Rochester Cathedral – August 2024 – Saturday

/ tracyqp / Leave a comment

Our plans to return to the King’s Orchard, the private gardens behind Rochester Cathedral, were thwarted by the very heavy rain that fell for hours on Saturday. A huge thank you to Kay who got permission for us to draw in the cathedral instead, where we were based on tables in the north transept right by the stone rood screen. Some members used their folding chairs to sit by the tall columns in the nave.

Nine members came along and we were also joined by Ron’s two very polite and well behaved granddaughters aged 7 and his son-in-law. A whip round collected £40 and this was gift aided so £50 will be received by the cathedral.

We were initially disappointed not to paint outside but we all thoroughly enjoyed our day inside being creative. Annoyingly it finally stopped raining as the last two members left the cathedral at 2.45pm!

We couldn’t use any paint or water inside the cathedral so everyone sketched using dry mediums of pencils, coloured pencils, charcoal and pens. Most members drew the architecture and views around them but as usual we don’t mind at all if you come along to a session and ‘do your own thing’, so a giraffe and highland cow join the gallery. We start off with the girls’ pictures, including a super picture of Grandad Ron…

A few months ago some members embossed metal scales for a project at the cathedral. 12500 scales now adorn the Draco Roffensis dragon sculpture that is hanging above the nave. Here are photos of the sculpture and views in and around the cathedral.

The cathedral’s website with lots of info if you want to visit… www.rochestercathedral.org

Thank you to everyone who braved the weather, we had a good day!

The next session is back at Chalk Parish Hall on Wednesday 11th September from 7-9pm.

Horses – inspired by George Stubbs – August 2024 – Wednesday

/ tracyqp / 1 Comment

It was lovely to see ten members at the session, all eager to try their hand at drawing and painting horses, which we all thought was quite a challenge. The session was inspired by the birth of George Stubbs 300 years ago this month and his extraordinary paintings of horses in Georgian Britain. His most famous painting is ‘Whistlejacket’ in The National Gallery in London where visitors admire the horse’s perfectly formed body against a plain background so nothing distracts from the horse himself.

A good start was made with the pictures and hopefully they’ll be finished at home. Patrick finished his pencil drawing inspired by an old postcard.

Kay was disappointed not to come to the session as she loves horses. At home she found her sketching book which she had begun at just 5 years old and continued with until her mid teens. The pyrography was done when she was 14 and the last image was painted a couple of years ago as a gift for a friend of her own horse.

Lovely work everyone, do try the subject again!

Details of our visit to Rochester Cathedral on Saturday 24th August will be sent in a couple of days. Do email Tracy asap if you want to come along too.

Finished pictures

/ tracyqp / Leave a comment

We have so many different subjects in our sessions that we often start pictures but don’t get around to finishing them.

Here are several pictures that were finished at home from sessions on Frida Kahlo, painting on a book page, Underwater Life, In an English Country Garden, and Chalk Church.

Brenda’s colourful picture of Frida Kahlo is in pastels as are her images of the dragon and the parrot on a dictionary page. The cockerel is painted in watercolours.

Steve’s posterised image of Frida Kahlo was painted in acrylics and the other in black pastel on grey pastel paper with a dramatic pop of lip colour in pink. Chalk Church was created when we visited last month, again in pastel but using many colours for a realistic picture.

Tracy’s images of Frida Kahlo were painted in watercolours, as were the underwater eagle spotted rays. The cottage garden at Sissinghurst is in coloured pencils, lightly pressed on to the paper so the finished effect is delicate.

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

August 2024

/ tracyqp / 1 Comment

Here’s what we’ll be up to in August but as usual you can draw or paint anything you’d like to.

Wednesday 14th August – 7-9pm –   Horses – inspired by George Stubbs 

English artist George Stubbs (August 1724-1806) revolutionised the drawing and painting of horses as he studied their anatomy in great detail. Without doubt the most important painter of horses in the 18th century his paintings are in galleries worldwide. Stubbs’ most famous horse painting is ‘Whistlejacket’ in the National Gallery in London and is the most asked-for painting by visitors.

Using any medium draw or paint a horse or horses in detail, either the whole body, just the head and neck or any part.

Here are details about George Stubbs and gallery websites of his paintings and drawings…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stubbs

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/george-stubbs

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/george-stubbs-538

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/george-stubbs-ara

Saturday 24th August – from 10am to 3pm –   Rochester Cathedral’s private gardens

We will be meeting in the King’s Orchard, the private gardens behind Rochester Cathedral, for this month’s outdoor session. We first visited these gardens two years ago when Kay gained permission for us to sit and enjoy the gardens whilst either painting the view or painting your own idea.

There are a couple of benches but not enough for everyone so you’ll need to bring a chair to sit on. You’ll also need to bring your own water container and lunch, but hopefully the cafe in the crypt will be open if you fancy eating there. The Cathedral are not charging us to use the gardens so we will be having a collection on the day.

A few months ago some of our members pressed patterns on to copper, silver and gold coloured metal scales which now adorn the dragon flying above the nave… https://mcartgroup.wordpress.com/2024/05/12/decorating-dragon-scales/

Hopefully we will be able to see Draco Roffensis on the day… https://www.rochestercathedral.org/dragon

Please email Tracy asap if you would like to attend or not, as we need to know names for the lanyards that must be worn at all times.

Further details about dropping off your art equipment and parking information will be sent by email nearer the time.

