Report from the N.F. Wildlife Park

 

 

The  Adventurous Artists  had a fabulous bright and sunny morning at the New Forest Wildlife Park on Friday morning. It was cold - so Helen, Elaine, Ali and Di did only the quickest of sketches. (Helen persevered the longest.) However we had lots of photo opportunities because the mammals were active.  Some of the easiest close-up photos to take were of harvest mice and otters . A long lens would have been useful for the wild boar and wolves.
After hot drinks in the large café, the four once again braved the cold to see the keeper attempt to feed Munchkin the lynx.  However she must have killed and eaten a small animal because she merely sniffed at it. Jean and June prudently stayed in the large café to sketch in the warm. The gift shop had an excellent display of artwork by our talented August guest artist Joanna Rose Tidey. The December trip had been truly memorable.
Di Alexander

ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS

SKETCHING GROUP

The Adventurous Artists will meet at 10.15 a.m. on Friday 8^th December in the car park of the New Forest Wildlife Park Deerleap Lane near Ashurst SO40 4UH (site of the former Butterfly Farm at Longdown).   If the weather is good some of us may enter the park and sketch  (Adults £11.50 and Seniors £10.25) or sketch outside the park. Otherwise there is shelter in a large café with picnic benches Contact Di if you need more info.Tel. 07979905192  Email: dga@dialexander.co.uk

ART JOURNEY AND RAINBOW COMPETITION

Helen's Art Journey paintings

ART JOURNEY & RAINBOW COMPETITION

The Art Journey table had three very different works by Helen Bartlett and there were eleven entries for the Rainbow Competition. Members voted for many entries. The winning artist was Di Alexander with her Rainbow Trout which she had created using acrylic inks over white gouache on dark grey mount-board. The Competition Entry fees will be donated to the Rainbow Project in Southampton which assists young people to gain employment.

 

Collage of the Competition paintings

 

Di with her winning painting


 

WILDLIFE IN ACRYLICS

Wildlife artist Kim Thompson loves walking with a sketchbook. Her outings inspire her to create her artwork including fabulously detailed, colourful wildlife paintings, in acrylics or oils, which are exhibited and sold far and wide.

Kim works on drawings until she is happy with the composition. Then she transfers it to her board (such as illustration board or gessoed MDF) or canvas. She is meticulous in keeping her work clean and tidy, continually checking the accuracy.

The demonstration in acrylics was a portrait of a barn own on mount-board which Kim was copying from another that she had previously painted. She does not favour a stay-wet palette, preferring to work with small quantities of paint. Although she works in layers, Procolour and Chromacolour are favourite brands with a matt finish and higher pigment content than Winsor & Newton or Daler Rowney acrylics, which are too transparent for her purpose. When painting subsequent layers, she leaves small sections of underpainting to suggest layers of feathers. Kim began painting the dark eye of the owl with a No. 1 Series 7 sable brush using tiny strokes and worked outwards, moving the brush in the direction of the feathers in the concave eye area. A No.6 brush was used to paint the gold feathers on the head. Wriggly strokes in a darker colour emphasised the broken edge around the feathered disk around the eye. Pale blue shadows and cream reflected colour areas were scrubbed on with a worn brush. Feather textures were suggested with a small brush between the blue and cream areas. Brushes have to be kept clean in order to achieve the purity of colour which is a feature of her work.

Kim looks for pattern and texture.  Areas of the second layer was created with flicking movements and cross-hatching. Softer feathers remained untreated. Cerulean blue, black and white for light grey feathers over the gold body was, in turn, overpainted with darker grey feathers and subtle spotted patterns, avoiding applying the paint too thickly.  A cerulean blue and white gouache glaze was applied at the highlight in the eye.

After the break Kim showed slides featuring her illustrations in books and advertisements and her adventurous trips to Botswana, Zambia, the Himalayas and even a remote Scottish island for its birdlife. She sketches and paints in gouache on location as much as possible because it can provide more detailed information than a photograph. In conclusion she urged us all to draw as much as possible.

