Gallery

Have a look at what we have been doing at the different events and some of the work produced by members during the day!

Friday 19th May - Painting with a Limited Palette and Learning about Colour Mixing

At our last session, we agreed to explore a limited palette.  This can mean choosing a red, blue and yellow, black and white, or a warm and cold or each colour and black and white.  However, it’s interesting to limit a palette in other ways such as the Zorn palette, or use a substitute for blue and black such as Payne’s Grey.

We all chose palettes to experiment with and do some colour mixing.   These were discussed at the start of the meeting before we worked with a chosen palette for the meeting.   ​

Members found it interesting to discover ranges of colours and ideas for future work and we could definitely see people’s preferences in their choices, for example, bright bold palettes or more muted ones.  

Below are some of the homework done my members of the group
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There are a couple of videos about colour mixing in the information section you might like to view.  For homework before we next meet, we are creating with only two colours and black and white. 

For the remainder of the session today we carried on using a limited palette to further develop paintings or explore other colour mixes

Rachael Singleton

For the homework I chose a colour palette I hadn’t explored - alizarin crimson, lemon yellow and ultramarine blue and worked over a couple of pieces I had started.  One was less intentional other than trying to attend to composition, the other was a response to some sketches about stone wall shapes in the landscape.  The palette was quite a cool and zesty, not one I’m usually drawn to.  However, the colour range possible was really wide.   The colours that stood out were pinks and limey greens.
 

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I have a number of little sets of revision cards on ring binders for different palettes now, and I’m starting to use them as I begin pieces, matching the colour range to what I want.  For the session, I explored another palette of cadmium red, yellow ochre and process cyan (with a touch of lemon yellow).  I preferred this, and I tried to make looser, freer marks in the session.  The colours were warmer, more muted tones - blue-greens, oranges, dusky purples and earthy greens - much more ‘me’.  The set of four sketches were all done in about 15 minutes - really quickly, to try not to get too fiddly. I love exploring colour and there is an infinite amount of information to learn and use when you dig into limited palettes.

Jo Sykes

For my limited palette I worked with manganese blue hue,  cadmium lemon yellow, yellow ochre, white and paynes grey. I aimed to get as much of a range from these colours, both in mixing with each other but also muting all the resulting colours with  either white or payne's grey or a mixture of both to differing degrees. I really liked the muted tones.

In today's session I carried on working in my concertina sketchbook with that limited palette, responding to music (as per last session). With the idea of spring in mind, I repeatedly played the piece of music over and over again as I painted  allowing the moment to dictate what colours I used and to inform the mark making.

Louise Heptonstall

These are the  paintings I worked on today using colours mixed from ceruleum blue, cad red, cad yellow, white and payne's grey.
I have added some random marks with aquarellable pencils.
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Annabel Maamoun

This is the painting I completed today using the Zorn Palette
Really enjoyed todays session. I am definitely going to think more about colors before starting a painting

Rachel Sykes

I have used brilliant red, ultramarine, lemon yellow and white and applied a blending technique for the top three paintings.
​I have used the same colours for the bottom painting but  using just a palette knife.

Stacy Shaw.

​I chose Ultramarine, yellow ochre, burnt umber and black and white.
I used bold brush strokes in lines to avoid detail. I felt the limitations of colour and brush size restricted the urge to include fine detail.
 

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I enjoyed the process and the freedom I found when working with less! Decisions were reduced greatly, allowing me to ‘get on with it’.
The image isn’t exactly abstract but, a good exercise for shape, light and line observations.
Leaving the paper white in places created it’s own illumination. 
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Linda Riggall

In this last session I worked in my concertina abstract sketchbook in acrylic . 
The first piece used mars black , titanium white, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. Highlight green from ultramarine blue and lemon yellow. I was exploring texture for rocks. 
 
 

 
I continued at home to make strips with landscapes in mind . This time I tried Rachael’s colours using cadmium hue red , yellow ochre, lemon yellow , process cyan .plus white and black.
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My favourite is the first one with the muted colours although the ‘cloth’’ acrylic paper would have been better mounted onto a board before using rather than sticking into a sketchbook as it was floppy for handling . 

