Michelangelo – March 2025 – Wednesday

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Fifteen artists attended the session and we enjoyed drawing and painting pictures about Michelangelo and other subjects. Michelangelo was a difficult subject but the pictures produced were well drawn and will be finished at home.

There’s Michelangelo’s portrait, the hands of Adam and God, Eve from the Creation of Adam too and the Cumaean Sibyl from the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Also the chest and head of the sculpture of David in the Accademia Gallery of Florence.

Other members finished or continued their pictures from the previous subjects of Fauvism and Art Nouveau or their own themes.

Lovely work everyone!

Our next session is on Saturday 22nd March from 10am to 3pm. Please note that March has five Saturdays but we meet on the fourth one.

Finished paintings by Carolyn and Tracy

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Carolyn and Tracy finished the paintings they started at the last Saturday session about Art Nouveau.

Carolyn’s watercolour painting of a lady surrounded by curved shapes has a harmonious feel because it’s painted in similar colours and tones. Great work, it must’ve taken hours and hours!

Tracy enjoyed researching Art Nouveau jewellery and loves brooches by Spanish jewellery designer and maker Lluís Masriera I Rosés, still made today by the family firm Masriera. The painting is in watercolour, including the gold and silver paint.

If anyone else finishes their Art Nouveau picture please send a photo to Tracy or Steve, or bring it to the next session.

March 2025

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Isn’t the brighter weather better than day after day of dreary greyness? It’s lovely to see the spring flowers appearing in all their colours. Here are the suggestions for March but if you’d prefer to ‘do your own thing’, then please do!

Wednesday 12th – 7-9pm – Michelangelo 1475-1564

Michelangelo was born 550 years in the Republic of Florence and his paintings, frescoes, sculptures and architecture still adorn the places they were built, painted or sculpted, or are in museums throughout the world.

If you like drawing and painting faces and people then choose Michelangelo himself or any of the people in the stories of Genesis, painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Place in Vatican City, or in The Last Judgment painted on the chapel’s altar wall. The Creation of Adam sees two hands almost touching, so you could study hands and draw them in detail.

Michelangelo’s sculptures include David, Pietà (others were sculpted later in his life), the Bruges Madonna, Moses, Bacchus, Victory, Apollo, and the Slaves.

Many buildings in Rome and Florence were designed by Michelangelo and he was one of the architects involved in the building of St.Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

Wiki entry… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo

Website with lots of info, click on the words on the banner at the top… https://www.michelangelo.org

Michelangelo’s masterpieces in Rome… https://www.througheternity.com/en/blog/art/michelangelo-masterpieces-in-rome.html

Sistine Chapel… https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/storia-cappella-sistina.html#lnav_explore

Ten famous sculptures… https://onlinegallery.art/en/blog/the-10-most-famous-sculptures-of-michelangelo-406/

Saturday 22nd – 10am-3pm – Art Deco

Whilst this subject might sound very similar to last month’s Art Nouveau, it’s actually the next step forward in the history of design. Gone are the sinuous, natural lines and forms of Art Nouveau and in come the geometric lines inspired by speed, modernism, industrial machinery and the bold colours of Fauvism.

After the First World War there were many artists and designers active in France but the world came to see these designs in an exhibition in Paris in 1925 called Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), shortened to Arts Décoratifs.

Not just paintings, but sculptures, buildings (think of many of the skyscrapers in New York of Art Deco design), fashion, jewellery, home design etc. Well known artists and designers include Tamara de Lempicka, René Lalique, Le Corbusier and Georges Lepape. The costume designs of Romain de Tirtoff, who you will know by his shortened name of Erté (from his initials RT) has designs on the front of thousands of greetings cards and calendars in shops today. Clarice Cliff the ceramics designer used Art Deco designers in her work and we had a session on her in 2022… https://chalkartgroup.uk/2022/09/16/clarice-cliff-september-2022-wednesday/

Art Deco is very broad subject, so decide if you’d like to draw or paint people, buildings, objects, jewellery or one or two of each.

Wiki entry… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Deco

The 1925 exhibition Wiki entry… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Exhibition_of_Modern_Decorative_and_Industrial_Arts

10 Art Deco buildings… https://www.arch2o.com/10-most-fascinating-art-deco-buildings/#google_vignette

10 Art Deco artists… https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/art-deco-artists

Clarice Cliff… https://claricecliff.com/home

(Please note the session finishes at 3pm and we have another 15 minutes afterwards to put away our tables and chairs.)

