watercolours

Portraits – The Diversity of Humanity – May 2025 – Saturday

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Twenty members attended the session with the suggested subject being to draw or paint a portrait of a person of a different ethnicity to themselves. It was a busy session with lots of work being produced, along with cuppas and biscuits and natter as usual.

It was pleasing to see that several people used pastels to create their portrait, using techniques learned at the workshop, as well as watercolours, acrylics and inks. Most are finished but some are works in progress.

Cynthia finished her Lynx from the workshop and it’s absolutely beautiful. The lynx’s coat looks real with the highlights the hairs. Well done!

Other members continued with their wild animals from last month or drew and painted to their own theme.

Great work everyone, it was a good, productive session.

Our next session is on Wednesday 11th June from 7-9pm.

Portraits by Angela and Tracy

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Angela started drawing Sepoy Namdeo Jadhao VC at the last session and finished it at home. He won a VC in 1945 at the age of only 23, details of which are from the National Army Museum… https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1966-04-5-1

Lovely work, Angela, with good use of pencil in many tones on Namdeo’s face.

Tracy enjoyed drawing and painting a face she saw online during the recent VE Day commemorations. Dorothea ‘Pixie’ Barron is 100 years old and gave an interview with The Big Issue about her life and joining the Women’s Royal Naval Service after she left school and serving as a Wren during WWII. Last year she celebrated her 100th birthday with a Spitfire flight! Read the interview here… https://www.bigissue.com/life/ve-day-second-world-war-dorothea-barron-interview/

After an accurate drawing was made Tracy used watercolours to capture Dorothea’s beautiful face.

Portraits – May 2025 – Wednesday

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Fourteen members enjoyed two hours together being creative by drawing and painting portraits. After our recent soft pastel workshop it was good to see several artists using pastels for their portraits and pictures.

Some drew their grandchildren whilst others used images available online. There are a couple of finished portraits and the others will be completed at home or at the next Saturday session.

Some members drew and painted their own subjects.

Lovely to see so many at the session to have a good natter with! Please send any finished pastel animals or portraits to Tracy for putting on the blog. Thank you :o)

Our next session is on Saturday 24th May from 10am to 3pm with the subject being ‘The Diversity of Humanity’.

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.

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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.

Finished pictures

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We have so many different subjects in our sessions that we often start pictures but don’t get around to finishing them.

Here are several pictures that were finished at home from sessions on Frida Kahlo, painting on a book page, Underwater Life, In an English Country Garden, and Chalk Church.

Brenda’s colourful picture of Frida Kahlo is in pastels as are her images of the dragon and the parrot on a dictionary page. The cockerel is painted in watercolours.

Steve’s posterised image of Frida Kahlo was painted in acrylics and the other in black pastel on grey pastel paper with a dramatic pop of lip colour in pink. Chalk Church was created when we visited last month, again in pastel but using many colours for a realistic picture.

Tracy’s images of Frida Kahlo were painted in watercolours, as were the underwater eagle spotted rays. The cottage garden at Sissinghurst is in coloured pencils, lightly pressed on to the paper so the finished effect is delicate.

Well done, it’s great to see all your finished pictures!

Painted Whitstable oyster shells

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At last Saturday’s session about Underwater Life there were oyster shells to paint, either the traditional teardrop oyster shape or the flatter native oyster shells. Tracy had visited Whitstable beach and helped herself to lots of empty oyster shells which are thrown on the beach behind the Whitstable Oyster Company Restaurant. After a soak in hot water and washing up liquid she scraped off the last of the muscle at the dark muscle scar inside the shells, soaked them with antibacterial spray and left them to dry in the sun. The inside of the oyster shells were all clean to paint with no fishy smell and the outsides were patterned and interesting too.

Everyone who painted a shell came up with a design on the spur of the moment and drew inside the shell with pencil then painted with colourful acrylics. Kay painted with watercolours and the paint did stay on the inside. Her painting of a badger’s head on a flat native oyster shell was much admired and we all agreed it was the highlight of all the shells.

Well done everyone, you painted the shells beautifully and it was fun to try something different!

Underwater Life – May 2024 – Saturday

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Eighteen members rose magnificently to the challenge of painting underwater life, using watercolours acrylics, pens and pastels.

Andrea brought along a beautiful, tall and very heavy paperweight of an octopus and Tracy brought in a cup, bowl and Christmas decoration all featuring octopus designs. Tracy’s items were bought from George’s in Whitstable High Street, a shop full of ‘stuff’ that you don’t need but want because it’s handy, nifty or just lovely to look at. George’s have a website with some items on, but they have many more items in the actual shop. The shop is worth a trip to Whitstable :o) www.georgeswhitstable.com

There were oyster shells from Whitstable to paint too and all those photos will be on a separate post, along with finished Salvador Dali paintings.

We were very creative on the day and any works in progress will be finished at home. Several members have supplied photos of artwork they painted at other art groups. There were many different underwater animals and divers painted in glorious colours including turtles, tropical fish, jellyfish, octopuses, sharks, shells, seahorses, rays, crabs, lobsters, a mermaid, a little girl looking at life underwater, and an exotically named axolotl. The first painting is Steve’s slightly disturbing Salvador Dali portrait with sea creatures and a melted clock!

Next month’s ideas will be published on 1st June and the next session will be on Wednesday 12th June 7-9pm.