Dear Members,

First of all I hope that you all had a good Christmas and I should like to wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.

Our Christmas party was, once again, a great success. It was a very enjoyable evening, thanks to the delicious food provided by Denise and served by her family. Thanks again go to the entertainers who kept us all amused during the evening. We give our thanks to everyone who gave their time so willingly once again.

We are now starting to prepare for the Easter Exhibition. With this in mind, please find enclosed the Rules for the Exhibition, an Entry Form, four Labels and Reminder Notes. The Reminder Notes should be given to your friends to remind them of the dates and times of the Exhibition.

We will also have Car Stickers and Posters available in Thie Ellyn shortly; please can everyone take a few to display in cars, local shops, supermarkets, waiting rooms and wherever else you can think of. This provides excellent advertising for the Exhibition all around the Island. If you are unable to get to Thie Ellyn, please give me or any other committee member a ring and we will post some out to you.

Please bear in mind that we MAY again have to hold back one exhibit due to space restrictions. When completing your Entry Form, please place your exhibits in order of preference. Please be prepared to sign up to the rota for manning the exhibition when you hand your exhibits in. This is your Exhibition so please try to help out for at least one session and remember that this is a great way to get to know other Society members.

This year the exhibition will be held in the newly refurbished Gaiety Arcade. The exhibition area is of similar area to the Promenade Suite with a lot of natural light, and less expensive to hire.

Handing in Day will be on Saturday 27th March between 10am and 4pm at the Gaiety Arcade. Again, we will require plenty of volunteers to help with the hanging. The Exhibition will run from Thursday 1st to Friday 9th April. Collection of unsold paintings will be from 1.15pm to 4pm on the 9th.

Our raffle prize this year will be very kindly donated by Nancy Corkish, and we are very grateful to her for this valuable support.

The Artist, in Nelson Street, the Art Gallery in Bucks Road and the Creative Shop in Strand Street, all offer a 10% discount on materials and framing to members, just show your membership card.

So get those paintings finished, we look forward to seeing you all at the Exhibition, if not before.

Kind regards, Jackie Kelly (Hon Sec)