Di Alexander

NOVEMBER 22ND MEETING

KIM THOMPSON WILDLIFE

Kim will show us how to paint wildlife in acrylics.

ALSO

Claire will be taking bookings for places on the ABSTRACT ART WORKSHOP taking place on FEBRUARY 3RD.

DI needs QUESTIONS for the meeting in JANUARY

QUESTIONS FOR JANUARY MEETING BY NOV. 30TH

REQUEST FROM DI

MAKE OUR JANUARY MEETING A SUCCESS 

I am looking for your questions / suggestions for topics to discuss at the January meeting on Wednesday 24th. I shall be selecting video clips to show at the meeting. What topics would you like to know more about?

If you do not mind asking a question in person on the Question Time Evening in January, you could win a prize. Alternatively your questions or suggestions can be anonymous if you would prefer. Just send them to me  by hand, post  or email by 30th November. See website or programme for contact numbers

ONE DAY SALE

SENT FROM ANNE

We  are over the moon -what a day! Ten members came forward and with all the help and support that you gave we had everything set up easily by 9.00 a.m. and the atmosphere was amazing. Everything had been put back by 4.15 p.m.  and best of all we took over £1,000, the highest figure ever.

Thanks to you all -  this was the best One Day Sale EVER!

 

 We would all like to thank  Anne, Claire and the Committee members who made it such a success. 

NEXT EVENTS

ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS
Next outing is to the King Rufus , Eling Hill, on Friday, November 11th meeting outside the pub. at 10-15 am. Kate will be hosting this time. Contact info Tel. 078500 16940 or e-mail katerodrigues@kitsmail.com

ONE-DAY SALE
Saturday, November 12th starting at 10 am. Help needed setting this up. See website for more details.

Dee Cowell

DEE COWELL ON DYNAMIC WATERCOLOURS 

Dee started the evening by telling us about some of her favourite materials and items of equipment that she uses.

 She likes Derwent materials and one of her favourite products is their table pencil sharpener!  Favourite brushes are a squirrel hair mop brush and a swordtail brush.

The mop is used for washes or with the pointed end for dry brush work. To work wet into wet colour is put down and the second colour added leaving a space between the colours for the colours to merge without muddying.

The sword tail is used vertically for fine lines and on its side with broad sweeping strokes for other effects.

Gouche is a favourite paint as it can be restarted from dry. It is particularly effective used straight from the tube on black paper. It is also easily lifted off.

To start a flower painting Dee does a thumbnail sketch then places her main flowers on the strong points where the thirds cross. She uses a Daler-Rowney mixed media pad for her work.

To start the Hydrangeas she first sprays water in scattered areas then drops blue in and allows the paint to spread. This is followed by yellow and again the paint is allowed to spread. Some of the paint is then lifted with a tissue to form petals. The same method is repeated with brown paint to produce a darker flower.

For the roses she paints a squarish shape with water then adds yellow and spreads and drags the colour out with the swordtail. The petals are outlined and shadows put in using quinacridone gold. Irises are painted in dark blue in a similar way.

Texture paste can be added with a palette knife but needs an hour to dry. It can then be re-wetted a small area at a time and colour dropped in around the area. This will then spread into the centre of the petals. 

Watercolour pencils are used throughout the painting process eg for outlining leaves or painting stems.

Other useful products are Aquawax available on line from Colourcraft and Schimke gel. Both can be used to give texture.

Backgrounds were painted in using various greens and the versatile swordtail brush.

This was a very informative evening with Dee introducing us to some new materials and producing a beautiful flower painting by the end of the evening.

REMINDERS

THE NEXT DEMONSTRATION will be on Wednesday, October 25th when DEE COWELL will show us how to paint DYNAMIC WATERCOLOURS.

Also THE ONE DAY SALE will take place on SATURDAY 11TH NOVEMBER at the THREE SCORE CLUB from 10am to 4pm.

Further details of both these events are on the Web- Site.

CLAIRE'S SCORE

Anne thanked Claire for organising our workshops -  we do appreciate all the effort and time it must have taken her to do this over the years - and awarded her a " Strictly 10"  for her hard work.

