Last Friday evening, Terry John, a local historian, gave a fascinating talk on miniature painting in the 17th century. Known as limning, it was started by monks. Nicholas Hilyard, himself an artist, wrote a book entitled 'The Art of Limning', and it was from this that the speaker quoted when he explained what the art of miniature painting was all about.

The miniatures were no more than eight inches in size and were painted on vellum, and later in the 18th century on ivory. The persons commissioning the miniatures were aristocrats and the very rich. The materials were expensive. The paints were earth-based, sometimes ground shells. The colours were extracted from vegetable dyes and were mainly ultra marine blue, from Siberia and Afghanistan, red lead from Italy and France, burnt amber, burnt sienna vermillion, brown and black from charcoal and soot.

The pigments were prepared by apprentices, who also prepared the brushes (known as pencils) from the finest hairs of squirrel tails.

The room or studio in which the limner worked needed to face north and to be in pristine condition. Even the clothes worn by the painter had to be clean and of high quality. The details of the conditions were fascinating with regard to the sitter and the background.

The diminutive paintings were framed in ivory, gold or silver. Jewelled settings were often in great demand.

Terry John had on display examples of the materials; little pots of paints, pieces of vellum and pestles and mortars for grinding. He also had some of his own examples of miniatures and illustrated manuscripts.

His talk was completely absorbing and at the end he answered many questions from the audience.

The chairman, Pauline Allen, thanked Terry John very warmly for a most interesting programme.

This (Friday) evening, there will be a Christmas entertainment, produced and directed by Mary Smith. It promises to be a fun evening, starting at 8 pm in Church House. There will be a finger buffet.

Non-members are very welcome. Admittance £1 members, £2 non-members.