Nina Bensley

After painting the coloured version of urban chaos, I decided to do 2 colour palette of the same idea. My line of thought or inspiration was as if I was a bird flying over an area on a dull day, perhaps this is how I would see various gardens. So I used white and black acrylic in various tones, with the squares represent gardens or allotments.
I prefer the coloured version as it represents a sunny day of same thoughts.
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Jane Hayes

My inspiration came from Eric Yi Lin's demonstration on watercolour in a limited palette.
I used acrylic paint yellow ochre, burnt sienna, cobalt blue, white and black.
My first sketch was directly inspired by Eric's landscape. I found the limited palette freed me up to focus on the tones within the sketch and gave harmony to the painting as a whole.
With my second sketch I used the same limited palette but with the aim to produce a more abstracted landscape with greater movement within the sketch.
 
I have now worked further on the sketch started at the session last week .Again I found working with the limited palette was very helpful with focusing on the tones within the sketch. Sketch attached, 'fire on moor'

Friday 28th April - Painting a Visual Response to Music

This session was about creating a response to a shared piece of music.  Do see if you can find the pieces of music mentioned as hearing them adds a lot when you view the responses. We listened to a couple of very different pieces whilst working.  

​The first one was called ‘Celestial Flight’ by Bill Connors.  This was a slower, more peaceful piece. 

Rachael also brought along some response from an AI (Artificial Intelligence) which sparked a bit of a conversation! Here is the one to this first piece of music

The next piece was completely different and much more upbeat, called ‘Pizzicato Party’ again by Bill Connors. 
These were our interpretations during the session

You can hear this music here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-gEEJqNxMc

This was the AI's response to Pizzacato Party

Some members of the group explored painting a response to music for their homework and they discuss their thoughts on their process below

David Whiting
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​Philip Glass violin concerto 1st movement. Sketches. 3 elements - Deep repeating motif in background, slow soaring theme on violin then later from orchestra, rapid theme follows, again on violin then orchestra. 
 
Final painting of the Philip Glass 
 
Schubert symphony 8 'unfinished
Sketches and final piece draft. Four elements- deep descending opening, rising semi- optimistic passage, pleasant light hearted section, sudden change to loud, threatening passage. These contrasting moods alternate several times, as in first sketches, decided to reduce them to make more simplified version and more manageable shape.
Overall, the visual interpretation is based partly on the actual structure of the music but also then selecting colours subjectively to suit the mood of each musical element. 

Louise Heptonstall

​The 2 blue ones are in response to the celestial flight music. On the first painting the diagonal lines were the harp and the curls and squiggly lines were the strings and voice. The blue and red curls just evolved from the first painting. 
 
The 2 red and yellow paintings are in response to the pizzicato party music. The music felt warmer and more staccato. So the marks were short and clipped in the first painting. The 2nd painting just evolved again from the first.
 
The last 2 paintings are my response to Isaac by Madonna. The music builds and feels very curly. There are lots of layers to the song and different sounds with definite hard stops. I love this song and it's depth and meaning. I have tried to capture this in my mark making.

Jo Sykes

​At first I struggled to engage with the concept of painting a visual interpretation to music until Louise introduced me to a particularly moving piece by Madonna (yes. You’ve read that right!) called Isaac. I listened to it with my eyes closed and really focused on the music and the words. Quickly I got a picture in my mind, not fully formed but an indication of how I was responding to the music. I listened to the piece several times and kept listening to it whilst I was painting. I started with the initial images / colours that came to mind and then let the painting develop itself. This process seemed to really work for me so I repeated it with another piece of music I Giorni by Einaudi (my usual painting fodder!) and I found again I was presented with images / marks and colours, but it was different this time in that the music repeated phrases in layers, so that is what I did.

You can hear Isaac here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcRB4J5WRBE
 
You can hear I Giorni here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtKsBCA4H8Q

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​During the group morning session again I followed this process for both the Celestial Flight and Pizzacato. As you can see, images tend to be strong for me, representing the music as a whole rather than individual movements. It would be interesting to keep repeating the process with different types of music to see what happens. One thing I have learnt from this is that these days I seldom just sit and really listen to music and I want to address that!

