rights reserved

What’s in a Jug?  Paintings and etchings by Jason Sumray     11-24 September 2020

For his Highgate Gallery show ‘What’s in a Jug?’ Jason Sumray brings together a series of oil paintings and etchings that are invented Still Lifes.  He takes ordinary objects and gives them new meanings;  grouping and juxtaposing them as if they are protagonists in table-top dramas.

The series began with an interest in images where the human presence was still strongly felt but figures were absent.  Drawers are half open, stools and chairs empty, plates, cutlery, jugs and serviettes left on the dinner table.  Jason’s purpose was not to create a direct or distinguishable narrative, but rather to offer triggers that evoke potential meaning.  In time, he has become more concerned with a different kind of ‘narrative’ played out in his imaginary theatre world of objects;  where, in the tradition of Still Life, the things seem to exist autonomously regardless of human involvement, and what is important is their relationship to one another and to the empty space.

Several paintings in the exhibition deal with a preoccupation with the theme of ‘Spilt Strawberries and Cream’;  images that were begun as a response to Chardin’s quietly evocative ‘Basket of Wild Strawberries’ (1761).  Jason felt he wanted to upset Chardin’s delicate and finely balanced conical construction.

Jason’s interest in the language of light and dark has been extended into the discipline of etching using solely black ink.  He loves the blackness of the medium and how it’s possible to play with the way the forms emerge or disappear into the darkness, where edges are lost and then re-emerge.  He etches from his paintings;  they inform each other.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London.  He has exhibited in various galleries in London and elsewhere and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions.  He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017.  His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012.  In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer.  Jason gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art and was awarded Distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings.  In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

For further information please contact Jasonsumray@yahoo.co.uk www.jasonsumray.com

Image: detail from ‘Spoons Looking Right’ © Jason Sumray, oil on canvas. All rights reserved

What’s in a Jug?  Paintings and etchings by Jason Sumray     11-24 September 2020

For his Highgate Gallery show ‘What’s in a Jug?’ Jason Sumray brings together a series of oil paintings and etchings that are invented Still Lifes.  He takes ordinary objects and gives them new meanings;  grouping and juxtaposing them as if they are protagonists in table-top dramas.

The series began with an interest in images where the human presence was still strongly felt but figures were absent.  Drawers are half open, stools and chairs empty, plates, cutlery, jugs and serviettes left on the dinner table.  Jason’s purpose was not to create a direct or distinguishable narrative, but rather to offer triggers that evoke potential meaning.  In time, he has become more concerned with a different kind of ‘narrative’ played out in his imaginary theatre world of objects;  where, in the tradition of Still Life, the things seem to exist autonomously regardless of human involvement, and what is important is their relationship to one another and to the empty space.

Several paintings in the exhibition deal with a preoccupation with the theme of ‘Spilt Strawberries and Cream’;  images that were begun as a response to Chardin’s quietly evocative ‘Basket of Wild Strawberries’ (1761).  Jason felt he wanted to upset Chardin’s delicate and finely balanced conical construction.

Jason’s interest in the language of light and dark has been extended into the discipline of etching using solely black ink.  He loves the blackness of the medium and how it’s possible to play with the way the forms emerge or disappear into the darkness, where edges are lost and then re-emerge.  He etches from his paintings;  they inform each other.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London.  He has exhibited in various galleries in London and elsewhere and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions.  He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017.  His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012.  In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer.  Jason gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art and was awarded Distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings.  In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

For further information please contact Jasonsumray@yahoo.co.uk

www.jasonsumray.com

Register online to be sent the zoom link

Monday 21st September 2020   7.00 pm

Completely landlocked, surrounded by Russia and China, and known as the Land of Blue Skies, Mongolia is noted for its vast rugged expanses  that link land and sky and is one of the last few places on the planet where nomadic life is still a living tradition. With the lowest population density among all independent countries in the world, it is this vast and majestic emptiness that is the country’s enduring appeal, bringing the traveller, as it does, into a close communion with nature and its nomadic inhabitants.  Join Betty Pires as she takes you on tour, via Zoom, through the fabled land of Genghis Khan, Emperor of the Mongol Empire, who established the largest contiguous empire in history.  Betty will take you through the massive Gobi Desert and the shores of Lake Hovsgol,  the ruins of Kharakhorum, site of the 13^th century capital of the Mongol Empire, the scenic Flaming Cliffs where Roy Chapman Andrews found the first ever dinosaur eggs and listen to traditional “throat singing”

This is an online Zoom event. (Click here for advice on how to participate.)

Pre-booking on Eventbrite is essential – click here. The Zoom meeting link will be sent by email on or before the day of the event.

Image: detail from ‘Spoons Looking Right’ © Jason Sumray, oil on canvas. All rights reserved

What’s in a Jug?  Paintings and etchings by Jason Sumray     11-24 September 2020

For his Highgate Gallery show ‘What’s in a Jug?’ Jason Sumray brings together a series of oil paintings and etchings that are invented Still Lifes.  He takes ordinary objects and gives them new meanings;  grouping and juxtaposing them as if they are protagonists in table-top dramas.

The series began with an interest in images where the human presence was still strongly felt but figures were absent.  Drawers are half open, stools and chairs empty, plates, cutlery, jugs and serviettes left on the dinner table.  Jason’s purpose was not to create a direct or distinguishable narrative, but rather to offer triggers that evoke potential meaning.  In time, he has become more concerned with a different kind of ‘narrative’ played out in his imaginary theatre world of objects;  where, in the tradition of Still Life, the things seem to exist autonomously regardless of human involvement, and what is important is their relationship to one another and to the empty space.

Several paintings in the exhibition deal with a preoccupation with the theme of ‘Spilt Strawberries and Cream’;  images that were begun as a response to Chardin’s quietly evocative ‘Basket of Wild Strawberries’ (1761).  Jason felt he wanted to upset Chardin’s delicate and finely balanced conical construction.

Jason’s interest in the language of light and dark has been extended into the discipline of etching using solely black ink.  He loves the blackness of the medium and how it’s possible to play with the way the forms emerge or disappear into the darkness, where edges are lost and then re-emerge.  He etches from his paintings;  they inform each other.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London.  He has exhibited in various galleries in London and elsewhere and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions.  He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017.  His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012.  In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer.  Jason gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art and was awarded Distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings.  In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

For further information please contact Jasonsumray@yahoo.co.uk www.jasonsumray.com

See website for more details

Highgate Literary& Scientific Institution