Ron Moody presented an excellent Pen and Watercolour Wash workshop on Saturday 8th February using a sketch depicting Lucca in Italy as the basis for the day.
He began by demonstrating techniques on transferring the image onto the paper; either by tracing or by copying the image by eye. Once this stage was complete each participant had their version of the image drawn in waterproof ink.
Deep in concentration
After protecting the roofline using masking fluid, the sky came next using the wet-in-wet technique and tilting the paper to allow the pigment to flow across the paper before allowing it to dry.
Ron Moody adds shadows
The painting continued to develop in simple stages, allowing plenty of time to learn and progress without undue pressure as Ron moved around the group to guide and mentor as needed; concluding with the final shadows and key ink strokes on the building facades.
Even though everyone began with the same image the final paintings showed a wonderful diversity of colour and interpretation.
To summarise a wonderful day “we all drew the pictures and coloured them in!”.
Well, I hope it brings roses for you. What the Group brings this month is lots of lovely activities.
Active Art
On Saturday 8th February, Ron Moody will be taking a workshop at the Methodist Church Hall, with a pen/ink outline drawing to be followed by watercolour wash techniques. Details
Wednesday 12th is our regular Drop-In Session at the Community Large Hall. If, like me, you got some new drawing materials, you may be tempted to get yourself away from the distractions of home, and start using them! Details
Sunday 16th sees another Life Drawing afternoon at the Church Hall 2-4pm. If you saw Paul Berryman’s zoom demonstration last month, you can brush up those same techniques using a live model, rather than working from a photo. Details
And on Monday 17th, our intrepid Sketching Group will be visiting Romsey. If It’s a nice day I might join them as there are some wonderful nooks and crannies in Romsey!
From the comfort of home
Wednesday 26th is this month’s Zoom Demo. Kaili Fu will be discussing and demonstrating Chinese brush art, which is bound to be interesting. Details
Everyday Sketching Challenge
Lisa has set up a February sketching challenge. She will be emailing participants a prompt for a 5 minute sketch each day in February and people can share their outputs in a private group. Check the January newsletters for more details and the link to the sign up page.
Don’t forget your Postcards
Your postcard theme this year is ‘Flora’. Any medium, any interpretation, on a postcard sized piece of card. Must be with Roy in time for the AGM in May… but try not to leave it till the last minute!
Early Warning – Spring Exhibition
This year’s Spring Exhibition is at Hillier Gardens, from 24 April to 6th May 2025. The ‘higher’ standards apply to framing for exhibitions at Hilliers, so spruce up or stand by with your work and make sure you’re meeting the submissions requirements, which will be circulated shortly.
Saturday 11th January saw Jake Winkle return to Chandlers Ford Art Group with a workshop ‘Light and Movement in Watercolour’.
Jake provided a dynamic ‘seat of your pants’ experience of working wet-in-wet in watercolour.
Using a big mop brush the members were shown a step by step guide in how to use a simple palette of colours to produce a quayside scene in deep shade and bright sunshine. As the workshop was about using watercolour and less about drawing, the members were encouraged to trace the image onto the paper, thereby leaving more time to apply the paint. Once the sketch was complete then Jake demonstrated how to mix and apply layers of watercolour to build up the painting; beginning with simple washes and finishing with darker pigments to define the sun kissed areas on the roofs and water.
In the second half of the workshop, Jake illustrated the technique of ‘lost and found’ in a painting.
The drawing was again traced into the paper to maximise the time to apply the paint. The technique was to paint just the darker tones, working from top to bottom and wet-in-wet.
This produced an image showing how, by just painting the shadows on the people and donkeys and not completing the whole outline, the human eye can capture the full intensity of bright sunlight as it falls on subject in hand.
Happy new year – although the Group’s year starts in April, so the calendar currently ends in March.
The year seems to be having a blustery start, what with fireworks displays cancelled and all sorts of festivities curtailed. I confess that I have no trouble with the lack of fireworks. Silent ones would be fine. I may even have a go at painting some in the coming weeks!
Possibly at our Drop-In Session, which is on Wednesday 8 January at the Community Large Hall on Hursley Road. I received a set of new drawing pencils for Christmas, so I may even join in to get started with them.
If you have pre-booked, then on Saturday 11 January Jake Winkle will be taking a workshop on light & movement in watercolour. We look forward to seeing what participants make of this!
Saturday 18th January sees our new year’s Social Lunch at the King’s Court Masonic Centre. This was a highly enjoyable event last year, but you had to book for it in December, so if you haven’t, make sure you do next time!
We hope the weather will be kind and the new heating in the church hall will be operational on Sunday 19 January for our first Life Drawing session of the new year in the Church Hall.
The sketching group is meeting on Monday 20th: meet up details are in the next newsletter. These don’t appear on the website as it is for members only. Contact Lisa Marshall with any questions about it (you can use the contact form on here to reach her if you don’t have her email).
And provided your computer doesn’t need you to upgrade your Zoom app yet again, make sure you are at your computers and tablets and phones on Wednesday 22 January for a Zoom Demo from Paul Berryman. This time he’s doing a portrait from a photograph in Charcoal/Pastel. Sign in details will be circulated to members about a week beforehand.
Looks like that’s another opportunity for me to use my Christmas present.
The clocks may have gone back to sensible daytime hours (yes, I know you prefer light evenings) but it isn’t stopping our art.