​Rachael Singleton
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Shirley Waddington

This painting is one I did in response to listening to some music by Barry Manilow - the way the music built up to a crescendo just made me think of a volcano erupting!

Harry Lynn

Friday 10th March - Abstract Painting from Still Life

The physical session was cancelled due to snow but members participated virtually, using the same photo of the still life (below) producing the following work.

Jo Sykes

I spent a lot of time looking at the image, deciding which shapes and marks particularly appealed to me, I didn't do any drafting or planning on paper (despite the instructions!). because it just didn't feel right to do that at the time.  I wanted to respond intuitively to my thoughts about the image and my memory of them. So, when ready, I just started to paint, and as the painting developed began to respond more and more to the painting itself, rather than looking back at the image.

Rachael Singleton

​I concentrated on a few shapes and the daffodils.   I did a few thumbnail sketches to tune in a bit first.  I really enjoyed using warm and cool complimentary colours together.  Once I started painting I didn’t look back at the image, preferring to work more intuitively.  I worked on two at once - this is the more successful composition. 

Stacy Shaw

Simplified outlines, repeated with various techniques and materials.




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Louise Heptonstall

My final painting along with a collage of small studies.

David Whiting
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I continued the methodology of Mondrian as we did for the previous project. I interpreted the two bunches of daffodils as essentially curves over the top and for the stems. I extended the top curves to link the two bunches together. I simplified the varied collection of pots and containers using only straight lines, relating these to the flower stems and then extending their verticals down to the base. I chose colours different from the green and yellow of the flowers but somewhat related - blue and orange - while for the container shapes I chose neutrals. For me the picture still has the underlying structure of the flowers still life, but also hints at architecture - conventional traditional, possibly industrial buildings, towered over by modernist creations like the Sky Garden building in the city of London. 

Karen Whitwam


I like  the colours and enjoyed doing it although I must say that I never, ever use a ruler to do a painting so the lines were a bit of a challenge!

Rachel Sykes

After studying the still life image I sketched out some ideas using geometeric shapes, lines and curves, then painted the composition using a palette of bright colours.

Linda Riggall

I did 4 different practice pieces of different sizes and the composite picture is as follows.

Top right - Jug, lemon and apple overlaid. Outlines drawn and could take it further and collage or block in. 21 x 25cm

Middle right - Jug, lemon, apple and pot. I played around cutting our the shapes in 2 different pieces of coloured card having fun with composition. 30 x 30cm

Bottom right - this was the largest, on a piece of cardboard which I gessoed, underpainted and then scraped back into. I wanted to practice using a palette knife with acrylic. I drew lines on the photo and then chose a few to mark on the board. I might block in colour or collage or just leave it! 59 x 42cm

Left side -  I enlarged a photo of just some daffodils and noticed a circle of dots reflection from the bottle. This was just fun using gouache with limited palette. 

​All very enjoyable!

Robert Ingham

Shirley Waddington

I found this exercise much more challenging, but I persevered exploring line and shape, producing some interesting images that might feed into future works, so was a good exercise overall.

Carol Wood

I enjoyed the exercise, but was still finding it difficult to depart from the representational image

Homework for the session above

Use the photos below to explore the shapes and lines in the still life. I suggest using a pencil and doing small thumbnail sketches exploring what shapes you like and how you might arrange the composition. You may also want to explore what colour palette you might want to use that could be completely different to the image. The idea is to create an abstract painting in the next session from the inspiration you gain doing this homework. In addition, the idea is not to reproduce this still life, but rather to 'mash up' the different shapes you are drawn to, maybe making some larger or small than in the image, maybe rotating them or repeating them and so on. Basically ......... you are invited to play!

Both images are exactly the same except one in colour and one in grayscale if that helps you to focus on the shapes and lines.

