PRESIDENT Hilary Gordon welcomed guests Sylvia and Tony Rowe and Tom Gunn to the meeting of the Rotary Club of Oldmeldrum on Monday (August 17).
Several events of interest were brought to members' attention including Huntly Rotary's 55th anniversary dinner on September 25, and the National Trust for Scotland's illustrated talk "The Men Behind the Medals" on September 9 at Haddo House, to coin
cide with the anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
Hilary thanked everyone who attended her Pampered Chef fundraiser. Norman Bannerman announced that it was once again time to order the "shoeboxes". Jim Walker asked members to sign up to help with the Young Musician competition on September 30 at Meldrum Academy.
David Mclleland thanked all the members who had made the recent gavel Final such a great success.
Willie Sinclair reminded members that the meeting on August 31 will be held in the Community Garden. Any plant donations would be gratefully received.
Denis Emslie reiterated the organisational plans for the Tenth Charter Night and announced that in respect of the Partners' Evening being held simultaneously in the Redgarth Hotel, the owner and Rotary Club member Stuart Singer intended to put on a special meal for them and urged members to invite their partners.
The speaker for the evening was John Hogg, who currently works in the construction industry, but whose passion is silk painting. John originally trained as a chef, but moved into silk painting whilst living in London.
First he studied European silk painters but then was lucky enough to study fine art silk painting under two renowned Chinese silk painters, Wan Jainan and Cia Xioli, and in the exhibition of work he won first prize for his cushions and second prize for his painting of chicks.
This type of painting is a long process; the paint has to be built up in layers that have to be allowed to dry before reapplying paint. Techniques vary, for multi-coloured patterned fabrics gutta has to be applied before the paint to delineate areas, and the cloth has to be steam fixed on completion.
John brought along samples of his artistry, which attracted great admiration from the members present, and he kindly donated a scarf to the Club. He hopes to set up a studio where he can hold classes to teach the art.