Autumn Exhibition
Sat/Sun 9/10 November 2024 – Church Hall
Yes, it is far too late to enter now, but your help is still needed for stewarding, and most importantly getting everyone you know along to have a look. There will be artists doing their thing if you think the kids might be too bored just looking at things stuck on walls.
Other Activities
Wed 13 Nov 2024 – Drop-In Session – Community Large Hall – Details
Members are always welcome to drop in and get on with your own activities if you’d like company, or a warmer room than your own (not guaranteed). Bring your own equipment, and a mug, and something to protect the floor and furniture from paint splashes (and £5 towards to cost of the hall).
Sun 17 Nov 2024 – Life Drawing – Church Hall 2-4pm Details
Let’s hope the heating holds up in the Church Hall for a new winter season of life models posing for our confoundment. Getting perspective right can be a challenge, and if you find a pose too difficult, you can move, or sit it out, but why not just give it a go?
Mon 18 November 2024 – Sketching Group
I’m really pleased the Sketching Group is keeping going while the weather holds. Yes, there have been one or two Mondays rained off, but on at least one occasion, they made an impromptu decision to postpone it to the Tuesday instead. Contact Lisa Marshall (details on the newsletters)
Wed 27 Nov 2024 – Zoom Demo – Les Darlow – winter landscapes in soft pastels over watercolour – Details
This promises to be another excellent demonstration, with a tutor we have enjoyed in the past.
Zoom details will be sent to members a few days beforehand. If you haven’t used your Zoom since the spring, you will probably have to download a new version (that’s my excuse for being late to the last one. It took twenty minutes to load and process itself, even with the new ‘faster’ wifi connection.)
Workshops for 2025
Bev has circulated the sign-up form for our workshops in the first quarter of 2025. Please get yours in by 27th November if you want to participate in any of them. For a quick reminder of the menu, see the Workshops page here.
September whizzed by in a whirl of excitement, plus whirling weather and a mini-Indian summer followed by rain. If you were trying to get any outdoor sketching done, you were lucky if you didn’t get wet!
October is more sedate, except that preparations are in hand for our Autumn exhibition at the Dovetail Centre Large Hall, over the Remembrance weekend. You need to get your entries entered (if you are a member you have been sent details), and your artwork ready to hand in!
And we finish the month with our first Zoom demonstration of the winter season. They all look particularly interesting, and ‘painting along’ is optional, but encouraged! You could always sketch, of course 🙂
October activities
Wednesday 9 Oct – Drop-In Session – Community Large Hall – Details
Saturday 12th October – Helen Talbot – Flour Paste art – details
Sunday 20 Oct – Life Drawing – Church Hall 2-4pm Details
Monday 21st Oct – Sketching Group (details as per email)
Wednesday 23 Oct– Zoom Demo – Graham Webber ROI – East Anglia landscape in oils – Details
I was impressed with the artwork Graham Webber displays on his website – he has the North Norfolk coast light exactly right! Do check it out. Graham Webber
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.
After the excitement of our Summer Exhibition and our HOS24 Studio, September might seem a little flat. BUT NO!
Adebanji at our 2022 demo
Saturday 14th sees our return visit from Adebanji Alade, and this time for a whole day. The workshop for those booked (contact Roy to go on the reserve list), plus an evening demonstration. Everyone who came to his demonstration for us in 2022 thoroughly enjoyed it. Adebanji is both a superb artist and a great communicator. There are still a few tickets available for non-members: see the full details here.
The Dovetail Cafe will be open from 6pm – Free coffee/tea & biscuits for ticket holders and members.
Wednesday 11th is our monthly Drop-In Session at the Community Large Hall on Hursley Road. A chance to work on you own project in company. (Members only)
Sunday 15th: the return of Life Drawing after being squeezed out for the last couple of months, at the Church Hall 2-4pm (members only)
Monday 16th sees our regular Sketching Group meet up, this time at Royal Victoria Country Park. They are visiting some great venues; contact Lisa Marshall if you wish to receive the email updates (members only)
November Exhibition Plans
Save the date: Sat/Sun 9/10 November 2024. This is our Autumn Exhibition in the Church Hall. Full details will be coming to your email inbox soon!
If you thought June was busy – watch out for July… which is mainly preparations for August.
Your entry form for the Summer Exhibition at the Hillier Gardens should be in by July 7. The system closes at midnight.
If you are both exhibiting in the Annual Exhibition and doing Hampshire Open Studios, you will be very busy getting everything ready for next month. Make sure you follow the Presentation Guidelines for the Summer Show.
When you have a spare moment, this is what you can do in July:
Wendy Jelbert presented a ‘Watercolour Plus! Wild Flower Meadow’ Workshop for the Chandlers Ford Art Group on 8th June which took place at the Dovetail Centre.
Wendy began with explaining some amazing techniques using watercolour including the effects of using permanent and non-permanent inks with the paint and using cling film to enhance the texture of petals and leaves.
Wendy provided plenty of examples from her intensive archive on best techniques to produce images of wild flowers. This included using oil pastels and masking fluid to enhance the flower stalks and daisies within the meadow.
References
She also introduced Brusho powders and the best methods of applying them, namely puncture the lid and use it as a pepper pot to sprinkle the powder into the wetted paper. [oooh, thanks for the advice!]
Discussions
The group then set about creating their own interpretations from the flower meadow images provided by Wendy and she was attentive to everyone throughout the day providing help and advice.
Photos copyright Bev Dunstan, images copyright variously Wendy Jelbert and members