 

 

 

Montage of the day's work

 

PICTURES FROM THE OCT 7TH WORKSHOP

OUR PAINTING DAY

We had a very good day painting our own work on Saturday 7th October. We all enjoyed seeing other artists work in different media and exchanging ideas and tips from those with more experience.
The following are pictures from the day

No 1

Muriel at work 1

Muriel at work 2

workshop 2

workshop 3

workshop 4



Ali's painting



workshop 5

workshop 6

(We apologise for the delay)

ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS

MEETING AT THE HAWTHORNES CENTRE

Five of us sketched under  grey skies at the Hawthornes Urban Wildlife Centre. The centre has an educational room for use by schools and environmental groups. Unfortunately there was little room to sit in the wild garden because most of the bushes and trees grow without restraint. Helen went onto the Common and painted a tree using inks. Pam, Harry and Muriel sketched in pencil and Di sketched the pond and building with pencil, watercolour pencils and art ink markers. Harry’s wife Olive joined the group in the cafe. Harry revealed an unsuspected talent by showing some excellent pencil portraits which he had done on holiday.

The next sketching morning will be on Friday 10th November at the King Rufus public house which is on Eling Hill. Kate Rodrigues will be the member to contact (not Di) for that meeting.

 

Harry at the pond

Pam, Olive and Harry

 

MAP TO GET TO FRIDAY'S VENUE

 

ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS SKETCHING GROUP

FRIDAY 13 OCTOBER 10.15 a.m.

HAWTHORNES WILDLIFE CENTRE, SOUTHAMPTON COMMON

SO15 7NN

Free parking in Cemetery Road which is a turning off The Avenue south of The Cowherds public house.   Getting access to the wildlife area has been tricky. We are booked in to visit and I expect us to do that first of all but it is still possible that the wildlife area might be unavailable for sketching. It depends on whether it is manned and who else is visiting  that morning.  Otherwise we will be drawing trees on the common instead, so please bring something to sit on in case you need it.

The cafe will definitely be open.

From Di

______________________________________________-  

KAREN FRAMPTON’S OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND

SATURDAY 14 OCT - SUNDAY 15 OCT

10.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m.

Woodside Cottage, Minstead, Lyndhurst SO43 7GB

TAS Artist Karen Frampton invites you to visit her studio this weekend . 

I am holding an Open Studio Weekend on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th October from 10am to 5pm in my studio at Woodside Cottage, Minstead, Lyndhurst SO43 7GB. If you are free, please pop in and say hello!

Directions

Take A337 to Minstead. Turn left directly after the Trusty Servant pub. Follow road, pass the study centre and up the hill, then take left hand fork in road, go round sharp bend and studio is on right hand side.

HASHIM AKIB VISIT

DEMONSTRATION BY HASHIM AKIB

We were very fortunate to welcome back Hashim for another evening this time to show us his latest painting technique using a 4 inch paddle brush. We voted for him to       show us how he painted a canal scene in Venice. He uses Daler Rowney System 3 heavy body acrylic which unfortunately are being phased out of production. Instead   he uses Amsterdam heavy body acrylics, which as they are very expensive, he keeps for top quality paintings. For our demonstration he used Golden acrylics which are also very expensive. Hash works on canvas using  his large paddle brush and a 1 inch brush for detail.

First he laid out all the colours he was going to use on his palette then using a damp brush picked all up with violet dominating. He put in the main strips of colour on the right and then on the left with a blue bias. The colour isn't blended on the canvas and the main areas of colour are put in very roughly. The brush isn't cleaned between strokes so each stroke carries all the colours with one dominant colour.

After putting on the colours Hash started looking at the tones  - usually the colours decide the tones e.g. dark tones with blue. Then using the 1 inch brush he put in features accurately but as blocks or streaks of colour.

A big brush leads to looser work and working quickly to a time limit helps to improve creativity.

The most important marks are saved for the end e.g. highlights on water.

