The Balham ‘JoinMe’ visits got going on Friday June 20 with a trip to the Dulwich Picture Gallery.
It was a lovely day, blessed with sunshine and Brothers Terry and Steve were delighted to find Brother Brian and wife Valerie enjoying a cup of coffee at the Gallery Cafe when they arrived. This was in the true tradition of informality for the ‘JoinMe’ visits and we count this one as a success! Brian and Valery enjoyed their first visit to the Gallery with a viewing of the permanent collection, while Steve and Terry sampled the current exhibition of Ben and Winifred Nicholson’s works together with contemporaries Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, William Staite Murray in the years from 1920 to 1931. This proved to be an interesting insight into the influences and separate visions of artists working in close proximity. The Balham group rounded off their excursion with a pub lunch at the ‘Crown & Greyhound’ pub a short walk from the Picture Gallery and there seemed to be a consensus that the trip had been well worthwhile. TGB
Balham Circle 350 
A really enjoyable trip. Thank you, Terry, for organising it. Personally, I preferred Winifred Nicolson’s work to Ben’s, but it each to his own. Terry and I had an interesting discussion about what delineates ‘modern’ art, and at what point it stops being modern. Steve Palmet