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.

It’s time for our annual competition which is a friendly affair and is NOT compulsory.  If you don’t want to enter a painting that’s fine, please just use the suggested idea as inspiration for a drawing or painting. The competition theme will be on both Wednesday and Saturday sessions, but if you prefer come along and ‘do your own thing’.

Wednesday 10th April 7-9pm – Start painting for the competition

The subject is – the 200th Anniversary of the RNLI – The Royal National Lifeboat Institution

Philanthropist Sir William Hillary began the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, with King George IV as patron, after witnessing and taking part in many shipwreck rescues where he lived on the Isle of Man. It was renamed the RNLI in 1854.

24 hours a day, 7 days a weeks, every day of the year for 200 years the RNLI has provided a ring of safety around the UK and Ireland. Based in Poole, Dorset, there are now 238 lifeboat stations, 448 lifeboats and hovercraft, over 5700 volunteer lifeboat crew members, lifeguards on 200 beaches and flood rescue teams on standby nationally and internationally.

Lifeboats have been launched over 380,000 times saving more than 144,000 lives. Lifeguards have responded to over 303,000 incidents, saving over 2000 lives. 19 lifeboats took part in the rescue of Allied troops from Dunkirk in 1940. Sadly, since the RNLI’s inception, over 600 crew members have died during rescues.

Gravesend lifeboat station opened in 2002, one of four lifeboat stations on the River Thames.

The tv programme ‘Saving Lives at Sea’ began in 2016 and follows crew and rescues at many lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland. Have you visited Chatham Dockyard and seen the many lifeboats in one of the covered slips?

Further details to read are under the ‘what we do’ header on the RNLI’s website… www.rnli.org

Several RNLI quarterly magazines, given to those who donate to the service, will be available at the sessions to read and use as inspiration for your drawing or painting.

There are countless subjects to draw or paint…

People – paint a portrait of a crew member in their uniform from modern times or earlier years, or one of the lady launchers who launched lifeboats from the shore to the sea.

RNLI founder Sir William Hillary… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hillary . Cromer crab fisherman Henry Blogg ‘one of the bravest men who ever lived’… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Blogg. Lighthouse keeper’s daughter Grace Darling… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Darling.

Buildings – lifeboat stations on the coast or rivers, or those that launch lifeboats down a slipway in the sea.

Lifeboats – there are several different classes of lifeboat from huge sea-going craft to smaller river rescue boats and hovercraft. Some are launched by tractor in to the sea, like at Dungeness.

A rescue – paint the drama of a rescue at sea.

There’s no right or wrong way to paint this subject…just your way.

Saturday 27th   10am-3pm   –    Competition continued

Continue with your RNLI picture, or paint another. All pictures to be in by 2.15pm then we all cast one vote for our favourite painting. There will be small cash prizes for the winner and runner-up.

A maximum of two drawings/paintings per member.  If you have a picture but can’t attend today please arrange with someone to take and collect your artwork. Or if you come to the Wednesday session but know you can’t make the Saturday session, your picture can be put in our storage cupboard upstairs and brought down for the competition.

If you feel uncomfortable entering the competition that’s fine, you don’t have to. Paint the RNLI theme but leave your painting on your own table so it won’t be on the separate tables with the submitted pictures.

All proceeds from the raffle will be sent to the RNLI, along with all donations for cake that will be available on the day :o)

Good luck everyone!

For a little Easter gift Kay bought some chocolate eggs and popped them in an egg box. She spent half an hour painting a chick and egg shell in watercolour. Adding words to the painting she fastened it to the top of the egg box.

What a lovely idea!

There’s a couple of days until Easter, so get painting if you want to create a similar painting or gift idea.

17 members signed up for the Paul Hinks pastel workshop, for some it was a new experience. Two other members decided to do their own thing.

Paul was so informative, approachable and gave an excellent structured workshop. He talked us through the various merits of all the soft pastels available and other equipment to use including foam pipe lagging to use as a blender or eraser. Paul had on show his many sets of pastels from the very affordable to the very expensive. These are just a few of them.

