Welcome
Welcome to the Exe Decorative and Fine Arts Society. We are based in Topsham, and cover the towns and villages on both sides of the Exe estuary south of Exeter. Our purpose is to give our members opportunities to appreciate the arts.
We have a programme of ten lectures on various aspects of the arts, held monthly on Thursday mornings, from September to June. The lectures are illustrated and given by experts in their field. These lectures are supplemented by special interest days where we look in greater detail at a particular topic.
We also have visits to places of interest in the south west, and tours further afield, including abroad. Some of our members take part in activities such as Heritage Volunteering, Church Recording and Young Arts, where we try to involve young people in the arts through initiatives in local schools and colleges.
In 2017, most decorative and fine art societies changed their names to The Arts Society, following the rebranding of the national body NADFAS. We as a society decided to retain our name ExeDFAS while remaining affiliated to The Arts Society.
We welcome new members at any time, although we currently have a waiting list. We invite anyone who is interested to come along to one of our lectures, to see how informative and entertaining they are. Please let our membership secretary know in advance so that a place can be reserved.
The Picture of the Month at the National Gallery.
Our 2020-21 season of lectures is now over, and this column will soon promote the September lecture, the start of the 2021-22 season
Meanwhile other pages of this website will be brought up to date as soon as possible
Existing members of ExeDFAS will have received notification that subscriptions are now due for next years season of lectures. The subscription for existing members is £30. This is to reflect the fact that the programme has been so disrupted over recent months because of covid. The subscription for new members next year will be £35, and must be paid by June 30th
The Labours of the Months: June
Italian, Venetian
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.
A barefoot young man sits holding a sheaf of corn he has cut in one hand and his scythe in the other. The sleeves of his blue jacket are rolled up and a straw hat shades his face, suggesting that this little painting represents one of the summer months. We think it may be June, when grain crops are harvested in northern Italy where this picture was painted.
The National Gallery has a very extensive website with access on line to every item in the collection . Each month it published a new picture of the month, and this is the image for June 2021
Galleries everywhere are endeavouring to bring their great art treasures to the public who are unable to get to galleries and museums as once they did. Their curators have prepared short lectures, and the genius of modern technology can give us ‘Virtual Tours’.
Just a ‘taster’ of these facilities is now available on this website starting with lectures provided by our ‘parent body’ – The Arts Society. The section is called The Arts Society plus and has its own drop down menu accessible at the top of this page