Eleven members attended the session and either drew or painted their Salvador Dali pictures or did their own thing. Some used Dali as an influence in their paintings or studied one painting or Surrealist object in detail, and some drew his portrait. One member channelled her inner Dali and drew a merhorse, then continued with other images that flowed from her pencil. There’s also an homage to Dali’s ‘The Persistence of Memory’ with ‘The Persistence of Washing’, which never goes away!

Most are works in progress, so if you finish your picture before the next session either send a completed photo to Tracy or Steve or bring it along to the next session on Saturday 25th May to be photographed.

Peta drew a tram in great detail and will paint it soon.

Thank you to everyone who embossed metallic dragon scales at the session, details and photos will be in the next post.

Hopefully everyone is enjoying the warmer weather when the sun occasionally shines, but wet weather is due over the bank holiday weekend, as usual!

If you didn’t pay your yearly subs all in one go at the beginning of the year, please look out for an email from Steve about paying the next payment of £28, due at the beginning of May. Thank you :o)

Wednesday 8th – 7-9pm – Salvador Dali

120 years after his birth, Salvador Dali (May 1904-Jan 1989), is globally recognised for his skilled, precise draughtsmanship and the often strange images in his paintings. He is one of the most well known artists of Surrealism. Paint a scene or image in the style of Salvador Dali or study and recreate one of his original paintings which are in galleries worldwide.

If you prefer drawing and painting portraits then choose Dali himself or with his wife Gala.

Click through to these websites to read about Dali and see his paintings…

www.salvadordali.com

www.thedali.org

www.salvador-dali.org/en

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dalí

Saturday 25th May – 10am-3pm – Underwater Life

We are always drawing and painting animals on land, so instead let’s look at life in rivers, seas and oceans. Huge whales and sharks, tiny colourful tropical fish, predators and prey, life at ocean depths, plants and animals on coral reefs, octopuses, starfish, shells, jellyfish, scuba divers exploring underwater. There are so many options.

If you prefer drawing or painting a portrait then choose a famous diver like Jacques-Yves Cousteau the inventor of the aqualung, his son Jean-Michel Cousteau, or environmental campaigner and botanist David Bellamy who studied coral reefs and pollution decades ago.

If you use watercolours then perhaps use the paints really wet-on-wet to achieve a watery effect. Using any media you don’t have to paint animals precisely, why not try a Surrealist picture of underwater life in the style of Salvador Dali?

Sixteen members came along and painted colourful pictures in celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the RNLI. There were many lifeboats and rescues and an historical lifeboatman, with many members inspired by photos in the RNLI magazine ‘Lifeboat’ and scenes from the tv programme ‘Saving lives at Sea’.

We had cake available for a donation and with the proceeds from the raffle the RNLI will receive £125 from the group. Thank you very much for all your donations!

Here are photos of members and their works in progress.

There were 20 pictures created on the day and 19 entered into the competition. After thoroughly perusing the paintings we voted for our favourite one and the votes added up. Although the votes were spread, there was a clear winner and runner-up.

The runner-up was Steve with his watercolour of a dramatic scene of a rescue from ‘Saving Lives at Sea.

The winner was Tracy with her pastel picture of the Severn class lifeboat the Ivan Ellen, based in Penlee, Cornwall, racing to a rescue in stormy seas. She will be spending her prize money on…more pastels!

There were also pictures on their own theme.

Well done everyone, all your pictures were fantastic and thank you so much for your generous donations to the RNLI. Long may they continue their brave life-saving rescues around the coast of the UK and Ireland.

The next session is on Wednesday 8th May 7-9pm.

At the session yesterday we received the very sad news that Ruth, the founder of M&C Art Group 32 years ago, had recently died. Her funeral was last week, but unfortunately no one from the art group attended as we hadn’t yet heard the news.

M&C still runs on her original ethos of an informal gathering of friends creating art together over a cuppa and a natter. Many members are still friends after three decades and Ruth remained a member until three years ago. She only gave up coming to sessions when she no longer drove.

Ruth was a lady with a kind soul, sparkling eyes, a wicked sense of humour and a good artist too. We remember you with love and many happy memories.

More members have finished their wild animal pastel pictures from the workshop with Paul Hinks last month.

Chris chose a pine marten as her wild animal and created the picture using bold, colourful pastels. She smudged the pastels in the background which make the pine marten really stand out. The purple, blue and orange colours work so well together.

Angela D’s picture is of the head of a puma. She used several colours of brown, yellow and cream to form the shape of its head. Adding the whiskers on the puma’s muzzle, eyebrows and ears brings the puma to life.

Brenda’s picture of a cute red squirrel scampering over a log with a nut in its mouth is very colourful. She used complimentary colours of red and green to create this bold picture. Several pastel colours of brown and red were used for its fur, with Brenda following the way its fur grows to achieve the furriness.

Mary couldn’t come on the day of the workshop but still created a pastel pictures of elephants. She used warm orange pastel for the lit part of the elephants, with cool purple as the shadow colour. Complimentary colours used to great effect.

Well done, ladies, it’s great to see your finished pastel pictures!

Denise is always busy being creative by attending two art groups and also Columbine China Painters, who meet at Sutton at Hone three times a month.

Her latest china paintings are on a white tile and a plate. Denise paints on the object and they are fired several times to build up the layers of paint.

It’s hard to see from the photos but some of the painting is raised up from the surface, creating an extra dimension to the image.

Well done, Denise, beautiful work!

The clocks changed recently so we arrived at the hall in daylight, making it much easier to find a parking space. Eight members came to the session and started painting their RNLI pictures of lifeboats and a portrait of Grace Darling in pastels.

Angela D started a snowy painting and also brought along her Heath Ledger Joker painting which she had started in acrylics at the ‘Heroes and Villains’ session last month, then finished at home in oils.

Brenda brought along two collages she has made in preparation of a collage workshop she is running next month. The first collage was made by using strips of coloured paper, most of which she printed herself, glued down with a glue stick following the shape of the apple then varnished with Mod Podge to give a lovely sheen. The second collage is made from strips of fabric ironed down using fabric web glue. Hope the workshop goes well!

Thank you everyone who brought in completed wild animal pastel pictures, they will feature in their own post soon.

The next session is on Saturday 27th April from 10am and will be the final of the competition, so get drawing and painting anything to do with the RNLI.

Steve chose a majestic lion in profile against a dark background as his reference picture for Paul Hinks’ wild animal soft pastel workshop last month. He built up layers of different coloured pastels for the lion’s mane, making each piece of mane seem 3D against the next piece, with a good use of shadow. Great work, Steve!

Tracy used an image of a painted dog, also called an African wild dog, as it had an arresting gaze and many colours and patterns in its fur. Several different colour pastels were used for its fur including ivory, light flesh, burnt sienna, burnt umber, van Dyke brown, black and white. She really enjoyed the workshop and learned a lot, especially how to use a greyscale value chart to accurately judge tones in a picture.

If you’ve finished your pastel picture at home please take a photo and send it to Tracy. Or bring it to a Wednesday or Saturday session to be photographed.