Lisvane Art Workshop

The Lisvane Festival

& The Sir Julian Hodge Festival Cup

The Lisvane Festival takes place for a fortnight in June every year. The middle weekend is the day of the Lisvane Fête. On this day, the Lisvane Art Workshop organises a small art exhibition and competition on behalf of the fête committee. The competition, which is open to all amateur artists who are residents of Lisvane or a member of Lisvane Art Workshop, is for the Sir Julian Hodge Festival Cup. This lovely trophy was donated in 1993 by Sir Julian Hodge, the financier, and once a resident of Lisvane.

In the days when the cup was first presented, the Lisvane Festival included a large arts exhibition, in which many of the arts were represented. At that time, the Art Workshop used to share the main room at the Memorial Hall with the flower arrangers for this exhibition. The large organising committee was chaired by Ted Martin, who also drew up the rules for the competition.

(left) Peter Taylor receiving the Cup in 1993 from Gwilym Jones MP on behalf of the first winner, Jean Sheppard.

The first winner of the Cup was Jean Sheppard, a founder member of the Art Workshop - and a member until very recently. Unfortunately, Jean couldn’t be present to receive the Cup, so Peter Taylor, then Chairman, later our President, collected it on her behalf. It was somewhat fitting that Peter should do so, as he had made the Cup’s wooden base!

In the early days, the Cup was often won by a non-member of the Art Workshop. Nowadays, it is most often won by an Art Workshop member and there are usually only a few entries from  non-members.

Peter Taylor himself, won it in 2000. Only four people, Dimitri Venetsianos, Beryl Pepperell, Ian Philpot, and Sir Julian’s daughter-in-law, Patrizia, have won the Cup more than once in its 25-year history.

The following pages show some of the winning paintings from the past few years, and there is a gallery of paintings for each of the last few years as follows:

 2016             2017              2018