Jane Austen – November 2025 – Wednesday

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Ten members came along to Wednesday evening’s session and enjoyed painting together and having a chat over biscuits and a cuppa.

The suggested subject was Jane Austen as this year is the 250th anniversary of her birth. Unfortunately it was not a popular subject with only one member having a go. The picture took a long time to draw out so only a little watercolour paint was added at the session and it will be finished at home.

Other artists drew and painting to their own subjects with many themes started or continued in watercolours, acrylics and coloured pencils.

Our next meeting is on Friday 21st November 7-9pm when we hang all the paintings for our Open Day on Saturday 22nd November. It’s a normal timed session from 10am to 3pm, with visitors from 10.30am to 2.30pm.

Please email Steve asap with details of all your paintings! Thank you :o)

Tracy’s pictures

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Tracy took part in Inktober 2025 by drawing an image every day using a 4-coloured ball point pen. By dividing up 2 pages of a sketchbook each box was only 5cm x 7cm. Each small picture took less than 5 minutes, including a quick sketch in pencil.

Every day was suggested by a list of prompts. Tracy’s favourite days were the 4th – ‘murky’, the 20th – ‘rivals’ and the 26th – ‘puzzling’. The 30th – ‘vacant’ was the easiest!

Tracy also finished her ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ picture, now called ‘Zentangle Girl with a Holographic Earring’. Drawn using a black waterproof pen, a Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencil in Cold Grey III and some holographic nail varnish.

November and December 2025

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Please read everything as there’s lots of info!

Here are the dates of our next meetings-

Wednesday 12th November – 7-9pm – Jane Austen or finish paintings

Friday 21st November – 7-9pm – hanging evening

Saturday 22nd November – 10am-3pm – Open Day  (Visitors from 10.30am to 2.30pm)

Wednesday 10th December –  7-9pm – Christmas Party.

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When the poster for Open Day is emailed to everyone please print some out or screenshot it and pass the info to friends and family and pop a poster in your local library and shops. If you’re a member of a sports group, U3A, WI etc, please send the poster to your secretary and ask them to forward it to all members. Passing on details of the Open Day this way gets the day heard about. Local Facebook and Instagram groups will also be contacted.

On Open Day you don’t have to hang your paintings on the walls or in the browsers if you’d prefer not to, it’s not compulsory. We call it Open Day, not an exhibition, to open the hall for a day so visitors can see what we paint at our sessions. It’s also a good way of showing the group to people looking for a local art group to join. If you have interested friends or family please ask them along. 

If you aren’t showing your paintings please come along and enjoy a day of painting. 

Wednesday 12th – 7-9pm –   Jane Austen or finish paintings

Jane Austen was born 250 years ago and her books are classics today, with films and tv series popular to new generations. There’s only one pencil portrait of Jane Austen and one watercolour of her wearing a dress but facing away, both by her sister Cassandra.

Draw or paint a lady wearing Georgian or Regency clothes, in a place that Jane lived. Or take a scene from a book or film and paint the characters. Use any media or mixed media.

Wiki info… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen

The Jane Austen Society… https://janeaustensociety.org.uk

About where she lived… https://janeaustens.house/jane-austen/jane-austen-a-life/

Portraits… https://jasna.org/austen/more-on-jane-austens-life/portraits/

Or if you have any paintings to complete before Open Day, finish them tonight.

Friday 21st November – 7-9pm    – Hanging Evening

Please email Steve ASAP with how many framed paintings you will be hanging for our Open Day, along with their names and prices or NFS (Not For Sale). 

Framed paintings – up to 6 and not too big to hang from the hooks. No clip frames as they easily break. Use D rings and cord across the back with a label hanging down below the frame or on the front with your name, name of the picture, medium and the price or NFS. 

Mounted pictures – any number for the browsers but they must be for sale, all labelled front or back. There won’t be a list of mounted work, so keep a record yourself of which ones you bring along. 

If you need insurance for your artwork then please make sure it’s in place for today and tomorrow.

From 7pm drop off your paintings or stay and help hang them all up. Please bring scissors to cut the hanging cord.

If you can’t come on hanging evening then please arrange for someone else to bring your artwork. 

Saturday 22nd November – 10am-3pm –   Open Day

*****Visitors welcome 10.30am to 2.30pm*****

We open our doors and invite friends, family and Chalk locals to come and see what we paint. Please don’t be upset if you don’t sell anything. It’s lovely to welcome people into the hall to talk about art and painting. 

There’s no set subject, just bring along something to paint during the day. 

So no one gets stuck in the kitchen for hours please take your turn making teas and coffees for visitors, even if you don’t know them, and also wash and dry up the cups and saucers. Please wash up the teaspoons too as they don’t wash themselves ;o)

Membership – If any visitors want information about becoming a member please take them to Steve who can tell them about joining the group. 

Sales – If anyone is interested in buying a framed or mounted picture please take them to Tracy for payment. We don’t have a card reader for debit or credit cards, it’s cash only.

Wednesday 10th December –  7-9pm –    Christmas Party

Come along in your Christmas jumpers, sparkly outfits or fancy festive hats and enjoy some quizzes and Pass the Parcel. Bring along a plate of food to share, savoury or sweet, and pop it on the side tables. Also bring your own plates, cups and drinks. 

