2018
The Pre-Raphaelites (exhibition : Edward Coley Burne-Jones Bt. Tate Britain).
Study day : The Rise of the Venetian Republic
Sicily : the Jewel of the Mediterranean
Do the 15th c Flemish artists, Jan van Eyck, Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden, deserve to be called primitive artists?
The Architect, the Sculptor & the Painter: Brunelleschi, Donatello & Masaccio
Symbolism
The Gentileschi's: Father & Daughter.
Charles I: A Man of Taste (Exhibitions at both the Royal Academy & The Queen's Gallery).
2017
Frenchmen in London (Exh Tate Britain: The Impressionists in Exile)
Is this William Shakespeare? An examination of the Wadlow portrait.
How the Protestant Renaissance changed Portraiture.
18th century Venice
Rivalries in Rome 1500 - 1550.
The History of the Nude
How Artists See Themselves (exh Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace)
The Russian Avant Garde 190 - 1917 (exh RA: REvolution 1917 - 1932)
Rivalries in Rome 1500 (exh National Gallery: Michelangelo & Sebastiano del Piombo)
2016
Caravaggio: (Exhb: Beyond Caravaggio at National Gallery)
Holbein : before he came to England
Surrealism: an Introduction.
Stranger Painters of the Tudor Court: who were the foreign artists that came to England and were the foundation of our artistic heritage?
Five Great Mistresses: a look at forgotten women artists of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Botticelli: A Renaissance Master: (exh V&A: Botticelli Re-imagined)
Lee Miller (Exhb. Imperial War Museum)
The Impressionists (Exhb RA)
2015
The Golden Age of Dutch Art - Part 2
The Golden Age of Dutch Art - Part 1
Nicholas Hilliard 1547 - 1619.
Botticelli: A Renaissance Master
John Singer Sargent - His Life & Works. (Exhb. National Portrait Gallery)
Blinded by the Light: The Impressionists (Exhb. National Gallery)
Rubens (Exhb. RA)
2014
Art & Artists of the Great War.
The 'discovery' of linear perspective in 15th century Florence. Was it as new as all that?
Giovanni Batista Moroni (Exhb: Sackler Wing, Royal Academy)
Rembrandt: His Life & influences (Exhb: Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery)
Into the Light: JMW Turner and his influence on 19th & 20th century art (Exhb: Tate Britain)
Malevitch & The Jack of Diamonds Group (Exh: Tate Modern)
The Stranger Painters of the Tudor Court (Exhb: NPG)
Matisse: His life & work: (Exhb: Tate Modern)
Veronese: The Master of Colour (Exhb: National Gallery)
Renoir: His Life & Works. (Exhb: Light Box, Woking - Renoir in England).
Is Modern Art all that Modern? A look at the making of marks since the end of the last Ice Age: guest speaker - Hannah Wiggins Thirkill.
David Bailey: (Exhb. NPG)
2013
Klimt (Exhb. Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery)
Philip II as patron of the arts
Artists of the Tudor Court (Exhb. In Fine Style, Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace)
Vermeer & His Place in Dutch Art (Exhb. Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery)
If Music be the Food of Love. . .
LS Lowry (exhb. Tate Britain)
The English Avant Garde
19th century Women Photographers
19th century photography of Empire
A Bigger Splash (exhb Tate Modern)
The Reformation & Counter Reformation in Renaissance Eureope
Barocci: His Life & Times (exhb National Gallery)
Post WW2 American Art & its influence
Roy Lichtenstein: (exhb Tate Modern)
2012
The Origins of the Modern Ballet
The Art of Propaganda
Rodin
The Male Gaze
Keeping up with the Burne-Jones's.
Were the Pre-Raphaelites really so avant garde? (Exhibition - Tate Britain)
Ovid as Inspiration (Exhibition - National Gallery Metamorphoses: Titian)
The Life of Edvard Munch (Exhibition - Tate Modern)
Art and the mental state
Andy Warhol & The Factory (Exhibition - Dulwich Picture Gallery)
The Marketing of Monarchy
Cecil Beaton (Exhibition at V &A)
The Life & Works of Claude Lorraine.
