January was a good start to the art group’s year with many members attending the two sessions. There is always a buzz when more artists come along as it’s great to catch up with friends and see what each other is painting.

Tracy’s been asked why there are suggested ideas each session. The session ideas are not compulsory at all, you don’t have to paint the idea if you don’t want to, you can come along to draw and paint whatever you want to. The suggested ideas are simply to give you inspiration of what to paint and draw if you’re stuck for ideas.

Some subjects are to do with current or historic events in a certain month, or when an artist was born or died. Some ideas are to promote learning by including depth of field, perspective or colour exploration. Other ideas are to gain experience of human portraits, animals, texture, or certain media. The ideas are to help not hinder you, so if you don’t want to paint the suggested subject then come along and DYOT – Do Your Own Thing!

Wednesday 14th February  7-9pm  –  Chinese New Year of the Dragon

Chinese New Year in 2024 falls on Saturday 10th February and will be the year of the Dragon. The Lunar New Year, as it is called in other countries, is celebrated by over 2 billion people and is a national holiday in Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, North Korea and Taiwan.

Draw or paint any New Year celebration including a dragon, real or imaginary. Just paint a dragon or include the traditional red lanterns and people enjoying the celebrations. Use any media but use bright bold colours.

Saturday 24th February  10am-3pm  - William Morris

British textile designer, writer, poet, artist and social activist associated with the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris is one of Britain’s greatest designers. His original wallpaper and textile designs are still in print today and are also on everyday items like mugs and bags.

Draw or paint a portrait of William Morris, along with his wife Jane, who was a model in many Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Or create an image of one of the thousands of designs in the original colour way or tweak the design to your own image and colours. 

If you’d rather paint a house exterior or interior, William Morris had Red House designed and built in Bexleyheath and it’s been open for years by the National Trust. Another Arts and Crafts house looked after by the National Trust is Standen House in East Grinstead, West Sussex. Morris didn’t live there but the whole house is decorated with original items produced by Morris & Co. Morris also lived in Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire and his childhood home, Water House in Walthamstow, is now home to the William Morris Society.

Lots of ideas, the choice of subject and medium is all yours.

More info online…

www.morrisandco.sandersondesigngroup.com

www.wmgallery.org.uk

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement

www.kelmscottmanor.org.uk

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/red-house

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/sussex/standen-house-and-garden

On our first Saturday meeting of the year it was good to see so many members , 24 in all, turn up

Some members kept strictly to the theme of ‘A Winter Walk In The Snow’ or painted snowy scenes with various wildlife.

Some members chose to ‘do their own thing’

We would like to welcome three new members to the group. Elizabeth (Betty) Foxworthy who came along on Saturday and Graham and Pat Lock who were unable to make the meeting in January but will be coming in February. Graham is a returning member from the early years of the group.

I would like to give a big thank you to Ann Brooker who had to leave the group last year because she had to give up driving. She still looks at the blog and gave us a very generous donation which we will put to good use. Thank you Ann

Our next meeting is on Wednesday the 14th February from 7pm to 9pm

Best Wishes

Steve

Angela D has finished the flower painting she started at the last Wednesday session about Pantone’s Colour of the Year Peach Fuzz. It’s delicately painted in acrylics.

Angela also goes to weekly art classes and is working on a portrait of Canadian-American singer and songwriter Neil Young.

They’re both beautifully painted, well done!

Nine hardy members braved the cold evening to attend the first session of 2024. Creating a picture using the colour Peach Fuzz was the suggested idea, either as the only colour or as part of a painting.

It’s a year long colour project, so try and include Peach Fuzz in your paintings throughout 2024. Some members drew and painted to their own theme.

A great start to the year, well done!

The next session is on Saturday 27th January 10am-3pm.

Here are suggestions of what to paint at the sessions in January, but you are very welcome to come along and paint whatever you want to. 

Wednesday 10th 7-9pm –   Pantone Colour of the Year – Peach Fuzz / or bring new art supplies to try out

Worldwide colour company Pantone’s Colour of the Year 2024 is Peach Fuzz, a soft gentle peachy colour. Use any medium to paint or draw any subject using this colour alone, or make it the most used colour in a picture. Draw or paint flowers, animals, food, a landscape, abstract, Zentangle, a person wearing peach coloured clothing, a car, absolutely anything at all!

Remember this colour, Peach Fuzz, and try and use it in paintings throughout 2024.

Here’s a link to the Pantone website if you want more info… https://www.pantone.com/uk/en/color-of-the-year/2024

Or if you received new paints or paper as Christmas gifts bring them along to try them out. It’s always a pleasure unwrapping and using art supplies for the first time.

Saturday 27th  10am – 3pm  –  A winter walk in the snow

Imagine a wintry walk in snow either in the countryside or an urban landscape. Wrapped up in hat, coat and scarf include figures in your painting either close to or far away. Paint footprints leading to the people, giving a sense of depth of field, and a dog being taken for walkies if you want to add an animal to your picture.

Leave the white of a watercolour sheet of paper as snow or add white tissue paper for texture. With acrylics or oils use a palette knife to add depth to snow in the foreground.