If your food is for vegans or coeliacs please label everything clearly and place on the separate table.

Your partner is welcome to come along too. Please email Tracy asap if you’ll be coming so we know numbers for Pass the Parcel and the quizzes. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available as usual.

Johannes Vermeer – October 2025 – Saturday

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Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) lived over 350 years ago and his beautiful paintings of people and places are still popular today. Sixteen members met on Saturday and the suggested subject was to paint in the style of Vermeer or to bring your own style to any of his paintings, particularly the Girl with a Pearl Earring from 1665.

Members rose to the challenge with gusto and all the paintings showed imagination of Girl with a Pearl Earring, with bright colours, a ruby earring instead of a pearl, as an elderly lady, as Claudia Winkleman, in Zentangle patterns, with glasses and other interpretations. Special mention to Cynthia who painted her little dog, Mollie, as Vermeer’s Lacemaker, and Mary who painted her granddaughter standing by a window, lit from the side, like so many people in Vermeer’s paintings. Some paintings are finished and others are works in progress to be finished at home.

Two watercolour paintings from the last session about trains have been finished.

Some members painted their own subjects. Sandra’s portrait of her sister’s dog is amazing and Doreen’s pencil portraits are beautifully detailed.

Super work everyone!

Next newsletter is on 1st November with details of hanging evening on Friday 21st November and our annual Open Day on Saturday 22nd November. Please note that there are 5 Saturdays in November but we meet on the fourth one.

Railway 200 – October 2025 – Wednesday

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Eleven members met on Wednesday evening to draw and paint together over a cuppa and biscuits. The suggested subject was the 200th anniversary of the first passenger railway journey on the Stockton and Darlington Railway, with artists invited to paint historical or any age locomotives up to modern times.

Some paintings have been photographed with the reference image, to see how the artist was inspired.

Some members created pictures to their own theme or continued artworks from previous sessions.

The next session is on Saturday 25th October from 10am to 3pm. Check the newsletter from 1st October for the subject idea.

Inktober 2025

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In addition to our usual two sessions this month, why not give Inktober 2025 a go?

Started in 2009 Inktober is now a worldwide event for artists to draw a picture in ink daily (you can use pencil underneath) and share their work or just for the pleasure of being creative every day.

Use a sketchbook for your images or any surface. If you don’t have much time, use a Post-it note pad for a small picture every day.

Website here… https://inktober.com

Please send Tracy photos of your images if you try the challenge.

October 2025

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Our annual Open Day is next month on Saturday 22nd November, so hopefully you’re finishing your pictures and getting them mounted and framed ready to be exhibited. Max 6 framed pictures per artist, unlimited mounted pictures in the browsers. Hanging evening is Friday 21st November from 7-9pm. Please note those dates in your diaries/calendars/phones!

Wednesday 8th 7-9pm – Railway 200

It’s the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. George Stephenson’s steam-powered locomotive, Locomotion I, pulled the first ever passenger carrying train on a public railway 26 miles between Sheldon, Darlington and Stockton. Hundreds of passengers were aboard and since then railways and train travel have changed the world.

Hark back to pictures from that era of these early trains, or maybe you grew up loving to watch steam trains. You may prefer sleek, modern trains or have been on holiday on trains in countries and continents far away. Choose any era of train travel to draw and paint your picture in any medium.

The 200 year anniversary website… https://railway200.co.uk

more info… https://www.hra.uk.com/railway-200-home

Remember the BBC2 programme Great Railway Journeys of the World, first broadcast in 1980? More recently Michael Portillo’s Great British Railway Journeys and his subsequent trips to the USA, Europe, India, Australia, Asia and Canada have been broadcast.

Saturday 25th 10am to 3pm – Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)

Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer painted only 34 artworks in his 43 years, but they have grown in popularity in the 350 years since his death. He painted one house and one landscape, all the rest being people in domestic settings lit by a window to one side giving a direct light source on to the subject. Most famous is Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, painted in 1665.

Choose to draw or paint a picture in one of three ways using any medium…

  1. Create ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ in your own style and colours.

2. ‘…with a Pearl Earring”. If you like portraits draw or paint any person, family or famous, past or present, as a head and shoulders portrait but wearing the luscious pearl earring.

3. Draw or paint a domestic setting with a person lit only from one side, thus giving dramatic lighting to the scene.

    Wiki info… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer

    List of paintings… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paintings_by_Johannes_Vermeer

    Click on ‘Discover Vermeer”… https://www.vermeerdelft.nl/en

    Tracy Chevalier’s book published in 1999 called ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ is a good read and the film of the same name from 2003 stars Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson.

    Still Life – September 2025 – Saturday

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    It was great that the session was well attended with 19 members coming along for a still life session, with plenty of time for a natter over a cuppa and a biscuit. Objects were set up by the artists in front of them, drawings were made and then painted with watercolours and acrylics or further details drawn.

    Many of the photos include the still life objects and show the pictures as works in progress. A couple of paintings were done at home of the previous still life theme of fruit and vegetables.

    Other artists chose their own subjects.

    Super work, everyone, it was an enjoyable day of creativity with good company too!

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