The Hampshire Open Studios event is now well under way and if you are not too busy getting ready for our Annual Exhibition it is good idea to is to select an area and spend a day visiting the studios. Most are open until Monday 25th August  and many until the end of the month - check in the brochure to make sure.

 Four of our Committee members - Ruth, Anne, Mary, and Claire - are exhibiting as Testwood Arts in Whinwistle Road,  East Wellow and some other members have open studios in the Lyndhurst area.  Some past speakers such as Wendy Jelbert and Claire Wiltshire are also taking part.

Congratulations to Roy Fisher who has had two pictures accepted in the New forest Show Art Exhibition. The exhibition is on at the New Forest Visitors centre at Lyndhurst until the end of the month and is well worth a visit. Entrance is free.

Christmas at Ashlett Creek

Lepe

John Rosser demonstration

At our meeting on July23 rd., with a change to the programme, we welcomed John Rosser from Poole.

John is an entertaining speaker and started by relating the story of how he "lost" a painting given to him by Francis Bacon. He used to share a studio with Bacon and slept in a roll of canvas!

Now living at Sandbanks he works outside and paints views of the beach especially as seen from his house. This was the subject of his main demonstration picture. First he showed us his working method by drawing the audience. Using felt-tip pens, he sketches first in one colour then refines the picture in a second colour so removing any mistakes.

For his beach scene he did a basic drawing in turquoise using gouache. He then put more detail in the picture starting with the sky and using a few appropriate colours. All the time he was very careful not to loose areas of light. He finished with a small brush to put in a few foreground details. The  result was a beautiful impressionistic beach scene full of light and life.     

Sketch of the audience

John with his beach scene near completion

Another of John's paintings

 

 

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