Before you recycle your Christmas cards look through them all to see if there’s one or more that you can use for inspiration for your painting. Or if you have an Instagram account look at snowy winter photographs.

If you can’t make January’s sessions please pop in anyway for a chat and to pay your subs.

HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANK YOU to everyone for your continued support for M&C during 2023, attending sessions or painting along at home.

Membership

We will finance M&C this year with an annual subscription of £84 to cover the hall hire fees for 2024.

Alternatively, equal payments of £28 will be due 3 times this year in January, May and September. If you choose to pay in instalments you are committing to pay for the whole year. Without this support we will not be able to raise enough funds to hire the hall. Steve emailed everyone on 18th December with details of how to pay by bank transfer, cheque or cash, so look back to his email if you need to. Please pay promptly as this saves members being emailed and phoned to be reminded to pay!

If you no longer wish to be a member please email Steve asap so you don’t continue to receive emails from us.

Please pay your membership fee by the end of January to continue to be a member of the art group. Thank you! :o)

Sessions

Our sessions will continue to be on the second Wednesday and the fourth Saturday of the month, with session ideas being published on the 1st of that month.

You don’t have to paint the suggested ideas, you’re welcome to come along and paint anything you want to. Or if you come on a Wednesday and want to paint the Saturday idea or vice versa, that’s no problem at all.

Free tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided at all sessions, so if you just want to come and chat with your art friends then that’s fine too.

Workshops

If we have any workshops they will have the usual ‘first come, first served’ policy of putting your name down, with an additional amount to pay to cover the tutor’s fee. If more artists wish to attend the session than the tutor has room for, we’ll have a waiting list and you have a chance of getting a place as members sometimes pull out at the last minute. 

Even if you don’t want to attend a workshop you will have already paid for the hall hire in your subs. You are therefore welcome to sit and paint quietly at the kitchen end of the hall, whilst the workshop session takes place at the window end of the hall. 

Here are the session dates for 2024

Please print them out or write them in your diary or calendar. Some months have 5 Saturdays but we meet on the 4th one.

Please note that our Open Day is on Saturday 23rd November, with hanging the evening before.

2024	2nd Wednesday    7-9pm	4th Saturday   10am-3pm
January	10th	27th
February	14th	24th
March	13th	23rd
April	10th	27th
May	8th	25th
June	12th	22nd
July	10th	27th   (not at hall)
August	14th	24th (not at hall)
September	11th	28th
October	9th	26th
November	13th	FRI 22nd  – Hanging evening  SAT 23rd  – OPEN DAY
December	11th Christmas Party

Our Christmas Party was a most enjoyable evening, with 32 people coming along. Not just members but their partners and family too. A big get well wish for those unable to come along, we all hope you feel better asap!

We had a natter with each other, exchanged Christmas cards, ate lots of delicious savoury and sweet food, did very well in the two quizzes, had a lucky dip for painted wood slices to hang on our Christmas trees and ended the evening with a fun Pass the Parcel. There’s not a lot of photos as Tracy was too busy nattering :o)

Have a good Christmas and New Year and hope to see you at the first session next year on Wednesday 10th January 2024.

Patrick won 1st place in Swanley Art Group’s recent exhibition with his portrait of Australian actress Indiana Evans. He was presented with a trophy for his artwork.

That’s amazing news, Patrick, well done!

Our annual Open Day saw 23 members painting at the hall and welcoming about 80 visitors. It was a lovely sunny, bright day so visitors popped as they were passing. All artists were very happy to discuss their artwork and the hall was abuzz with chatter as we talked about our paintings.

Comments from visitors and the comments book included…

“Very impressed!” “The quality gets better and better!” “So interesting to see the artists painting while I can see their work on the walls” “Excellent!” “I’m very inspired. I’m going home to get out my pencils and paper!”

There were 67 framed paintings with 3 sold, 3 browsers full of 75 mounted pictures with 3 sold, Dot sold 8 of her greetings cards and there were 3 membership enquiries. A good response in only 4 hours, well done everyone!

Thank you to everyone who helped with hanging on Friday evening and a HUGE thank you to all members who kept tea, coffee, squash and biscuits constantly supplied on the day. Also for washing up and drying so many cups and saucers. We couldn’t run the day without your help and enthusiasm!

Here are all of the framed paintings…

Our last session of 2023 will be our Christmas Party on Wednesday 13th December 7-9pm.

Twelve members attended the session and most painted or drew on black paper or canvas with acrylic paint, white pens, silver pens and coloured pencils.

There were many subjects chosen and all very effective on the black background. It was extremely difficult to photograph the pictures in the dim light, so please forgive the dull photos, the original artwork is much brighter.

Dot couldn’t attend the session but sent in three beautiful paintings she had previously done as it’s a subject she loves.

Some members painted to their own theme. We always like to see what you’re working on outside the group too.

Great work everyone. ‘On Black’ was an interesting theme and you rose to the challenge, well done!

The next time we meet is hanging evening on Friday 24th November from 7-9pm to hang our paintings for the Open Day on Saturday 25th November. On the Saturday the hall’s booked from 10am to 3pm, with visitors welcome for 4 hours from 10.30am to 2.30pm.