Finally the yellows and whites are bulked up to give accents and balance in the painting.

It is important to show your own personality in your painting. Oil is the premium medium for selling work but acrylic allows for the rapid production of paintings.

Thanks to Hashim  this was an interesting and stimulating evening and gave us much to think about for our work in the future.

 

Hashim with his finished painting

 

SEPTEMBER MEETING

MEETING ON 27TH SEPTEMBER

We are delighted to welcome HASHIM AKIB for an evening demonstrating painting STUNNING COLOUR IN ACRYLICS.

ALSO:-

1. Book for the October 7th workshop (see website for details)

2. Bring your latest Art Journey work early to the meeting.

See you there!!

A MONTAGE FROM HANGER FARM

PICTURES FROM HANGER FARM


Muriel, Di and Helen - Photo by Pam Kellaway

HANGER FARM VISIT

SKETCHING AT HANGER FARM

The morning got off to a good start - we viewed Wendy Hall’s arts and crafts exhibition at the Hanger Farm Arts Centre. However a craft group was coming to use the gallery and foyer so we moved on to the Tennis Centre cafe.

 Some stayed outside to sketch but, when the rain begin to make the sketchbook pages crinkle, it was time to join those who had stayed inside. People drew views of buildings, the grounds, people sitting on chairs and even a litter bin!  
Sketching gave way to coffee and cake which was delicious and very reasonably priced. The cafe wishes to encourage more people to make use of their facilities and the well-lit space was ideal for sketching.
Report by Di

ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS

The next meeting of the Adventurous Artists will be on Friday, 8th. September at Hanger Farm meeting at 10-15 am.

Di is trying to arrange a City Break in May for members to go to Florence.  If anyone is interested in taking part could they contact Di as soon as possible.

The Art Journey is still moving on - below are some of this month's paintings.



Di Alexander 's paintings

Galaxy Bear by Rita Coburn

Galaxies by Rita

OTTERS IN WATERCOLOUR

Demonstration by Joanna Rose Tidey

 

The evening started with Kate thanking everyone for their contribution in making the Exhibition such a success either in producing paintings or with the "backroom work."

Di Alexander and Claire Palmer were then officially presented with the Reg Whiting Trophy for their "Best in Exhibition " paintings. (see earlier blog). They will share the trophy for 6 months each.

Kate then introduced Jo as our Demonstrator for the evening. Her subject was a pair of otters which she had become very fond of during her work as Artist in Residence at the New Forest Wildlife Park at Longdown.

While she was working she entertained us with accounts of her time at University and her career so far in becoming a professional artist. She also told us stories of her experiences in the art world interspersed with philosophical reflections on art.

  She usually uses watercolour paper and draws first from photographs of the animals which she has taken herself.

 Drawing animals from life is difficult as they move so quickly but she advises starting on small sketches and then with more experience and practice get larger and more detailed.

  Her paints are a mixture of tubes and pans  - tubes give deep colours and pans are good for washes.

  After drawing the outline of the otters and putting in ears, eyes and whiskers she wet the paper and then, when it was almost dry, dropped in colours. This was done with a fully loaded brush held horizontally. The colours were Cadmium Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine and Turquoise. After allowing the paper to dry she carefully added black for the eyes, ears and muzzle.

 To paint the foreground Turquoise, Lemon Yellow and Ultramarine were spattered into wet paper. She uses a liner brush to represent wet fur and doesn't usually put in a background for watercolours, only for acrylics.

  To finish the evening Jo showed us how she adds touches of gold leaf to her paintings. Size is painted on in appropriate places and allowed to dry - usually for 10 minutes. The gold leaf is then brushed on using a mop brush - the gold sticking to the sized areas.

   Jo had given us an  interesting and unusual evening and we will certainly approach our animal paintings in a different way in the future.