Friday 17th February - In the style of Mondrian

Our homework for this session was to look at the art of Mondrian who like to work in geometric patterns using primary colours or breaking down forms in a landscape in a number of steps becoming more and more abstract, often using a different colour palette. Some members also considered other artists such as Klee who also used grid forms and simplified images.

In today's session we were invited to paint from an image working either in simplified geometric shapes, different colours or simplifying shapes in the images.

The photos below show some of the homework, and some of the work produced during the session.

Here are some of the paintings completed.

Carol Wood - using a different colour palette and geometric shapes to depict a tree.

Linda Riggall - The first painting  (watercolour and oil pastel ) was a tree abstraction having looked at Mondrian tree pictures. 
I then decided to try and abstract the picture further by putting in background geometric shapes . 
It would have worked better if I’d planned the whole of this practice piece from the start ! However I enjoyed using this colour palette and found the process addictive . 

Jo Sykes - having done some landscape pieces in my homework, whilst on holiday (see below),  I am interested to see what an abstract portrait might be.

In today's session I worked in a concertina sketchbook playing with geometric shapes - one concealing a face (previously sketched in) and then using shapes to indicate a face in some way telling the story of an incident.

​I am not sure where this is going but I think I can only find out by just playing with ideas!

​David Whiting - ​My starting point was a photo of an existing painting of tulips in a glass vase. T he first two developments are small and 'neat' done with coloured pen and pencil crayon. The simplified lines I tried to bring out were the curves from side to side and those of the stems radiating from the vase. At this point I turned to a bolder, less refined style with oil pastels The flowers had become triangles thought he vase had returned to curves. I had kept close to the original colours (unlike Mondrian). In the group session I chose to try working much less geometrically with curves replaced by undulating lines. I then began to infill the spaces and realised I was putting in curved lines resembling the original leaves, so I was being drawn back to a degree of realism and less abstraction, further away from Mondrian. I intend to do a further development, based mostly on the third piece, varying the triangles in shape and colour. 

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​Rachel Sykes - In the first painting (top left) I have worked from a photo of a cityscape and used Mondrian's style of geometric patterns and colours.

This has been abstracted further using geometric shapes and a wide range of colours, creating a 'city skyline' (middle).

The painting bottom left was further abstraction again using simple colours and random geometric shapes.

The last two paintings are cityscapes using a palette knife to create geometric shapes.

Robert Ingham

Shirley Waddington

The tree was the inspiration and I worked on 4 different designs looking at shapes and patterns.

The photo on the far right is the final painting which I thoroughly enjoyed doing..

Friday 13th January - Using concertina sketchbooks as 'playgrounds' for exploration (led by Rachael Singleton)

For this session, we invited members to use their previous work on large paper and turn it into a concertina sketchbook.  They were worked into further, thinking about one particular word, ‘differences’.  We considered using variety of shape, line, values and paint application using tools.  Whilst sketchbooks can be used as visual records, sketching or for storing information, on this occasion we used them as ‘playgrounds’ for exploration.  Concertina sketchbooks are increasingly being used by abstract artists in this way to develop preferences or more freely explore aspects of personal enquiry.  
We then shared reflections on areas of the sketchbooks we felt were successful, using language that clarified what worked or what we had learnt.   Some members created work that was entirely non-representational whist others found that their work suggested images or narratives which were recognised and developed during the session.  The group enjoyed this way to promote exploration and several intend to work further into their sketchbooks following the session.  ​

Friday 9th December - Loosening Up!

The 'homework' for the last month was inspired by David's visit to a gallery in London recently where he saw Stanley Donwood's abstract landscapes which were particularly striking as he had used unexpected colours.

The challenge was to paint a landscape in unusual colours, and was boldly taken up by all the group with some developing their ideas even further; some still painting in a representational way, and others going semi-abstract or fully abstract.  As people discussed what they did and their thoughts on their finished piece it was interesting how the introduction of more geometric forms occurred, how the exercise helped people to focus on 'shape' to a larger extent, but also, for some, how the consideration of composition and use of tone was still quite critical in developing the work.

Maybe not everyone found the exercise useful or one that they would repeat per se, but the act of doing something new and different provides it's own inspiration and learning for the artist, as well as a few surprises that some wanted to pursue further!