Sketch week with Adebanji Alade

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Adebanji Alade is President of the Royal Society of Oil Painters, the resident artist on BBC 1’s The One Show and a published author with his Addictive Sketcher books. He lives in Gravesend and when Tracy bumped into him in the local Tesco he was chatty and very friendly. Adebanji has an online art group sketching and painting with members and twice a year runs a sketch week open to the public for only £10 for 5 lessons. They’re at 7.30pm onwards but if you can’t watch a lesson live you have until the following Friday to watch and take part.

The next sketch week is from Monday 3rd to Friday 7th March with lessons available to watch until Friday 14th March.

Here’s the link if you want to take part… https://adebanji-alade.lpages.co/addictive-sketchers-week/

Tracy took part in the last sketch week and learned so many things that she highly recommends taking part. For only £10 it’s an absolute bargain!

Once you sign up you’re sent a list of materials, but as long as you have a sketchbook, a few pencils from 2B to 8B and a rubber, you don’t need any extras.

These are Tracy’s sketches. The subject photos are emailed to you and you can print them out but instead she downloaded the photos to her phone and used an app called ‘Grid’ to put on the lines used to help with sketching out. There were two portraits, figures, a landscape and an animal, so a variety of subjects to sketch.

Tracy has signed up for sketch week next week and so have Brenda and Jane. Will anyone else join us?

Peta’s sketches of independent London shops

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Peta’s sketches of independent London shops have been published online on the Spitalfields Life website. Drawn in pencil then coloured in brown, black and blue ink, the subject evokes life as it was with independent shops on every High Street.

They’re fantastic sketches, Peta, you have such an amazing skill with a pencil and brush.

Good luck with your exhibition that opens this week in London!

The sketches have been screenshot to add to this post, but to see the images on the Spitalfields Life site click here… https://spitalfieldslife.com/2025/02/24/peta-bridles-shops/

Click on the first image below to see the writing under each picture, then scroll right to see them all. If you’d like to comment please do so on the Spitalfields Life website at the bottom of the page.

Art Nouveau – February 2025 – Saturday

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We had very busy session on Saturday with 26 artists attending including 5 new members. Welcome to Vikki, Chris T, Julia, Sandra and Nick. We hope you liked drawing and painting with us and we enjoyed meeting you!

The suggested subject was Art Nouveau and it proved to be a popular theme with many pictures drawn and painted during the day in pencils, pastels, acrylics and watercolours. Sinuous, natural shapes adorn the pictures. Two paintings had silver and gold metallic watercolour paint on them so they’ve also been photographed at an angle to show off the shiny paint. Some artworks are finished, some are works in progress.

Some artists drew and painted to their own subjects in different mediums.

Well done everyone for your enthusiasm on Saturday, it was fantastic to have such an interesting and creative session!

Next month’s subjects will be posted on Saturday 1st March and the next session will be on Wednesday 12th March from 7-9pm.

Peta’s exhibition

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Peta has an exhibition soon of her amazing London sketches, full of character and skill.

From Wednesday 26th February to Tuesday 25th March in the cafe of The Good Shepherd Building, 15a Davies Lane, Leytonstone, London. The nearest transport is Leytonstone Station on the Central Line.

The private view is on Thursday 27th February from 6-8pm and all are welcome!

The exhibition will be a collection of pencil and ink sketches made on location around London, with 12 framed giclee prints on show and a selection of giclee prints for sale.

Please see the flyer for the exact address and opening times…

If you’re on Instagram do give Peta a follow.

Good luck with the exhibition, Peta, your artwork deserves to have a wider audience!

Fauvism – February 2025 – Wednesday

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This session’s subject on Fauvism was well attended with 13 artists and most painted like Les Fauves, the Wild Beasts, using bright colours and bold strokes.

Using original artworks or other paintings or photographs as inspiration, the mediums used were acrylic paints, watercolours, acrylic pens and felt tip pens. Some paintings are finished and others are works in progress and will be completed at home.

Some members came along and created pictures to their own subjects and there’s one coloured pencil drawing inspired by the last Saturday session on winter.

Lovely work everyone, well done for being so bold and colourful with your paints and pens!

The next session is on Saturday 22nd February from 10am to 3pm and the suggested subject is Art Nouveau.