Jo and finished painting

OPENING OF 2017 EXHIBITION

Dave White opened our 2017 exhibition at the Pre-view Evening which was very well attended by members and their guests. The Exhibition was declared "better than last year" with paintings showing great talent by the members and covering a wide range of subjects.
    Di Alexander's Painting "Crabbing" and Claire Palmer's painting "Quiet Moorings" were voted "Best in Show" and jointly received the Reg Whiting Trophy

Kate introduces Dave White

Dave and Mandy

Di with painting "Crabbing"

Claire with Painting "Quiet Moorings"



Claire Palmer and Di Alexander - joint winners of paintings voted "Best in Show" 
 

 

EXHIBITION

REMINDER

Handing in August 18th 9am to 10 am

Preview Evening August 18th 7-30pm to 9pm

Exhibition runs until 26th August

Handing out 26th August 5pm to 6pm

All at the Palm Room, Community Centre.

More details on the Web-site

HYTHE MARINA SKETCHING

What a great morning it was at Hythe Marina Village after a very wet week! David Butcher, Patricia Osborne, Harry Yearsley, Helen Bartlett and Di Alexander were all raring to go at 10.15. The village, the sailing craft  and Southampton Water were so beautiful that it was a job to choose a subject. Sketchbooks were filled with an anchor, boats and the picturesque houses.  

Pat was rather unlucky, she began to draw a boat only to have it driven away before she had finished! A couple of people saw Jean Kirby who stayed only for a short time. Helen’s mother, who came with Helen, even joined in by drawing several yachts.

Sketching is growing in popularity and you may well come across other sketching groups when you are out and about. To name a few:  the Hampshire Sketch Meetup Group

Southampton Urban Sketchers

Winchester Urban Sketchers

 Southampton Art House Informal Sketching

Our Adventurous Artists Sketching Group is very much on trend! Once you have taken the plunge and ventured out with your sketchbook you will find that there is absolutely no need to produce a recognisable drawing or have your work photographed. You just relax, meet friends and enjoy the moment.  

Report by Di Alexander

WEDNESDAY 23 RD AUGUST

 WDENESDAY 23RD AUGUST

DEMONSTRATION BY JOANNA ROSE TIDY

OTTERS IN WATERCOLOUR

Joanna produces and sells vibrant, colourful wildlife paintings as well as teaching drawing and watercolour and acrylic techniques. see programme/website for more details. 

OCTOBER 7TH WORKSHOP

OPEN WORKSHOP FOR ALL MEMBERS – OCTOBER 7^th   10a.m.-4.00p.m.

Our next workshop will be different – YOUR PAINTING DAY – designed for you to bring whatever painting you would like to work on – any style, any medium, any size, any subject! Continuous painting all day – what a pleasure.

From beginners to seasoned painters a chance to paint with like-minded people and exchange ideas, solve sticky problems, discuss composition, talk about framing, ask for advice from more experienced members who will be on hand painting too, or simply do your own thing. A delightful day’s painting …….. all for £5.

We are hoping to fill the Palm Room with artists, so book your space with Claire at the August and September demonstration meetings. Fee payable on booking rule still applies.

EXHIBITION 2017

PREPARATIONS ARE UNDERWAY!

Claire, Anne and Mary at the "cutting edge".

SKETCHING AT HYTHE MARINA

ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS AT HYTHE on FRIDAY 11th AUGUST  

Meet at  10-15am  by the ANCHOR at the end of SHAMROCK WAY.

Parking is available in the Brinton Lane car park SO45 6BZ if there are no spaces in Shamrock Way.

This is an excellent opportunity to sketch yachts

Contact Di Alexander email dga@dialexander.co.uk or tel. 07979905192

COLOUR BALANCE IN THE LANDSCAPOE

COLOUR BALANCE IN THE LANDSCAPE WITH JERRY SMITH

As Jerry's car unfortunately broke down Di gave us a short talk on the colour wheel while we were waiting for him to arrive. She reminded us of the positions of the primary and secondary colours on the colour wheel and how these can be used in mixing colours, juxtaposing them to get recession or drama in the picture, and their relative colour temperature. She pointed out that the colours of the spectrum were in the same order on the colour wheel and starting with red going through to purple corresponded to colours used to get recession in a painting. She ended with demonstrating how mixing warm and cool colours in different proportions will produce different greys.

