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!
What a busy session we had with 23 members creating drawings and paintings inspired by William Morris. It was great to see so many members as the day was filled with chatter and laughter as well as creativity. Several dragon pictures were finished too and those photos will be published on another post.
Portraits of William Morris and a couple of his wife Jane, a Pre-Raphaelite model, were done in pencil, charcoal, pastels and acrylic paints. Black and white photographs were used and his leonine hair and bushy beard all added to his interesting face. The first photo is a very apt quote from Morris himself, taken from a book brought in on the day.
Many members chose to draw or paint images of designs for wallpaper and fabric made by Morris & Co, which are still printed today by Sanderson & Co. Lots of pictures have in them the Pantone Colour of the Year Peach Fuzz, so well done for including the colour. Gold stars go to Janet W whose table covering was the Strawberry Thief design and Janet T who brought in her Morris design tea towel :o)
Two pictures were of houses linked to William Morris. The Red House in Bexeyheath was designed, built and furnished by Morris and Standen House in East Grinstead, West Sussex, is furnished throughout with Morris designs. Susan created her picture of Standen House in watercolour and collage and all the tiny pieces were cut from prints of Morris designs. Can you find the 3 birds in the garden?
Some members chose their own subjects…
Lesley designed and made this stained glass panel of an angel at Adult Eduction classes. We’ve previously seen the design drawings so it’s super to see the finished item, well done!
Details of next month’s sessions will be posted on 1st March and our next session at the hall will be on Wednesday 13th March 7-9pm.
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!
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.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement
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!
Chalk Art Group 