JUNE SKIES MEMBERS' WORKSHOP

 SATURDAY 17 JUNE 10 am - 4pm    PAINTING SKIES IN ANY MEDIUM 

Our untutored workshop at Calmore Community Centre

Ten of us took part in the workshop which had been organised by workshop Manager Claire Palmer. Unfortunately illness prevented her attendance on the day.

Sue Canton painted two bright landscapes in watercolour, experimenting with unusual paints and using granulating pigments in her skies.

Tina Horsefield painted an impressionist-style landscape while experimenting with acrylics. Tina told us several days later that the painting had attracted an eager buyer.

Sue Farr painted a striking seascape using acrylics

Janet Hutchings worked on an acrylic seascape using a beautiful range of colours.

Gail painted a bold blue sky and then began a new one in warm colours.

Susan worked hard on selecting her colours...

...while Julie varied her tonal value.

Richard settled on a subtle sky using watercolour.

Lesley let loose her amazing creativity using acrylics. 

Di painted her sky, river and figures using expressive colours she had chosen...

...using her original photograph which was much less exciting.

The line-up at the end showed how we all interpreted the subject in vey different ways.

JUNE ART EXTRA AFTERNOON

Henry, Ali, Kay, Lesley and Di were at our June Art Extra afternoon workshop.

Ali's cat

Best wishes to Anne and Claire who were both unwell.

Di's Dog

Henry's Landscape

Kay's Figures

Lesley's Birds

Henry used oils, Ali and Lesley used pencils, Kay used soft pastels and Di used oil pastels.

We were mostly chatting while working from our photos.

It is good to have 2 hours solely devoted to art, without any outside distractions.

When you use a different medium, your creativity is often boosted!

ALISON BOARD DEMONSTRATED BRUSHO IN MAY

 

Our May meeting with professional artist Alison Board introduced us to Brusho powder which she used with watercolours and Posca marker pens. She explained that Brusho is fantastically unpredictable. 

She used it at first by applying a tiny quantity of powder on the paper and then spraying it with water and/or mixing in watercolour. Light areas were dabbed out with tissue. Her nifty heat gun dried each section.

The second method with Brusho was mixing it with watercolour to make an ink. Warning - remove spills with Milton sterilising fluid! The textures in her painting gave the parrot its feathers.

Ali usually has 4 or 5 pictures on the go in her studio. She works quickly and above all, avoids overworking. We had an enlightening and enjoyable evening.

PLEIN AIR EVENING WITH HELEN

 

Helen Bartlett's PLEIN AIR evening focused on every aspect of sketching and painting in the open air.

We learnt about artists in the past and present who worked outdoors, essential equipment to take, how to use photos and much more.

Helen is herself experienced in painting and sketching outdoors. This is painting was done at the Palais de Vaches at Lower Exbury Farm.

Helen had prepared free viewfinders and a factsheet to help to with composition.

Sketches are often used alongside photographs as the first step in doing a painting of an outdoor scene. Here are a few examples of some of Helen's sketches..

Our own photos were then used to start our sketches.

 

 

Thank you so much for all the work that you put into the evening Helen. Your enthusiasm is infectious and she persuaded many of us to attempt sketching again in future!

2023 AGM & COMPETITION

 The events of 2022 were reviewed at the AGM and some future events were also announced.

We look forward to mounting an exhibition at Hanger Farm Arts Centre during May.

http://tottonartsociety.org/news-2.html Mary will give

There will be a members' outing via minibus to Bennetts Water Gardens and the Russel Coates Museum on Tuesday 27th June organised by Helen.

The next Saturday workshop will be painting SKIES organised by Claire'

was followed by members showing their competition entries.

The theme - an artwork in the style of an artist you admire. - had been suggested by Gail Morris, (who stood down as Programme Coordinator at the AGM).

Gail painted a Henri Rousseau

Helen painted her grand-daughter in Mucha style

Henry painted a Vettriano

Mary painted Monet's garden

Sue created a Kurt Jackson engine with rail tickets

Janet painted a Monet

, Ann Farr painted a Hockney

Betty painted a Graham Sutherland view in Pembrokeshire

Claire painted The Cornfield by Constable

Di painted 'A Portrait of Nicola' inspired by Daniel Gerhartz

Tina painted a Sisley

Helen & Mary tied for first place in the voting and Gail gave the casting vote to Mary. Sue presented Mary with her unique trophy and a large Easter egg!

MARCH ART EXTRA AFTERNOON

 

You never know what members will be working on at our Art Extra afternoons! We all work on very different subjects in various mediums. It was good to see Claire and Linda back again. Here are a few photos of some of the work.

Claire told us that the room hire is being increased. (Price rises everywhere these days.) From next month we have to charge our members £3 per session.