We thank Di for stepping in at a moment's notice and giving us such an informative and interesting half hour.

During our tea break Jerry arrived. He began by pointing out that a scene can be as simple or complicated as you like and, by using a grid, part of the scene can be isolated to form the painting. A tonal sketch was then made of the scene to be painted which was then copied using thin dark brown or black paint onto the mount-board.

Jerry paints on mount-board that has had two coats of gesso and one of oil primer.

His colours are laid out and mixed with white to give different tones. The painting began with an overall coat of a mid-tone brown mixed with Jackson's fast drying paint medium 50 : 50 low odour thinner applied with a paper towel. The tree areas were covered with dark green. Then using a baby wipe he removed much of the paint from the highlight areas. Next, using a 1 inch brush, he blocked in dark tones in appropriate colours in the foreground, trees and sky. By comparing tones in different parts of the painting he painted in the rest of the scene so that lightest tones were in the areas nearest to the source of the light and darkest furthest away. He pointed out that the base of clouds are softer than the tops and the highlights on trees are not as light in tone as the tops of clouds.  This was a fascinating talk  and we very much regretted that Jerry had only half the time to deliver it. Perhaps he will return in the future to give us another talk with more time and less hassle! 

JULY 26th MEETING

JERRY SMITH will demonstrate COLOUR BALANCE IN THE LANDSCAPE IN OILS.

THINGS TO BRING TO THE MEETING

COMPLETED ENTRY FORM with your entry fee.

DIARY/CALENDAR - book your sitting in date!
              We would also like some members to sit and paint/draw as extra to the sitters-in. If you could spend an hour or two ( or three!) it would be much appreciated and add interest to the exhibition for the general public ( and perhaps encourage some new members)
              There is also a need for a bit of extra help for various jobs during the exhibition.

ART JOURNEY   -  bring this month's stage of your Journey early to the meeting for discussion and display.

SOME PHOTOS FROM REDBRIDGE

Ali's Sketch

Ali and David with David's sketch

Di's sketch

AT REDBRIDGE SKETCHING

ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS EXPLPORE ‘HIDDEN’ REDBRIDGE 

Harry, Ally, David and Di arrived at Redbridge Park, keen to explore its sketching possibilities. It can only be reached from the footbridge over the railway line so it is more peaceful than most city parks. It is a green triangle beside the water, planted with grass, trees and bushes. Large pieces of old docks machinery have been recycled as children’s play equipment. The familiar bridges over the River Test  and distant views of the far bank of the estuary are visible from unfamiliar angles. Swans and other wildfowl splash in the water. 

John Shotter dropped in for a chat while the group sketched. One of David’s sketches was a view of the far shore through the yellow crane. The view looking south was dominated by three full-size container port cranes. Drawing the wooden posts marking the shallows was an excellent exercise in the use of perspective to suggest distance. 

Sketching was followed by a convivial chat over coffee in The Ship Inn (which has been refurbished). Although August is a busy month for artists, it was decided to meet up next month and sketch on Friday 11th August - possibly somewhere with a view of boats.

Report by Di

 

SUMMER EXHIBITION

 

The Exhibition this year runs from Saturday 19th August to Saturday 26th August so start getting your best works ready for handing in on Friday 18th August 9-10 am (collect on Saturday 26th August 5-6pm)
 More details are on the entry forms available from Mary Maskell which should be returned to her with hanging fees by Tuesday 1st August.

  Please read the form very carefully and refer to the notes on presenting your artwork. Work will not be accepted if it does not conform to the rules. All work must be signed.

 

Anne Hamerton brought one of her framed paintings to show how the back should be finished.  The taut cord should be one third of the way down from the top and secured with D-rings at the sides and tape over the ends. The frame must be sealed with good adhesive framing tape - not masking tape. Glass and mounts must be pristine. All works must be labelled with the artist’s name, title of the work, medium and price.

 Remember to sign for a sitting-in session when the form is passed round at the next meeting.