Month: February 2025

Sketch week with Adebanji Alade

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Adebanji Alade is President of the Royal Society of Oil Painters, the resident artist on BBC 1’s The One Show and a published author with his Addictive Sketcher books. He lives in Gravesend and when Tracy bumped into him in the local Tesco he was chatty and very friendly. Adebanji has an online art group sketching and painting with members and twice a year runs a sketch week open to the public for only £10 for 5 lessons. They’re at 7.30pm onwards but if you can’t watch a lesson live you have until the following Friday to watch and take part.

The next sketch week is from Monday 3rd to Friday 7th March with lessons available to watch until Friday 14th March.

Here’s the link if you want to take part… https://adebanji-alade.lpages.co/addictive-sketchers-week/

Tracy took part in the last sketch week and learned so many things that she highly recommends taking part. For only £10 it’s an absolute bargain!

Once you sign up you’re sent a list of materials, but as long as you have a sketchbook, a few pencils from 2B to 8B and a rubber, you don’t need any extras.

These are Tracy’s sketches. The subject photos are emailed to you and you can print them out but instead she downloaded the photos to her phone and used an app called ‘Grid’ to put on the lines used to help with sketching out. There were two portraits, figures, a landscape and an animal, so a variety of subjects to sketch.

Tracy has signed up for sketch week next week and so have Brenda and Jane. Will anyone else join us?

Peta’s sketches of independent London shops

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Peta’s sketches of independent London shops have been published online on the Spitalfields Life website. Drawn in pencil then coloured in brown, black and blue ink, the subject evokes life as it was with independent shops on every High Street.

They’re fantastic sketches, Peta, you have such an amazing skill with a pencil and brush.

Good luck with your exhibition that opens this week in London!

The sketches have been screenshot to add to this post, but to see the images on the Spitalfields Life site click here… https://spitalfieldslife.com/2025/02/24/peta-bridles-shops/

Click on the first image below to see the writing under each picture, then scroll right to see them all. If you’d like to comment please do so on the Spitalfields Life website at the bottom of the page.

Art Nouveau – February 2025 – Saturday

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We had very busy session on Saturday with 26 artists attending including 5 new members. Welcome to Vikki, Chris T, Julia, Sandra and Nick. We hope you liked drawing and painting with us and we enjoyed meeting you!

The suggested subject was Art Nouveau and it proved to be a popular theme with many pictures drawn and painted during the day in pencils, pastels, acrylics and watercolours. Sinuous, natural shapes adorn the pictures. Two paintings had silver and gold metallic watercolour paint on them so they’ve also been photographed at an angle to show off the shiny paint. Some artworks are finished, some are works in progress.

Some artists drew and painted to their own subjects in different mediums.

Well done everyone for your enthusiasm on Saturday, it was fantastic to have such an interesting and creative session!

Next month’s subjects will be posted on Saturday 1st March and the next session will be on Wednesday 12th March from 7-9pm.

Peta’s exhibition

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Peta has an exhibition soon of her amazing London sketches, full of character and skill.

From Wednesday 26th February to Tuesday 25th March in the cafe of The Good Shepherd Building, 15a Davies Lane, Leytonstone, London. The nearest transport is Leytonstone Station on the Central Line.

The private view is on Thursday 27th February from 6-8pm and all are welcome!

The exhibition will be a collection of pencil and ink sketches made on location around London, with 12 framed giclee prints on show and a selection of giclee prints for sale.

Please see the flyer for the exact address and opening times…

If you’re on Instagram do give Peta a follow.

Good luck with the exhibition, Peta, your artwork deserves to have a wider audience!

Fauvism – February 2025 – Wednesday

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This session’s subject on Fauvism was well attended with 13 artists and most painted like Les Fauves, the Wild Beasts, using bright colours and bold strokes.

Using original artworks or other paintings or photographs as inspiration, the mediums used were acrylic paints, watercolours, acrylic pens and felt tip pens. Some paintings are finished and others are works in progress and will be completed at home.

Some members came along and created pictures to their own subjects and there’s one coloured pencil drawing inspired by the last Saturday session on winter.

