As The Bath Society of Artists holds its Annual Summer Exhibition, BBC Wiltshire has been to meet three of its members who are from the same family and live in the same Wiltshire village...

With its warm, honey-coloured Cotswold stone and rural setting, there is nothing particularly unusual about South Wraxall, near Bradford-on-Avon.  

However, talk to the locals and you will find that South Wraxall does have something rather unusual to boast about.  

The village is home to three members of the same family who each show a remarkable talent for painting and, what is more, seem to relish the idea of having each other peer over their shoulders to see how they are getting on.  

Diana Sylvester

Diana Sylvester, her daughter Gillian and daughter-in-law Josie live a brush stroke away from each other and whilst many of today’s families cannot wait to get away from each other, these three are more than happy to share time together.  

Their passion for art extends to other members of the family, while all three women are members of the Bath Society of Artists (Diana and her daughter Gillian helped select this year’s exhibition), Gillian’s husband has made his contribution by creating the Society’s new website.  

Josie’s husband, Simon, is also involved, acting as her critic-on-demand and employed by all three artists as framer-in-chief!

Gillian Sylvester

Being so close keeps these three artists very much on the straight-and-narrow and each are happy to accept the other’s criticisms  - something that a lot of modern-day families would abhor.  

“It’s a bit like art classes – you go to them and you learn from all the people around you. We all want to get on; we all want to get better.  We just want to discover new things,” says Diana.

Josie Sylvester

And Gillian agrees: “We all chip in and we all criticise each other’s work, which is very useful.”  

On reflection, Josie finds the concept novel: “I think it’s quite funny really.  I’ll get a painting and ask the other two to take a look at it.  They’ll then say something and I’ll alter it or I won’t! It’s very constructive really.”  

In terms of their work, Diana and Gillian’s paintings share a love of bold, expressive colour; Josie’s pieces, on the other hand, are somewhat calmer and, in contrast, enjoy a quieter tone to that of her in-laws’ paintings.

Her pieces are often set on a seascape background, sometimes revealed by a pair of open drapes, with objects dominating the foreground.

She enjoys painting from a subjective viewpoint and likes to bring in the objective only when the composition demands.   “I need something to inspire me.  I wouldn’t just do something blankly from nowhere,” Josie remarks.

“I don’t find painting from imagination any more challenging.  I can draw something from life and then put in other things from my imagination,” she adds.  

As if creating work based on an established school of art, the paintings of Diana and her daughter Gillian certainly share a subtle relationship.  

And that is not surprising knowing that both adore the power of bright colour, although Gillian admits she tries hard to restrict her palette to a sensible number of paints.  

“I try to limit my colours, which is very hard because I love colour; I want to put all the colours in but I always try to resist it,” she says.  

Like her daughter, Diana adores the art of still life, preferring it to painting landscapes and her reasoning seems to make sense:  she argues that there is a certain control associated with still life; with the landscape, what you see is what you get.  

The Bath Society of Artists’ membership hovers around a hundred and each one is elected.

Diana says the reasoning behind this apparent restrictive practice is straightforward; it simply helps ensure a high standard of work - and with their biggest entry to date, (360 paintings, prints and sculptures) that standard will be under even closer scrutiny at this year’s Annual Summer Exhibition.  

The Society was formed in 1904 with just a handful of members and over the last century it has built upon its reputation for being a discerning arts organisation keen to show the cream of West Country talent.  

As well as the Annual Exhibition, members enjoy a number of events through the year, including lectures, receptions and private views.

However, for Diana, it is the camaraderie found within the Society that fuels her enthusiasm to learn more about art and how fellow artists approach their work.  

As well as the inevitable friendships that emerge, Diana says the Society’s members also provide a support mechanism for each other, as well as the inspiration to try new techniques  - something that she says the artist working alone can never enjoy.  

And as they continue to work alongside each other, the Sylvesters of South Wraxall are united by their passion for painting  - as well as a love of encouraging others to share in that enthusiasm.  

Diana concludes, “We don’t get time to paint every day, but you’re always looking at things, noticing shadows and colours – it’s an obsession.  Once you start painting you just can’t stop.”  

The Bath Society of Artists’ 97th Annual Exhibition is at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath and runs until September 15th.