He produced a terrific picture of a lion to illustrate the various stages of a complete work. There was not enough time for him to complete the whole work but he concentrated on the area around the the eye.

Paul managed to come round quite a few times and give individual advice. He had such a positive and encouraging attitude. It made for a great day and there was some great work produced. Most is still work in progress so either send images of your finished work to Tracy or Steve or bring in to the next meeting

There was a great atmosphere on the day. Thank you all.

Hopefully we will be able to have another workshop with Paul in the future.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday the 10th April. Happy Easter

Eleven members attended the session Heroes and Villains and what a challenging subject it was! We used acrylics, watercolours, graphite pencils, coloured pencils and ink pens to create our pictures. Most are works in progress of Superman, Catwoman, The Joker, Maya Angelou, The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Jekyll and Hyde, and Robert Oppenheimer.

Here’s an amazing completed William Morris-inspired watercolour painting and artwork from members who came along and painting their own subjects.

Our next session is the pastel workshop on Saturday 23rd March from 10am to 3pm. Email Tracy asap if you want a place.

The group has had a very positive start to the year with most members attending one session or other, which is great news. For those too poorly to come along at the moment, we wish you well as soon as possible so you can paint with us again!

Here are this month’s session ideas but, as always, they are simply suggestions, you can come along and ‘do your own thing’.

Try and get Pantone’s Colour of the Year, Peach Fuzz, into at least one of your pictures.

Wednesday 13th – 7-9pm – Heroes and Villains

A broad subject that you can create in any medium. Your hero, heroine or villain can be real people, living or dead, famous or family, from fiction or from popular culture like films and animation. Draw or paint one hero or one villain, or a hero and their arch nemesis together.

Saturday 23rd – 10am-3pm – Soft pastel workshop with Paul Hinks

Paul Hinks is a local artist whose work you may have seen at an Under the Rainbow exhibition at Bluewater and at events in Gravesend. His pastel artworks and paintings are absolutely amazing and you can see them here on his website… www.paulhinks.art

It will be a soft pastel workshop and the subject will be animals. More details of photographs and equipment needed will be supplied very soon.

The cost will be £10 each to cover Paul’s fee, the hall hire fee already covered by your subs. Please note that Paul is booked from 10am to 2.30pm, the extra 30 minutes of the session to be used for clearing up the hall. Please turn up promptly to start at 10am so we don’t waste any time with him. If you arrive late please find a free seat and unpack quietly.

Check the date first to see if you are available. There are 5 Saturdays in March, but we’ll meet on the 4th one. The 5th and last Saturday of this month is Easter weekend, but we are meeting the week before.

If you are free and want to attend then EMAIL Tracy on her usual email address.

*** DO NOT USE the comments box as messages can take days to get through! ***

Once Tracy has confirmed your place please pay by bank transfer (preferred) or cash.

If there are more people than places then there will be a waiting list. 

Please don’t book a place then realise the day before that you won’t be able to come. Unfortunately in the past we have had members cancelling on the day or just not turning up. This means that people on the waiting list miss a place and we also lose the person’s fee, costing the group money.

As you have already paid for the hall in your recent subs we aim to make the hall accessible for everyone on the day, even if you’re not taking part in the workshop. We’ll have the workshop towards the big window end of the hall and a couple of tables at the kitchen end of the hall available if you wish to come and ‘do your own thing’ on the day, but please work quietly, thank you!

Many members finished their Year of the Dragon pictures and jolly colourful they are too, with a couple having gold paint on that really catches the light. Good work everyone!

Our Wednesday evening session saw 11 members at the hall, mostly drawing and painting dragons as the Lunar New Year began just a few days earlier. Mediums used were graphite pencils, coloured pencils, watercolours and acrylics.

Most are works in progress, but if you complete your painting before the next session on Saturday 24th February please bring it along and put it on the long ledge at the side of the hall. Tracy will then take photos of the finished artwork for another blog post. If you can’t make the Saturday session please email or WhatsApp a photo to Tracy.

Here be dragons!

Other members chose to complete pictures of their own subjects, showing amazing attention to detail in their artwork.

Well done everyone, it was a very colourful evening!