Lovely work everyone, well done for being so bold and colourful with your paints and pens!

The next session is on Saturday 22nd February from 10am to 3pm and the suggested subject is Art Nouveau.

Steve’s and Angela’s pictures

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Both artists have completed the pictures they started at the last Saturday session on ‘Winter Wonders’ and Steve has also finished a canine portrait.

Steve’s pictures were made using soft pastels and pastel pencils on Pastelmat paper. The winter picture feels so cold that you can imagine the snow crunching under your feet as you walk along the lane to the house.

The dog picture works so well in pastels as they make it’s fluffy fur look soft and strokeable.

Angela’s picture of a blackbird was painted in acrylics. Lovely use of paint with the blackbird in focus in the foreground and the background out of focus using larger brushstrokes.

Well done Steve and Angela for completing your super pictures and thank you for sharing them with us.

February 2025

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In January we had a quiet Wednesday session and a very busy Saturday session where it was good to catch up with everyone. Here are the suggested idea for February based on historic art movements, but if you’d rather come and paint to your own subject that’s absolutely fine.

Wednesday 12th – 7-9pm – Fauvism

Fauvism emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century as a group of artists moved on from the style of Post-Impressionist paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Neo-Impressionist pointillist paintings by painters such as Georges Seurat. Fauvism used strong colours and fierce brushwork and the colours used were often not connected to the colours of the subject. This style of painting emerged around 1904 and carried on past 1910, but the years the movement were most productive were 1905-1908.

Painters such Henri Matisse, André Derain and others used vivid colours straight from the tube and spontaneous brushwork that an art critic called them Les Fauves (the wild beasts). Whilst you may not have heard of Fauvism you will have probably seen many paintings by famous painters.

Choose a subject and use any media to create a painting inspired by Fauvism. Paint one of the Fauvist artists if you prefer portraits.

Info from the Tate Gallery – https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/fauvism#:~:text=Fauvism%20is%20the%20name%20applied,strong%20colours%20and%20fierce%20brushwork

Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauvism

10 famous Fauvist paintings – https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/fauvism-in-10-paintings/

Fauvism paintings on Google images – you will recognise many – https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&sca_esv=05dc5d931443a7b3&channel=mac_bm&q=fauvism+artwork&udm=2&fbs=ABzOT_CWdhQLP1FcmU5B0fn3xuWpA-dk4wpBWOGsoR7DG5zJBsxayPSIAqObp_AgjkUGqenLclubdwP4zrQWfEJDEVVFVXswA8wQATANG0VCCiWAMu4ejmjJF88YytNA4ooH7UaQnCzCG9kHDJcsZiEnf682ytYLMNWtL7sMF7t6s8j1r6aG8tF1Ey2OdkbWmbYM880tDLYpDJgsGVOWrdtT4dkx-ceNUQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlv7HrqaOLAxU4XEEAHUiCLggQtKgLegQIEBAB&biw=1804&bih=1209&dpr=2

Saturday 22nd – 10am to 3pm – Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau, ‘New Art’, both predates and postdates Fauvism, from c1890 to the beginning of the first world war in 1914. It is such a well known and international style that thousands of examples adorn the world’s museums, art galleries and great houses.

Inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous shapes of plants, flowers and animals, the moment had roots in the works of William Morris (who was our subject in February 2024) and the Pre-Raphaelites. Using dynamism, asymmetry and movement there are not just paintings but sculptures, furniture, textiles, ceramics, jewellery, buildings and other objects. In France this time was called La Belle Époque, ‘The Beautiful Era’, and the Style Moderne and several Metro stations still have their Art Nouveau entrances.

Draw or paint anything inspired by Art Nouveau, or if you prefer portraits choose one of the many artists connected to this style.

Info from the Tate Gallery – https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/art-nouveau

Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau#Bibliography

Paris Métro entrances – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Métro_entrances_by_Hector_Guimard

10 artists – https://www.invaluable.com/blog/art-nouveau-artists/

Art Nouveau at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm#:~:text=From%20the%201880s%20until%20the,%2C%20graphic%20work%2C%20and%20illustration.