What’s on in October

The nights are drawing in, and the weather is cooler (that might prompt this forecast heatwave, who knows?). So we have had our last Demonstration in the Church for the year, the rest will be delivered on Zoom, with the details being emailed to members about one week ahead of the event.

But we still have active art going on!

Drop-in Session Wed 11 October

Our monthly Drop-In sessions continue at the Hursley Road Community Hall. All the details are on the Drop-In page.

Wendy Jelbert — Positano, Italy (acrylic)

Workshop Sat 14 October

Wendy Jelbert will be hosting a Pen, Line and Wash workshop with the theme of Seascape/Boats. The workshop is full, but if you want to check with Roy or Bev, there may be a waiting list. This takes place at the Church Hall from 9.30 to 3.30.

Life Drawing workshop Sun 22 Oct

This is also at the Church Hall but from 2-4pm. Workshops are open to members only.  Details

Jacky Pett – Life drawing sketch in pastel pencils

Zoom Demonstration Wed 25 Oct

Our first Zoom demonstration of the winter is from Barbara Whitbourn. Full details including how to connect will be sent out to members about a week ahead of the event.

Early Spring Workshops

Bookings are now being taken for the January, February and March Workshops. Members should have received details and a link to the booking form last week. The booking form is open until midnight on Sunday 29th October, so don’t forget to complete it before then. After that, Roy will set the computer programme to work so people have a fair chance of getting at least one of their preferred places.

Methodist Church Food Bank – donations welcome!

As some of you may already know, the church has a Community Food Larder adjacent to the front entrance to the hall. This is supported by church members as well as the local community.  Could anyone, occasionally, pop a donation in the box near the front Linkway door?

Tins/jars of meat, vegetables, pasta sauces, pasta are always welcome. Toiletries and nappies are also welcome. They are unable to take items that must be kept cool/refrigerated. 

The church’s policy is to never query anyone using it.  They recognise that, occasionally, it may be abused. The times we do speak to a customer, they all say how they appreciate the church’s support.

Thanks on behalf Chandlers Ford Methodist Church. 


September highlights

We start the autumn season with a workshop on Saturday 9th September.

Heather Jolliffe will be working with members with oils, palette knife techniques and more. Heather will cover some simple landscape and coastal scene compositions, with an aim that you will make some mini studies, followed by something more substantial.

Drop-in Session

As usual, the Drop-in Session will be on Wednesday morning 14th September, at the Community Hall on Hursley Road. Check here for details.

Life Drawing Session

Having missed a couple of months due to the exhibition, life drawing is back, at the Church Hall on Sunday afternoon, 24th September. Places are limited, usually the season is fully booked. Check with the Treasurer if you are unsure.

Demonstration – Sally Goodden, 27th September

This is our last ‘live’ demonstration of the year – for October and November we switch to Zoom meetings so you don’t have to come out in potentially cold and wet weather.

Sally will be demonstrating how to paint animals, such as lovely fluffy squirrels, using brusho and inks.

If (like me) you aren’t familiar with brusho – this is your chance to find out. The demo is in the Church and starts promptly at 7.30. Members free, visitors £5. Refreshments tba.


Delightful Summer Hedgerows at the July workshop

by Bev Dunstan

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!


July at a glance

We’re flying through the year, halfway through already, and our Summer Exhibition is looming ever larger!

lindsey cole

Sat 8 July – Lindsey Cole, Summer Hedgerow Workshop

We start the month with a lovely workshop with New Forester Lindsey Cole. I love the idea of summer hedgerows, and wish I could have gone to this one! I’m sure it will be most enjoyable. 9.30 to 3.30 at the Church Hall.

Wed 12 July – Drop-in Session, Community Large Hall, Hursley Rd

Just £5 to cover hire of facilities, for a friendly morning with other creatives. Work on your own project in a relaxed atmosphere.

Soraya French

Wed 26 July – Soraya French, Mixed Media Demonstration

Soraya will be demonstration a Beach Scene in Mixed Media, from 7.30 to 9.30 at the Church. Her emphasis will be on acrylic inks. Full details here.

Summer Exhibition and HOS23

Watch out for submission information for the Summer Exhibition and instructions to book your place at the Hampshire Open Studios event.

Summer Exhibition submissions close on Sunday 30 July. Don’t be late!


Shades of Grey at Paul Berryman Workshop

by Bev Dunstan

The Art Group held the June workshop in the cool of the church hall today, 10th June. 

Paul Berryman drove down from Cambridgeshire and provided an entertaining Figures and Life Drawing in Charcoal Workshop presented in two parts. 

In the first part he taught the attendees some basic principles of life drawing, namely tips in observation; using the 8 key building blocks of the body form; drawing curves; using negative space and finding the active line in the pose. 

He followed up with how to create tone using charcoal and applying it to show light and shade before commencing part two with two hours of life drawing. 

Poses ran from 1 minute through to 25 minutes in length and everyone continued with the charcoal and applied the techniques learned earlier in the day.

The artists all finished with plenty of sketches and were totally exhausted! 


Flaming June already?

June is here, and how long this lovely weather will continue is anyone’s guess. It’s a great opportunity to get out for some plein air painting, but don’t forget your waterbottle (for drinking!), hat and sunscreen!

