March Dates

 IMPORTANT NOTICES

FRIDAY 8TH MARCH ADVENTUROUS ARTISTS
Meet at the Café at the Hawthorns, Southampton Common at 10-15 am. Parking in Cemetery Road SO15 7NN. Bring a seat - few benches on the Common!

TUESDAY 19TH MARCH ART EXTRA
Meet in the Lilac Room 1-30 to 3-30pm. Names to Claire.

WEDNESDAY 27TH MARCH AGM
Also demonstration about different painting surfaces.
SUBSCRIPTION is £ 25 each - cash or cheque. Helen will be in attendance.

WE NEED A TREASURER AND PUBLICITY OFFICER!!!!!
The Society cannot function without these officers so this is VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FEBRUARY DEMONSTRATION

SARAH ORCHARD painting a FOREST SCENE in WATERCOLOUR and CHARCOAL. 

The scene Sarah was to paint was in Bolderwood which she visits about twice a week and so is very familiar to her.

She had come prepared with the painting already drawn in graphite pencil. She uses sheets of watercolour paper instead of pads and mostly Daniel Smith or Windsor and Newton paints. Brushes are Da Vinci No's 5 and 8. She works very quickly which suits watercolour.

Working with watery washes the background tree trunks were painted in first using yellow ochre. Then using a mix of cadmium red and ultramarine to produce grey shadows were added on the trunks blending the colours in with the yellow ochre wash. Blue for the sky was painted in the background keeping a lighter area in the centre. Then the leaf areas were added.

Starting on the foreground with yellow ochre Sarah then darkened the lower parts of the tree trunks before moving on to the people and the dog. These were first painted with a light wash before adding darker tones for details.

Foreground shadows were added and the painting finalised with tonal contrast and further detail put in with darker colours. 

Leaving the Forest scene Sarah next showed us how to draw people to add to a scene.

Trevor Waugh and Hazel Soan were quoted as good examples to study.

After first painting an oval for a head Sarah then added a carrot shape for body and legs. Arms and accessories such as bags and hats are put in next followed by the ground. Feet are blended into the ground and final tones and details added with darker colours or pencil or charcoal.

After the tea break Sarah showed us how she works on her paintings with charcoal. There are two types of charcoal- willow charcoal, which gives grey when blended, and compressed charcoal, which produces a dark colour on the paper. Sarah uses a charcoal pencil of compressed charcoal to draw soft lines on trunks, branches and other places to bring out the shapes.

 On the figures the charcoal is used to emphasise details such as pockets and collars. It is important not to over-do the process.

For sketching Sarah uses a homemade paintbox with favourite colours and a Pentel brush pen with permanent ink.

To finish the evening Sarah added details with the charcoal pencil to the figures she had drawn earlier. The result was a population of very funny images and formed a perfect end to a very good meeting.

Finished paintings

People

Tea break stage

SPRING WORKSHOP

SPRING WORKSHOP

We all enjoyed painting our different ideas on "Spring" We ended up with a large flock of sheep and their lambs, spring chickens, plenty of birds and nests and acres of flowers. A very enjoyable day - thanks to Claire for organising it and setting the subject.

ART EXTRA

ART EXTRA

We had an interesting time on Tuesday afternoon. While we were doing our own work Mary showed us how she blended the paints to get a good multi-coloured ground. We then suggested how she could turn this into a misty river scene. A very good afternoon enjoyed by all.

SIR WALTER TYRRELL

SKETCHING AT THE SIR WALTER TYRRELL

Five of us enjoyed sketching at the Sir Walter Tyrrell pub on Friday. We received a warm welcome and it was very cosy on such a stormy day.