August 2009 Art and Craft Exhibition

Another busy weekend... we wish to thank the many artists who between them provided an excellent display of some 290 paintings in a wide variety of media, alongside the craft artists who again displayed and sold their excellent wares. And, of course, those many people who visited in order to browse, chat, eat, drink and make purchases. Our thanks to you all.

Sadly, this year saw the death of our patron, Toni Morgan. Twenty four years ago Toni, Phoebe Douglas and Paul Holmes founded this annual art exhibition. Toni, with her experience of how such exhibitions should look, acted as artistic advisor, set high standards and was a terrific encourager. The Friends Art Exhibition was an immediate success and has stood the test of time. Toni regularly attended and her paintings hung in every exhibition, including last year when she was becoming very frail. Seeing the red ‘sold’ dots made her very happy! Toni's greatest passion was painting, typically using oils to create pictures of flowers, Kentish landscapes and various places around the world which she had visited. She is much missed and we were proud to have her as our patron.

Therefore we were delighted to display for sale a number of her paintings kindly donated by her sons and not surprisingly nine of these have very quickly found their way to new homes. Many thanks to her family for this kind and generous gesture.

We know that Toni would have been pleased to know that, with her help, this year's exhibition was another success and a sum in excess of £2,000 will, in due course, be put to good use supporting the fabric and fittings of this church which she loved so much.

Goudhurst Village Fete

Thank you to all who provided CDs and DVDs for us to sell, also to all the good people who stopped to browse, buy and have a quick chat. This was a lovely hot summer afternoon and the Fete was, as usual, well supported.

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