The 80’s were a very busy, exciting time for Lynnfield Art Guild. Under leadership & guidance of Presidents including Herb Hewitt, Philip Perkins, Bob Gordon, Pauline Bacon, Lorraine Mahoney, John Morse, Martha Ingalls, & Deborah Perkins LAG was now well established & continued to grow. A number of enthusiastic, dedicated members worked hard & had fun together!
The Year started with a Champagne Party & ‘A Time to Renew Old Friendships, And Make New Ones.’
The Lynnfield Art Guild continued with their monthly demonstrations featuring outstanding guest artists & two shows a year. Demonstrations ranged from Oil, Watercolor, Pastels, even traditional Japanese paper doll making & puppetry. There were Lectures on variety of topics including color, composition, design and panel discussions on current trends in art.
Participation was high & ‘paintings come in by the score & the whole Board is busier than ever’ noted Lynne Perkins the newsletter editor. She further added ‘The Art Guild Is Really My Love. It Has Brought Me Many Happy Hours, Many Wonderful Friends & Given Me A Sense of Accomplishment Over The Years.’
The shows were a great success. The Christmas Show in 1981 exhibited 306 Paintings entered & 43 sold!
Our members came from over 25 surrounding communities & had ample opportunity to showcase their work at venues like Union Hospital, Lynnfield Library, Bay Bank at Post Office Square, Abbott Library in Marblehead, Atlanticare Medical Center in Lynn, & even at the Saugus Rotary!
In 1981 for the first time a enthusiastic group of Lynnfield Art Guild members consented to demonstrate their skills as a group demonstration. There were also critique sessions offered to members.
In 1984 Lynnfield Art Guild was very busy planning their 20th Anniversary Celebration & Art Show! “During the past twenty years, The Lynnfield Art Guild has promoted love of art and expects to contribute even more as we feel it plays such an important role in our lives.”
For the first time the Board requested input from members to introduce Photography as a new category!!
1986 Craft members were growing ranging from stained glass, jewelry making, fabric painting, decoupage as well as enamel work.
There were annual trips to Jackson, New Hampshire by Philip Perkins and as mentioned in one of the newsletters ‘a great week, the weather was perfect, art work superb & critique sessions a riot!!’
There were outings planned to visit Worcester Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Mt. Holyoke College Art Museum & also a bus trip to Kennebunkport, Maine, for an entire day of visiting numerous galleries & a picturesque ride along the shore!!