ANNIVERSARIES can provide creative inspiration for painting.

2014 commemorated the start of the First World War while 2015 is a landmark anniversary date for Sir Winston Churchill's state funeral, the signing of the Magna Carta and Lewis Carroll's book Alice in Wonderland.

Brain storming these subjects might produce ideas and results which are unusual and interesting in their interpretation by artists.

So the Magna Carta could inspire themes such as King John, queens, a battle site, a pretty landscape showing the battle's surroundings, a document scroll and so on. Experimentation is the key.

Almost every month anniversaries feature in the news, on postage stamps, in diaries and on the Internet. There should be no shortage of thought-provoking material.

Either simple or complex paintings can result, depending on the artist's skill and confidence. Keighley Art Club members are all at different stages of learning, and they don't give up!

Already this year, Alice in Wonderland representations appear on special issues of postage stamps.

If you only send e-mails you will miss out on these attractive stamps, which can hopefully give ideas to art club members and others.

We hope this will be of help for anyone wanting a challenge. Even annual occasions such as St Patrick's Day, Robbie Burns' Night, Halloween, the Queen's birthday, Bonfire Night or American Independence Day can lead to a new way of deciding what you can paint.

These events can also present us with ideas on how to depict different aspects of an unrelated picture, for example by adding fireworks, or interweaving lines of poetry, or images of a shamrock.

The annual art exhibition in Cliffe Castle Museum is a third of the way through, and I believe it to be the best display in my six years of membership.

I include both Bingley and Keighley clubs here, and hope more people can spare a few minutes to view the exhibition, which is upstairs in the gallery.

The local talent of both towns is showcased and is arranged according to theme, making the exhibition easy to navigate and discuss.

Surprisingly, only one artwork relates to the Tour de France race. Thanks to Tony Pratt for organising the exhibition.

Our January 28 silk painting demonstration was snowed off, so we missed out on what would have been an unusual event.

We had been looking forward to seeing a very different medium and genre, but the cancellation could not have been avoided.

Hopefully our programme for March will prove popular with group members.

Three of the sessions planned will relate to pastel work. One tip related to this medium is to store pastel sticks in un-cooked ground rice, which is a good way of keeping them clean.

Our upcoming events include a pastel workshop on March 4 where we will again be supported by Tony Pratt.

On March 11 Diana Bromyard will bring along items for a still life class. We will not know the subject matter until the night.

March 18 will see the return of professional artist Cath Ingles who will demonstrate her portrait of David Hockney. Visitors are welcome to this session.