Waterperry Trip

A great day! That was our verdict at the end of an inspiring visit.

We always return from Waterperry amazed at the variety and standard of art and craft in this country. An entire marquee was devoted to painting. As usual the glasswork, ceramics and embroidery were stunning as well as furniture (including musical instruments) jewellery and metalwork. We were fascinated at the different types of printing being demonstrated and in the International Tent we watched cut paper work using sheep shears, marbling and intricate wood carving. At lunchtime we listened to the A440 String Orchestra in the Amphitheatre then wandered round the gardens. The Art Materials Tent was well worth a visit. All this was interspersed with drinks on the lawns and a "Wimbledon" Pancake (the best bit!)

 We are very grateful to Helen for organising this trip which went very smoothly and gave us a memorable day.

Cut Paper Work

Marbling

The finished picture

 

Glass Gramophone

 

 

A rest in the shade

 

The Next Meeting is on Wednesday 23rd July

 

NOTE the change of demonstrator

 

It's John Rosser - should be good.

 

See Website for details

 

 

 

DON'T FORGET YOUR ENTRY FORMS FOR THE SUMMER EXHIBITION

Waterperry visit

 

Reminder to get the coach at 8 am outside the Countrywide stores on Saturday.

 

 If you look at the Art in Action website you can plan your day and work out the artists etc that you most want to see. There is some very exciting work on show not only in painting but glass, printmaking, woodwork and many others. There are also art materials for sale from many firms so go with a list. Music and drama events will be taking place and there are also the gardens to walk around. The day won't be long enough!

Jake Winkle demonstration

The demonstration by Jake Winkle exceeded our expectations and was excellent. He decided to do two pictures for us, one on the view from the Accademia Bridge ,Venice and the other a view of a small town on the Costa Brava.

Jake started his Venice painting by drawing an outline of the buildings on the skyline starting at the centre or focal point. He then drew the base of the buildings, main shadow areas and vertical lines such as windows.

 Painting started with the darkest shadow areas, again beginning in the centre

and using a mix of browns, greys and blues. He continued in this way with the windows, roofs and areas of vegetation.

The sky was painted with washes of raw sienna near the base and cobalt blue and turquoise elsewhere. The colours were repeated in the reflections in the water using darker tones in the foreground.

Using various tones of light red, crimson, lemon yellow and violet the buildings were depicted next, making sure that many areas of white were left.

Finally the foreground reflection of the buildings and gondola poles were painted using a black mixed from sepia and ultramarine. A gondola crossing the canal was then added as the finishing touch.

The second painting was done in a similar way by starting with a drawing of the shape of the mountains, roofline and shadow areas.  Here Jake was aiming to paint the light not the buildings.

Painting started with the mountains using warm turquoise and crimson in the foreground and cool cobalt and crimson in the background. He then started on the buildings by painting their shadows and mixing the colours on the paper. A few odd roofs were added using red. Windows (mainly in the foreground) were painted using black. The final touch was rendering the town reflection in a dark colour and the sea in turquoise.

The evening ended with lively questions and left us feeling very inspired to try watercolours in this way especially at the work evening on July 9th.

Also on this evening it will be possible to order frames for pictures going into the Exhibition.

 

Costa Brava Town

Jake and Venice

View from Accademia Bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next demonstration evening is on July 23rd when Penny Wilton will demonstrate painting on silk but before this is our visit to Waterperry gardens on July 19th.     

Pastel Workshop Pictures

 Tea break discussion

                                                                  On to the next stage 

Still Life in the Afternoon

The pastel workshop run by Graham Oliver was excellent.

Graham first told us about pastels and papers before taking us through the different stages in painting a scene based on the Solent coast.

After drawing a basic composition and choosing our colours we laid the pastel on thickly, resisting the need to rub the pastel into the paper until the whole picture was covered. After the colours were blended we added final details such as rocks in the foreground and yachts in the distance.

The afternoon session was spent putting what we had learnt in the morning into practice on a still life painting set up by Graham.

The afternoon closed with a very constructive critique of our work by Graham.

Graham is an excellent teacher and we all left feeling we had learnt much and

had an inspiring day.   

 

 

 

Next on our programme is the Graham Oliver Workshop on Saturday 21st June 10.00 - 4.00pm.

Don't forget to bring newspaper and wet wipes with your usual pastels, paper, sketchbook, easel etc.

 

On Wednesday 25th June we welcome back Jake Winkle for a demonstration evening. He will be painting a Venetian scene in watercolour in his unique style. He sees the picture as a series of shapes in different colours and tones  and captures  light and movement  in a unique way. He is also an excellent teacher who did a memorable

workshop for us after his last visit. We look forward to an instructive and entertaining evening.

 

Also on the evening we pay for the Waterperry trip and collect entry forms for the Summer Exhibition.

Robert Dudley Demonstration

 

Robert started the evening in a lively manner with anecdotes about his early career including his work on "Shaun the Sheep"

His first premise for any art work is that it is a visual communication between artist and viewer.

 The major part of a painting is the planning. This involves primarily observation and thinking of the content but also making sketches (about 12) and taking photographs (about 200) He will readily omit or move objects in a scene to achieve his aim of communicating what he feels about the painting. Light is an important factor especially with water as the subject.

He started his picture by using masking fluid to create sparkle on the sea. The mask is diluted and the brush dipped in a solution of warm water and detergent and then masking fluid each time it is used. Continual use produces a good splayed brush.

The next stage was the sky which was painted so that a light area was left in the centre with more washes in some areas

The sea followed using Ultramarine and Winsor Blue to produce horizontal streaks of colour. Areas around the masking fluid were darkened to emphasise the waves. The whole was carefully worked over and blended using a large brush. An atomiser produced streaks of colour to indicate reflections.

The distant headland was then painted using Permanent Rose and Ultramarine used pale in the distance and strong in the foreground. More detail was added with Green Gold and Burnt Sienna.

Finally, after putting in finishing touches and detail, a few yachts were placed to emphasise the focal point of the painting.

The final result was a beautiful picture which Robert has very kindly given as a raffle prize at our Annual Exhibition.  

Rob with the finished painting

 

Light on the sea

Another of Rob's paintings