Here’s the session from August 2022 on the blog… https://mcartgroup.wordpress.com/2022/08/29/rochester-cathedral-august-2022-saturday/

Chalk Church – July 2024 – Saturday

/ tracyqp / Leave a comment

On Saturday twelve members visited Chalk Church and enjoyed drawing and painting in perfect weather. It was sunny but not too hot, being pleasantly warm with a gentle breeze. The Monet bridge and pond area looked very bare last year but is now planted with wild flowers such as red, white and pink poppies and yellow and blue flowers too. In the pond we saw a newt and shrimpy things swimming with their little legs, dragonflies flew above whilst water boatmen and beetles scurried on the water’s surface.

We all enjoyed the day as we sketched and painted and enjoyed a good natter. Thank you for the £36 for the church fund.

Some members drew and painted the view in front of them and others created pictures to their own theme.

Look out for next month’s newsletter which will be published on Thursday 1st August.

We will be painting in the gardens of Rochester Cathedral on Saturday 24th August. Please note there will be 5 Saturdays in August but we always meet on the 4th one, which is on the bank holiday weekend this year. Please check the date to see if you’re free as Tracy will be asking for names to attend the day.

The next session at the hall will be on Wednesday 14th August from 7-9pm.

Steve’s dictionary pages

/ tracyqp / Leave a comment

Steve’s surname of Goldson isn’t in the dictionary so he used the pages with the words ‘gold’ and ‘son’ on to create images of other words on the pages. He used soft pastels to draw a golden eagle and a man wearing a sombrero.

Very imaginative, Steve. Great colours and details you’ve achieved with the soft pastels, well done!

Frida Kahlo – July 2024 – Wednesday

/ tracyqp / Leave a comment

Just 7 members attended the session yesterday evening, with several members away on holiday or others watching England in the Euro football semi finals. We had a good natter and enjoyed creating our pictures to do with the life of artist Frida Kahlo.

Several portraits by Brenda, Steve and Tracy, a flower study of similar blooms Frida wore by Myrna and a picture by Angela of the Casa Azul (the Blue House) Frida’s family home were started and will hopefully be finished at home. Chris couldn’t attend the session but completed a portrait at home, sending a photo for inclusion. If you do draw or paint the suggested subject at home, please send a photo to Tracy or Steve and they’ll be happy to add to it the relevant post.

Here are our pictures, including a photo of Tracy wearing a t-shirt and holding a bag and tin all with Frida Kahlo’s image on.

Patrick drew a picture of the Frog Princess.

Two more dictionary pages have been finished and they will be shown in the next post.

Our next session is at Chalk Church on Saturday 27th July from after 10am to just before 3pm

Peta’s pictures

/ tracyqp / Leave a comment

Peta was named ‘Artist of the Week’ on the Londonist website last week. Well done, Peta, that’s so deserved. Here’s the info taken from the website…

Link to Peta’s Instagram page if you want to see her other artwork and give her a ‘follow’… https://www.instagram.com/petabridleartwork/

Link to the original page… https://londonist.com/london/things-to-do/things-to-do-this-week-in-london-1-7-july-2024

Well done Peta, it’s really good to see that all your hard work is getting you more well known as your artwork is fabulous!

(Apologies for not posting the link sooner, but being away I couldn’t post this on the blog. Tracy)

Graham’s dictionary page experiment

/ tracyqp / Leave a comment

Graham chose several pages from the dictionary to paint on, but before he starts he tried painting on a spare dictionary page to experiment with how much water to use with watercolour and gouache paints and he tried using a pen too. His process is really interesting and is useful to everyone who has painted a dictionary page or who wants to paint one, especially his technique of mounting the page on scrap board to start with. The dictionary will be brought to future sessions in case anyone wants to paint more pages.

In Graham’s own words and photographs…

“I was determined to test the Dictionary Page paper to see how much abuse it would take.  Firstly, I mounted it on some scrap board. This gave it rigidity. Then I drew on it, deliberately doing a fair bit of rubbing out and re-drawing.

For the background watercolour wash I adopted my usual procedure of wetting the paper, then putting in very faint wet washes, and as the paper dried, ever stronger and less wet washes.  The paper stood up to this exceedingly well. It might be interesting to see how the page reacts when fixed to watercolour paper.

When this was all dry, I tried painting the rear figure with equally wet into wet washes. This failed abysmally.  All the washes bled beyond where I had applied them, and they did not mix well.  When dry, to try to redefine the edges of the figure, I applied some white gouache tinted with the background colours.  

For the man with the umbrella I tried applying the watercolour with a 50/50 mix of water and gum arabic.  This thickened the paint and stopped it bleeding but left it looking very streaky and unsightly.

For the man on the bicycle I mixed all the colours in the palette and applied them with a fairly dry brush, often taking most of the wet paint out of the brush with a tissue.

Once all the paint was dry I applied fresh colour to several of the washes on the other two figures.  These were similarly applied fairly dry paint.  The paler colours were again mixed with gouache so that under washes would be covered.

Finally, I did some ink drawing .. I’m not sure how successful that was.

This was all very experimental.  Glueing the paper down was certainly a good idea for me, and I will continue to do so when using a wet medium.  I was surprised how well the paper stood up to the original wet washes and to the number of layers of paint I could apply to the figures.  I used watercolour throughout. 

The lesson I learned was to apply it in a “dry brush” fashion.  Although I suspect Gouache and acrylic paints may well work better on this sort of paper I shall continue to experiment using watercolour.

Happy Experimenting and Painting 

Graham”

Thank you very much, Graham. To read your process from start to finish was very helpful and having the photos too made each stage easy to follow. Many of us have found that a dryer application of paint is the way forward and once one page is painted we want to paint several more!