Our session today consisted of using large sheets of wall lining paper, gessoed, to basically 'play ' with colour and marking, encouraging a looser approach without being too concerned with the final result. Some members found that this can initially be quite an intimidating process to start off with, but once progressed, marks, lines and shapes can be developed with further layering. It is a process that can free up creativity and courage, allowing the artist to explore new approaches and take advantage of 'happy accidents'. It is recommended that this is repeated several times, building on each application as the artist explores what they do and don't like.

The result might not be a masterpiece painting in itself, but the group discussed how such painted papers can be used for  collage, or folded and made into a sketchbook or sectioned off to use a starter for further painting. This is going to be explored more in future abstract groups.

11th November - Disrupted Realism?

The last month's 'homework' was to use an image - either an old painting or a magazine image -  to cut it up and use some or all of the pieces in a new, different way, to create a different 'reality' or image. Below are some of the different images that people produced, either a totally brand new image / story or an existing image being reworked to tell a different story. This exercise allowed us, as artists, to think about what we mean by 'realism', what changing that realism could be and what new stories developed out of the exercise. It was really interesting listening to what the artists discovered about their process when we discussed each work.

For this session we spent a little time looking at what Disrupted Realism might mean for each one of us, inspired by John Seed's book of the same title (see recommended books). We took some of these ideas, working on a painting to explore this expression for ourselves.

The paintings below show some of the completed works.

14th October - Thinking about colour and mood in Painting

​David facilitated today’s discussion on colour and mood in painting and started off by showing some of Mark Rothko’s work. This prompted some interesting discussion on the use of colour to develop a mood in a painting. The group then built on this discussion exploring some aspects of associations with mood and colour. John tried 3 different colours in different tones, described as bold, warm and weak. He then tried the same in receding squares with depth. Stacey developed a colour strip evoking a night time experience with dream, progressing over time. Robert explored how colours react with each other. Kath looked at the contrast between red stripes on blue and blue stripes on red, seeing how blue recedes. Louise worked on a painting evoking ‘life’ with bue as content, red as disturbance. David used the same shaped ‘scribble’ so the shapes were detached from colour associations eg spring leaves, sea, sky, autumn trees, flowers.

The suggested 'homework' for this next month is to cut up an existing image and rearrange the pieces in collage, as it is or use to prompt a painting. This could be using a photo image or an old painting. This would be a good way of disrupting 'realism' to see what pattern emerges and working this way is also good to think about composition and tone in a final piece.

Here are photos of people's work on the concept of 'circle' - homework from Sept session. 

16th Sept - Getting to Know You and Getting Started!

In this first session of our new group we spent time getting to know a bit more about each other by sharing our current thoughts on, and experience in creating abstract art. It became very evident that we already have quite a wide interpretation of this huge genre within the group and agreed that it could develop into some interesting sessions in the future!

We discussed what we each wanted from this type of group and whilst agreeing to let it have an organic life evolving as the group members experience and confidence in abstract art grows, we also discussed a tentative format to facilitate that in the coming months

In this session today we each brought an object to use as inspiration for abstraction spending just 15 mins sketching ideas, before swapping objects and repeating with a little more time to work on an unknown object. Discussion about this experience helped the group to consider how each of us wants to start exploring abstraction and how to take that difficult step in moving away from representational work.

For each session we will have a theme for some 'homework' to help inspire us in considering aspects of abstraction before the next meeting. For example we agreed on 'Circle' for this month's homework and it will be interesting to see how each member interprets that.

We also opted for the topic ' Colour and Mood' to look at in our next session, which again could be another interesting and wide ranging topic that will hopefully fuel our interest and widen our interpretations.

In the future we may have session where a group member shares some techniques that might help artists move further along to abstraction, we might have a guest artist come to share their work and approach in abstraction, we could have a gallery visit, we can look at book swaps and recommendations for courses and so on. In summary there could be lots of exciting things we can look at in future sessions! It makes me wonder if once a month will be enough! But that is for future discussion!!