President Freda Kemp and committee members presented a cheque lasts Tuesday evening to Lorna Kennedy, deputy chairman of the Larne Hospice fundraising branch. Each year the winner of the cup for the best painting at the autumn art exhibition donates a painting to be balloted for charity and last year’s winner was club secretary Patricia Rapp, who chose to donate the proceeds to the Hospice. She was thanked by Lorna Kennedy, who spoke of the excellent and caring work of Northern Ireland Hospice Care.

The Art Club has now fully resumed their activities for the year and a warm welcome is extended to anyone interested to join them on the first Tuesday of each month at 7.30pm in the Carnegie Museum and Art Centre. Outings usually take place in June and December.

At the February meeting, local artist Louis Humphrey, who studied at Manchester Art College, presented an excellent demonstration in oils and pastels in a new style from his own photographs of some wonderful sunsets over Islandmagee. He works in various mediums but his first love would be oils.

Coming up in the months ahead is a wide variety of events, beginning with the spring art exhibition from Saturday, March 1 to Monday, March 31. This will be staged in the Carnegie Museum and Art Centre, Victoria Road, from Monday to Saturday from 10.30am to 4.30pm and is open to the public.

On March 4, the theme for the monthly meeting will be “Experimental Watercolour” by Eamon Murphy.

On April 1, Patricia Browne will examine textiles, while on May 6, Brendan McAfee will look at “Works in Clay”.

Various sketching outings will take place in June and a “come and try it” session / workshop will be organised later in the year for anyone interested in art.

Meanwhile, Freda Kemp’s popular art class continues in the Carnegie Centre on Mondays at 2.0pm and some members attend on Wednesday afternoons for workshops, preparing for the exhibition in March.