The Life & Works of JMW Turner
The work of 17th C Landscape artists and their influence on 18the British Landscape painters (Exhibition at National Gallery - Turner in the Light of Claude)
The Venetian Colourists:
Ben Nicholson & Barbara Hepworth.
British Modern Art - the Who, the How and the Why. (Exhibitions: Tate Britain: Picasso & British Modern Art; Courtauld Institute: Mondriaan//Nicholson in Parallel)
Does Art Reflect the Society of its time?
2011
The illuminated Scenes of Winter
Leonardo: The Man. (Exhibition: Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery)
How Printing Killed the Illuminated Manuscript (Exhibition: British Library - Royal Manuscript: The Genius of Illumination)
Elizabeth I & Nicholas Hilliard. How Hilliard created the brand of Gloriana.
The Rise of the Cult of Celebrity. A look at how the rich and powerful marketed themselves.
Pugin: Life & Times
The Gothic Revival, or why the Victorians went mad for the pointed arch!
Reliquaries & Veneration. (Exhibition: Treasures of Heaven, British Museum)
The History of Photography and photojournalism.
Post Modernism & the Las Vegas Manifesto - an overview of the art and architecture of the latter part of the 20th century. (Exhibition: V&A Post-Modernism: Style & Subversion 1970 - 1990)
Surrealism: A look at the art work inspired by dreams and how the work of the surrealists influenced and continues to influence artists of the 20th century.
The Life & Works of Joan Miro: (Exhibition: Tate Modern.)
Modernism & International Modernism - an overview of what constitutes these artistic movements in art, furniture, architecture and objects of desire.
Nymphs & Shepherds Come & Play: The life and work of Jean Antoine Watteau (Exhibition: RA Sackler Wing. The drawings of Jean Antoine Watteau: Virtuosity & Delight)
An examination of the styles known as Baroque & Rococo
The Life & Work of Aubrey Beardsley
The Aesthetic Movement - an overview of this Victorian artistic movement. (Exhibition: V&A: The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860 - 1900.)
Differences between Northern European & Italian Renaissance painting.
How to read a Renaissance Painting (Exhibition: Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery: Jan Gossaert’s Renaissance.)
But Is it Art? A group discussion and survey of what the Ashtead Art Lovers thought of what constitutes Art.
2010
Botticelli: La Primavera & Others. Do his paintings hold secrets or are they just decorative?
Canaletto and The Grand Tour: (Exhibition : Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery)
The Glasgow Boys. (Sackler Wing : Royal Academy)
Gauguin & The South Seas: an exploration of the life & works of Paul Gauguin (Exhibition: Tate Modern )
John Singer Sargeant (Sackler Wing : Royal Academy)
Caravaggio - Saint or Sinner?
The Life & Work of Van Eyck
Regency Buck - a background talk before a trip to Brighton
The Life & Works of Artemisia Ghentileschi
Degas & The Dancers
The Life & Works of Vermeer
Robert Mapplethorpe - photographer
Henry Moore (Exhibition at Tate Britain)
2009
Fashion Photography
Donatello -v- Michelangelo
Michelangelo & Pope Julius II
Turner
Fiore de Henriquez - 20th C sculptress
Van Gogh - (Main Gallery : Royal Academy)
The Futurists (Exhibition at Tate Modern)
The Marketing of Monarchy - Henry VIII & Hans Holbein
The Impressionists and Snow
JMW Waterhouse (Exhibition : Sackler Wing, Royal Academy)
2008
Wild Thing - the work of Eric Gill, Jacob Epstein & Gaudier Breszka (Sackler Wing : Royal Academy)
Van Dyck (Exhibition at Tate Britain)
Donatello
The Renaissance Portrait (Exhibition : Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery)
The Role of the Society Photographer
The Lure of the East (Exhibition at Tate Britain)
Origins of the Tudor Artists
The da Vinci Code
Renaissance Siena : Art for a City (Exhibition : Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery)
Annie Leibowitz (Exhibition: National Portrait Gallery)
Nicholas Hilliard
2007
John Millais (Exhibition at Tate Britain)
Lee Miller (Exhibition at the V & A)