Our annual Open Day is fast approaching. Come along and see our beautiful paintings and have a natter!
Open Day 2025
watercolours
Johannes Vermeer – October 2025 – Saturday
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
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.
Still Life – September 2025 – Saturday
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.
Chris W’s finished painting
On our trip to Rochester Cathedral last month Chris W started drawing the main wooden doors. At home she painted the doors in watercolours and used pen to define the decorative metalwork. All the more amazing is that the initial drawing was done by eye with no measuring.
Well done, Chris, it’s a beautiful painting!
Fruit and vegetable still life – September 2025 – Wednesday
Eleven members met last Wednesday evening with the suggested subject being to draw and paint a fruit and vegetable still life.
Fruit and veg comes in all shapes, sizes and colours so the resulting sketches and paintings are really colourful.
Other artists started or continued with their own themes.
The next session is on Saturday 27th September from 10am to 3pm. Hope you can make it! :o)
Rochester Cathedral – August 2025 – Saturday
Thank you to Kay who gained permission for the art group to meet in the King’s Orchard, the private gardens behind Rochester Cathedral. Ten members enjoyed sitting in the gardens drawing and painting the rear view of the cathedral and the stump of a 250 year old sycamore was interesting with insects flying around and into the tiny holes in its trunk. The day was due to be dry but overcast so we were pleased that the sun came out for most of the day and it was lovely and warm. We had a whip round and the cathedral will gain £72.50 including Gift Aid.
A few pictures are finished and others are works in progress to be completed at home. We used pencils, coloured pencils, watercolour pencils, felt tip pens and watercolours. A beautifully drawn squirrel and a hairless cat called Potato join the pictures.
Here are a few views in and around Rochester Cathedral. In the nave is a Short Scion floatplane originally built in 1937 and mini golf with a bridge theme in the garth is free to play. Both are there for another week if you want to visit.
Thank you for a most enjoyable day with arty friends for a good natter whilst drawing and painting en plein air.
The next session is back at the hall on Wednesday 10th September from 7-9pm.
Paint on a postcard – August 2025 – Wednesday
Last Wednesday fifteen members attended the session on a very warm evening. Most painted on the black and white and lightly tinted postcards, bought from eBay for a few pounds. They were mostly views from the West Country, Kent, the Lake District and Scotland, with a few other places too.
Acrylic paint applied thickly and thinly worked really well to add the colour, as did thick watercolour paint, ink, coloured pencils and felt tip pens. Some of the postcards had been used and the earliest message and stamp dated back to 1908!
Some artists drew and painted to their own theme.
Well done everyone, the painting on a postcard challenge was well received and very enjoyable.
Our next session is on Saturday 23rd August in the private gardens behind Rochester Cathedral. Please email Tracy asap if you can come or not.
Tracy’s finished pictures
Tracy saw a handmade ceramic plate online of a boat and colourful, curving waves. She painted something similar using watercolours in many shades of blue, green and purple, then outlined all the shapes in gold watercolour paint. The boat’s hull is currently white but she might paint it orange or red or maybe vermillion, as the colour in between the two. Decisions, decisions!
Last year we had a session on drawing and painting on printed paper, including dictionary pages. One of Tracy’s daughters loves capybaras so that page in the dictionary was cut out and finally used this year. Tracy used coloured pencils and very dry watercolours for the capybara and left the dictionary entry of capybara free of colour. Once framed the page was given as a present.
For the last Wednesday session the theme was the Live Aid concert of 1985. Tracy drew Freddie Mercury singing under a spotlight in white coloured pencil on black craft paper. She’s pleased as the effect is what she was aiming for.
If you complete pictures from previous sessions please send them to Tracy or Steve. We’d love to see them finished!
Live Aid 1985 – July 2025 – Wednesday
Thirteen members attended the session on a muggy summer’s evening, but the aircon kept us cool. Some artists painted the theme of Live Aid, the dual concerts held in London and Philadelphia in July 1985. Freddie Mercury and Bob Geldof were the most popular subjects to draw and paint.
Chris W’s painting of an animal carcass in a barren landscape and an RAF C-130 aeroplane carrying food and supplies is a sombre reminder of the concerts’ aim to raise money for the 1983-5 famine in Ethiopia. £40 million was raised on the day, equivalent to £100 million today.
Most pictures are works in progress to be finished at home or another session.
Other artists drew and painted to their own theme, including a finished picture from Peta of the Angelina Tea Room in Paris which she visited last year.
Lovely work everyone, well done!
Our next session will be on Saturday 26th July at St.Mary’s Church in Chalk, from 10am to just before 3pm, not at the Parish Hall.
Chalk Art Group 