drawing

JMW Turner – April 2025 – Wednesday

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Turner’s paintings still hold our eyes and imagination 250 years after his birth. Fifteen members enjoyed an art session based on Turner and drew and painted images based on his paintings or to their own theme.

Among the Turner paintings used for inspiration are Self Portrait (c1798/9), Bill Rock Lighthouse (1819), a detail from the Burning of the Houses of Parliament (1835), Snowstorm – Steamboat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), Colchester, Essex (c1825), Stonehenge and Sunset, both undated. Some paintings pastoral, some full of light and drama, a few finished and several to be completed at home.

Screenshot

Some artists painted their own colourful subjects.

Lovely work everyone, Turner was a challenging subject!

Our next session will be a soft pastel workshop on Saturday 26th April 10am-3pm, please email Tracy if you’d like a place.

Art Deco – March 2025 – Saturday

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Last month many of the artists liked painting to the natural Art Nouveau theme and this month we decided that bold, geometric Art Deco was just as interesting!

Eighteen members drew and painted images inspired by New York skyscrapers. Clarice Cliff pottery designs, elegant ladies by the artist Tamara Lempicka, objet d’art, interiors, railway posters, fashion, wrapping paper designs and car bonnet mascots.

Some pictures were finished but others are works in progress, to be completed at home.

Some members created pictures to their own theme, including from the previous session on Michelangelo.

Lovely work everyone!

Look out on 1st April for the next newsletter and the next session will be on Wednesday 9th April 7-9pm.

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.

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.)

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.

January 2025

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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.

Click here to learn more about this colour… www.pantone.com/uk/en/color-of-the-year/2025

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.

Coloured pencil workshop – October 2024 – Saturday

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Fourteen members enjoyed an animal coloured pencil workshop run by local artists Liz and Helen. They met at Gravesend Art Group and both love creating pictures of animals using coloured pencil techniques learnt through online courses. Here are examples of their work that they sell at exhibitions and they also take commissions (apologies for the reflections of the hall lights). It’s amazing artwork with so much detail to look at.

Helen made up packs of sheets of information for us to use and Liz showed us how to colour the eye, nose and fur. By learning these three basics we can go on to create a picture of an animal of our choice. Both ladies walked around all day showing people individually how to lay the colours down and generously loaned their extensive coloured pencil collection for everyone to use, along with their ceramic slices and erasers.

No one had drawn on drafting film before and we were all surprised how well the colour layers could be built up. We put a smooth sheet of hot pressed watercolour paper or cartridge paper underneath the drafting film so the colours could be easily seen. The Tombow Mono erasers were useful for removing tiny areas of colour as the eraser head is so small and the ceramic slices used to remove areas of colour for highlights and individual strands of fur.

We all completed the eye, nose and fur and although we used the same templates the pictures look individual as we used many different coloured pencils in browns, reds, yellows and greys. Everyone was pleased to learn so much throughout the day, especially using the drafting film.

We’re all looking forward to drawing our next animal on the extra drafting film sheets which were given to us. When you finish your picture please email a photo to Tracy to be included in a future blog post.

Here are the finished pictures which were on the ledge at the back of the hall. (Apologies not to get the ones left on tables whilst we cleared up.)

Well done everyone you did really well and a huge thank you to Liz and Helen for such an informative workshop!

Our next session is on Wednesday 13th November 7-9pm, then it’s hanging evening on Friday 22nd November from 7pm and Open Day on Saturday 23rd November. On Open Day we meet from 10am with visitors from 10.30am to 2.30pm.