Rebecca Hurst came to the Chandlers Ford Art Group and provided a wonderful Abstract Acrylic and Mixed Media workshop full of inspiration and insight into using marks and different media to create loose and vivid artworks.
Rebecca provided various demonstrations throughout the day showing how to make the best of random objects such as rag and corrugated cardboard to produce amazing marks, which in turn provided the underpinning of the finished artwork. She demonstrated the colour wheel and how best to balance the colours in your painting whilst keeping to a simple palette.
One such demo used her photo of a locked padlock on a colourful shed door to dramatic effect.
The members took the ideas back to their tables and worked them into their own paintings, producing a myriad of paintings throughout the day.
Everyone had a great time, even a watercolourist was converted to the joy of Acrylic!
We had a great workshop on Saturday 14th March. It was a bit chaotic at times, lots of water and sloshing about, lots of fun. But no mishaps and a full house, with a waiting list.
Jenny started by giving us an enthusiastic walk through of her art life. She has so many ideas she needs to investigate before she runs out of time.
She bought with her an array of her beautiful work.
She is a promoter for Daler Rowney Acrylics and often visits the factory and works closely with the development team. There are 4 different textures in the system 3 range
Heavy Body
Soft Body. _ Original
Fluid
Ink
DR Acrylics are highly pigmented
She talked about different brush types and their uses and other tools we would need like sponges, pipettes and pallet knives. Then she demonstrated the colour wheel using CMYK and process yellow, magenta and cyan which gives a brighter mix.
We completed two projects and watched her demo a third
16 Square Grid
We started with 16 square grid taped and chose 3 of our colours to make as many different marks as possible in each of the sections. Results: we produced many varieties of patten and texture.
Zine (1)
Next we started our Zine (Magazine like folded paper)
We painted the first side with a base layer then a contrasting top colour which we sloshed with water while it was still wet and waited for the paint to dry, but not the water, then wiped off with a wet sponge – this leaves a splashy effect and can be repeated multiple times. Embrace your mistakes!
We then worked on the second side of the Zine
Oil pastes and make marks right up to the edges then watery paint all over the give a contrasting effect. We made lots of texture marks with grout scrapers, bubble wrap printing, scourers, corks, cotton buds and finally ink flows with a straw.
Jenny’s Demo
While that was drying we watched Jenny Demo a Flower Meadow
The picture is inspired by one that she has created on a much larger scale for cruise ships. – Acrylics are so versatile. She used 5 colours and White.
If you are on Instagram, there is an instagram video she has made of the process.
Zine (2)
Finally, with all the paint dry, we folded and cut our Zines
A fabulous time was had by all!
Jenny has written a book which will be published in March 2027, and has an Exhibition starting on 3rd June at the Arc Winchester for 6 weeks (The Colour Factory).
Adebanji Alade held an ‘Urban Landscape using Acrylic’ workshop for the Art Group on Saturday 14th September. What a fantastic day!
The day began with Adebanji offering to gesso prime our canvases – which we all accepted – and providing various images of London demonstrating light and shadow. He showed the group how to mark out a grid by dividing up the image into smaller triangles and mimicking the grid onto the canvas. His tip was to use a canvas or board that had a ratio of 3:4 to provide a balanced rectangular painting.
He completed an hour’s demo, talking us through his technique of sketching in the image to create a tonal sketch; blocking in the darks before completing the stage by using white to create a monochromatic painting.
He then continued to add the sky, progressing to the ground and then working with the darkest areas towards the lightest points. He continued to work on the painting during the session and has kindly signed and donated the piece for CFAG to auction off with the proceeds going towards the Eastleigh Mayors’ charities.
It was then the turn of the workshop participants. What seemed to be so easy in theory took much effort and concentration to even get close! Four hours later and with much encouragement and assistance from Adebanji sixteen paintings were lined up for review. Adebanji was absolutely amazing – he was willing to help – offering advice and assistance to all – be it adjusting the painting, mixing the right colour or just providing words of encouragement.
Adebanji then ended the day by completing a two hour demonstration in the evening – first sketching and then completing a portrait of a Vagabond – aka our Chairman Roy.
Our July workshop saw Lindsey Cole provide a ‘Summer Hedgerow Workshop in Acrylic’ for the Chandlers Ford Art Group.
She provided comprehensive preparation instructions prior to the event to ensure that little time was wasted on the day.
Lindsey began with a detailed demonstration of the techniques we were to practice including working with acrylic washes and inks and allowing them to run on the prepared painting and find their own way. She continued to add to her demonstration piece as the day progressed so that everyone had a chance to see and then follow along.
The participants worked the new techniques into their own finished pieces to produce a large array of work come the end of the day.
An enjoyable Workshop from which we all went home exhausted!
Stephen Foster’s workshop on 13th May was his second this year, and presumably just as much enjoyed by us as it was for our predecessors!
This was entitled ‘Spontaneous palette knife landscape/seascape painting’ and Stephen gave short talk beforehand on methods and materials, showing examples of his work. Then he picked one to demonstrate the techniques of using a palette knife on a prepared board.
Looking from a distance, the way Stephen blurred and moved the paint around to create clouds and trees was amazing. It was even more amazing, as I saw later, his spiky trees emerging from the clump were really just rough squiggles in the paint when you looked closely. His clouds showed the scuff marks on the board, too, but from a distance, they looked fantastic.
Despite the word ‘spontaneous’ and Stephen’s advice that if we wanted a reference, to look at it once, then put it away, quite a few people carefully drew out their landscapes and proceeded to fill them in. Maybe they were being more spontaneous with their paintwork than usual. They were certainly more beautiful than mine, which I thought were a mess. But then this was my first workshop with the group, and the first time I’d used acrylic paint in nearly twenty years. Thank you to my table mates Bev and Valerie for making me feel at home, and also for helping me get the paint caps off!
Although we’d been around the room and admired each others work, we also got a critique at the end from Stephen, who went through each painting and made useful comments. I think they were useful learning points for us all, anyway. And I came away with plenty of ideas about painting with a palette knife that I hadn’t had before.
Thank you to Stephen, and to Bev for organising it. A good time was had by all, I think!
Laurence Belbin at Chandlers Ford Photo June Ferguson
43 members and 12 visitors were thoroughly entertained by Laurence Belbin on June 22nd.
Comments included:
All came together, he is such a fabulous painter.
Would love to do a workshop with Laurence!
Laurence explained how The Lanes project had come about; selecting various views of the lanes in his area, and painting them through the seasons. He gave very useful tips on selecting light and shade in colours that really create the seasonal differences.
Adebanji Alade set up his area for the demonstration. As soon as he seemed finished, members and guests gathered round to pick his brains before the event started. And despite two hours of pearls of wisdom falling from him as he worked, they gathered again at the end of the demonstration, reluctant to miss a thing.
