Both artists have completed the pictures they started at the last Saturday session on ‘Winter Wonders’ and Steve has also finished a canine portrait.
Steve’s pictures were made using soft pastels and pastel pencils on Pastelmat paper. The winter picture feels so cold that you can imagine the snow crunching under your feet as you walk along the lane to the house.
The dog picture works so well in pastels as they make it’s fluffy fur look soft and strokeable.
Angela’s picture of a blackbird was painted in acrylics. Lovely use of paint with the blackbird in focus in the foreground and the background out of focus using larger brushstrokes.
Well done Steve and Angela for completing your super pictures and thank you for sharing them with us.
In January we had a quiet Wednesday session and a very busy Saturday session where it was good to catch up with everyone. Here are the suggested idea for February based on historic art movements, but if you’d rather come and paint to your own subject that’s absolutely fine.
Wednesday 12th – 7-9pm – Fauvism
Fauvism emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century as a group of artists moved on from the style of Post-Impressionist paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Neo-Impressionist pointillist paintings by painters such as Georges Seurat. Fauvism used strong colours and fierce brushwork and the colours used were often not connected to the colours of the subject. This style of painting emerged around 1904 and carried on past 1910, but the years the movement were most productive were 1905-1908.
Painters such Henri Matisse, André Derain and others used vivid colours straight from the tube and spontaneous brushwork that an art critic called them Les Fauves (the wild beasts). Whilst you may not have heard of Fauvism you will have probably seen many paintings by famous painters.
Choose a subject and use any media to create a painting inspired by Fauvism. Paint one of the Fauvist artists if you prefer portraits.
Art Nouveau, ‘New Art’, both predates and postdates Fauvism, from c1890 to the beginning of the first world war in 1914. It is such a well known and international style that thousands of examples adorn the world’s museums, art galleries and great houses.
Inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous shapes of plants, flowers and animals, the moment had roots in the works of William Morris (who was our subject in February 2024) and the Pre-Raphaelites. Using dynamism, asymmetry and movement there are not just paintings but sculptures, furniture, textiles, ceramics, jewellery, buildings and other objects. In France this time was called La Belle Époque, ‘The Beautiful Era’, and the Style Moderne and several Metro stations still have their Art Nouveau entrances.
Draw or paint anything inspired by Art Nouveau, or if you prefer portraits choose one of the many artists connected to this style.
It was brilliant to have 23 artists attend the session as the day was abuzz with chatter as we caught up with news from each other as well as being creative. Among the artists were Vikki and Chris who we hope enjoyed the session and will return.
The subject of Winter Wonders was a broad one to be tackled with any medium, so some drawings and paintings produced were colourful and others were cool and muted. Two pictures were drawn using ballpoint pens which tied up nicely with the previous session.
Some artists drew and painted their own subjects, which we are always happy to see as the diverse subjects inspire everyone.
Well done everyone, what a fabulous selection of artwork!
Our next session will be on Wednesday 12th February from 7-9pm. Wednesdays are often quieter than Saturday sessions, so please come along if you can and enjoy a social arty evening.
A simple subject to start the year but illness and cold weather kept most members at home apart from two. Patrick and Tracy chatted throughout the evening and found the hall heated up quickly using the warm aircon.
Patrick had sketched out his picture for the next session of a wintry scene, inspired by a Christmas card he had received. He used coloured pencils, pastels and water mixable oil for the snow and hopes to finish the picture next time.
Tracy enjoyed researching about the history of ballpoint pens and finding out about John Loud, László Bíró and Michel Bich. For the session she brought objects from home and drew the faux plants. Firstly in just black then using a Bic pen with four colours, using the green, red and black.
Three members tried the subject at home.
Susan drew a lovely detailed scene of Smarden in Kent in black ink and it includes the church where her daughter was married last year. For the sketches of the birds different coloured ballpoint pens were used.
Angela found a picture of an olive tree and drew it with a ballpoint pen in the style of Van Gogh. It’s a beautiful sketch and the swirls with the ink give a Van Gogh effect.
Dot used a blue ballpoint pen to draw these pictures of a little girl and a teddy bear. On the girl and the teddy she achieved a really good effect of hair and fur by following the shapes of the heads.
Using a simple ballpoint pen is a very quick way to sketch, especially if you’re out and about and only have a pen and sketchbook with you. Please do give it a try!
The next session is on Saturday 25th January from 10am to 3pm and the suggested subject is ‘Winter Wonders’. See the post published on 1st January for more details.
Jane started painting this white dog in oils at our Open Day last November and completed it as a gift for a friend for Christmas in memory of her little dog.
These three beagles were also painted in oils for a gift. The dogs are on a beach in Pembrokeshire where the owners have since moved with two of the dogs. The reflections on the wet sand make the dogs look 3-D.
Well done, Jane, both pictures are beautifully painted and made fabulous gifts!
Here are ideas for January’s two sessions, but you are very welcome to come along and paint whatever you want to.
After years of bright, dynamic colours worldwide colour company Pantone has chosen a soft, mellow, comforting brown as its colour of the year, called Mocha Mousse. Instead of a whole session on this colour try and add it to your paintings throughout this year.
Wednesday 8th January 7-9pm – Ballpoint pen and a sketchbook
A simple start to the year to bring along a sketchbook and ballpoint pen and sketch some ideas of what you plan to draw and paint in 2025 or bring items from home to sketch. We usually use pencils to sketch but ballpoint pens are often overlooked yet are so versatile. Handy too if you’re going out and just want to pop a pen and small sketchbook in your bag.
Originally patented by John Loud in the USA in 1888 the first ballpoint pens were clumsy and not a success so the patent lapsed. László Bíró developed the idea decades later in Europe and patented his idea in 1938 as Biro pens. A few years later Marcel Bich bought Bíró’s patent and the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen became his first product in 1950. The four-colour ballpoint pen followed in 1969 and both designs remain almost unchanged since then.
Saturday 25th January 10am-3pm – Winter Wonders
Before recycling your Christmas cards have a look through and see if any will inspire you for this session. A wintry landscape, place, people, domestic or wild animals. With watercolours leave the white paper unpainted to represent snow or with acrylics or oils layer the paint on thickly with a palette knife. Or you might see many colours in snow, it’s not just white with sunlight and shadows. A broad subject in any media, come along and enjoy an arty day with friends.
HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANK YOU to everyone for your continued support for Chalk Art Group during 2024, attending sessions and 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 2025.
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 21st December with details of how to pay by bank transfer, cheque or cash Please look back to his email as there is important info about the art group’s name at the bank. Please pay promptly as this saves members being emailed and phoned to be reminded to pay!
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 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 do 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 towards the window end of the hall.
Here are the session dates for 2025
Please print them out or write them in your diary or calendar. Some months have 5 Saturdays but we meet on the 4th one.
Open Day is on Saturday 22nd November, with hanging the evening before.
Steve finished the pastel picture he has been busy creating at the last couple of sessions. It’s a view of autumnal trees across a lake at Sheffield Park.
Looked after by the National Trust, Sheffield Park’s gardens, parkland, woodland and lakes are Grade 1 listed and are near Uckfield in East Sussex.
Steve used pastel pencils on Pastelmat paper for the picture and the colours and depth of field are very effective. Well done!
Chalk Art Group 