Since we’ve already succeeded at having our cream tea event, the month starts with our workshop… although the postcard portraits are still on parade outside the Dovetail Cafe until Saturday 3rd.

Saturday 10th June – Paul Berryman

This ‘Figures and life Drawing in Charcoal‘ is a must for everyone who enjoyed Paul’s Zoom demonstration last winter. You may remember his approach to the ‘terminator’ – the line dividing strong light and darkness, where the contrast is greatest, then shading away from that.

For those that have been trying to apply this in their life drawing (or even when painting figures), this workshop is a must. At time of writing, there were one or two places available, so do sign up, via Roy Brophy or Bev Dunstan (members only). 9.30 to 3.30 in the Church Hall.

Drop-In session

Wednesday 14 June sees our midsummer drop-in session. This is probably the only event that continues month in, month out, so if you want to meet up regularly with some like-minded people and get on with your own project, this is the space for you. Members only, £5 per session, at the Community Large Hall on Hursley Road.

Sunday 18 June – Life session

This gives you a quick opportunity to put that learning from Paul Berryman into practice, but you can do any style you like. 2-4 in the Church Hall (members only).

This will be the last life session until September, due to the Summer Exhibition using the same venue.

Wednesday 28 June – Roll Up, Roll up for our Demonstration

We are delighted to welcome Curtis Tappenden to give our demonstration this month on Circus Art. 7.30 – 9.30 in the Methodist Church. I suspect he has many stories to tell about circus life!

If you enjoy this, watch out for details of the workshop that Curtis has kindly agreed to next year.


Getting loose with a knife – and some paint!

by Jacky Pett

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!

Ali Lindley success – as always!

By Bev Dunstan

Ali Lindley hosted an excellent Cityscape workshop for the Art Group on 1st April, and a good time was had by all.

Ali provided an excellent semi-abstract watercolour workshop, guiding the participants through a series of exercises to develop the technique of introducing aerial perspective in a painting. 

These included pencil sketches, simple loose watercolour brush work and the use of tones and colour to layer up the artwork. 

The two hours after lunch set the challenge to the group to put brush to paper and produce the final work.  It all sounded easy enough and Ali’s demonstrations throughout the day made it look simple; however simple it was not! 

Having the courage to loosen up and ignore the urge to tighten up and define shape and outline demanded concentration and many of the group went home mentally exhausted! 

Everyone had a great day, many having departed from their normal work and coming away wiser and more liberated as a result.

Check out more of Ali’s work at alilindleyartist.co.uk


Seven Days in March

Sorry about that, but we are already seven days into March. Apologies for the delay in reminding you what’s on!

On Wednesday, it’s our monthly Drop-in Session to help you get on with your own project in appreciative company. Details here, and remember it’s at the Community Large Hall on Hursley Road, not the Methodist Centre.

Workshops

Saturday 11th it is a palette knife landscape or seascape workshop with Stephen Foster. This was so popular that we have arranged a second one, in May. No, it’s not an aberration of the Calendar.

All the places for the workshops for this year have now been allocated. If you haven’t had confirmation of your successes and waitlist places, please contact Roy. And don’t forget to pay. You should have had all the details in an email around 22nd Feb.

Sunday 19th March we have our monthly Life Drawing workshop in the Church Hall. Wrap up well as the priority for the limited heating is our poor model! Life drawing workshops were also booked last month, check your email for around 22nd if you don’t recall getting one. There are a few spaces left for both March and April (16th).

Our Quiz Night!

Wednesday 22nd brings us a Quiz Night hosted by Bev and led by Jacky. Tea and coffee etc in the interval. And… there may be prizes! Jacky says this is not a test of how much you know about art. Hopefully you may learn a thing or two (she has, in setting the questions) but the main thing is to have a fun evening. Laughter, bafflement, and a few groans, probably!

The Spring Tabletop Exhibition

Spring Tabletop exhibition at the Dovetail Centre, 29/30 April 10 till 4

We are preparing a print run of flyers for you to give to your friends, neighbours, and anyone else willing to spread the world.

Thank you Sue Bowery for letting us use her lovely picture.

Please let Gill know how many flyers you think you could use asap. The poster can also be downloaded here for those who would like to spread it around their social media. If you can do that with a banner style on a webpage, that’s here.

If you are not a member and wish to take part in workshops and other active art, then why not invest a very small amount of money in joining us? Contact Gill (cfagmemsec at gmail dot com) for details.


Report on Kirstin White Workshop – now with video!

by Beverley Dunstan

The February Workshop was presented by Kirstin White, a successful local artist who specialises in on-the-spot painting at Weddings and Fetes in addition to teaching watercolour painting.

The workshop was full with 16 members who were guided through a series of watercolour techniques.

Starting with the three primary colours the participants learned how to produce colour tones and placement of shapes.

Using a photo of two traction engines as the basis of the workshop the participants experimented with techniques including the use of salt and shaped objects to alter the paint surface; masking fluid, masked areas and candle wax to assist in maintaining colours whist layering the pigments and the use of collage to enhance the shapes within the painting.

A selection of the finished paintings, plus works-in-progress!

Kirstin has also put information about this on her Instagram site, and sent us a 2 min video which is on YouTube, and a 46 second one here: