Saturday Programme 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!
Saturday 4th March - Gestural Mark Making with Lindsay Norman
We had a fabulous session today led by local artist Lindsay Norman, who showed us some of her techniques in using gestural mark making to bring animal subjects to life.
We started off with some loose gestural marks, initially just abstract mark making to get us used to holding charcoal, pencil or pastel in different ways, with a looser grip and different hand positions. We then progressed to look at gestural shapes in animals using images of cockerals or hens as examples and we practised how we could focus on those gestural shapes in the first instance to inject life into the drawn image before going into adding detail.
We started off with some loose gestural marks, initially just abstract mark making to get us used to holding charcoal, pencil or pastel in different ways, with a looser grip and different hand positions. We then progressed to look at gestural shapes in animals using images of cockerals or hens as examples and we practised how we could focus on those gestural shapes in the first instance to inject life into the drawn image before going into adding detail.
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We then moved onto our own images, aiming to incorporate the things we had learnt
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Everybody was amazed at the difference having a 'gestural focus' made on their work and some amazing pieces were produced as well as everyone having a great time. I think we would all agree that this approach could be used in a lot of our painting to make our art work more unique and full of life!
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Saturday 18th February - Celebrating the Portrait with HAS Portrait Group
Today's session was a particularly special session linking with members regularly attending our Portrait Group, who started off our afternoon by showing us some of their work and talking about how they produce their portraits. Other members of the society also brought in some of their portraits to show people.
We then had a couple of live models for everyone to have a go at painting a portrait.
There was at least 25 of us in the group today and the session was a fabulous, lively one, with lots of discussion and sharing during the tea break. We also had one model drawing one of the artists in the group, which was highly amusing, but thanks to Linda for stepping in as a second sitter so that everyone had good sight of a model!
Painting portraits can be really hard and frustrating at times when you don't quite get a likeness of the model, but the practice sharpens our observational skills and, over time, great improvements can be made. All members of the group this afternoon approached the task with great enthusiasm and lots of enjoyment!
There was at least 25 of us in the group today and the session was a fabulous, lively one, with lots of discussion and sharing during the tea break. We also had one model drawing one of the artists in the group, which was highly amusing, but thanks to Linda for stepping in as a second sitter so that everyone had good sight of a model!
Painting portraits can be really hard and frustrating at times when you don't quite get a likeness of the model, but the practice sharpens our observational skills and, over time, great improvements can be made. All members of the group this afternoon approached the task with great enthusiasm and lots of enjoyment!
Here are some of the portraits painted on the day, some of which might be worked on further at home with a little more time. More will be posted as people send in photos of their finished work.
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Saturday 4th February - Demonstration and workshop - wet strength tissue paper - led by Rachael Singleton.
The meeting began with an inspiring presentation of work by Keith Harris. He explained that he almost always does plein air painting as it produces a finished result within one session. He uses mainly oils, but also for drawing he favours double ended markers in a range of tones from black to various greys.
Rachael then gave a very informative talk and demonstration of a wide range of tissue papers which have wet strength, particularly tea bag paper, which can be laid down with diluted glue to apply overlays to paintings. Rachael's paintings are abstracts in which the spontaneous addition of extra elements can produce exciting effects. For the second part of a busy and well-attended meeting, members produced their own abstracts on small pieces of card, using paper supplied by Rachael, many with pre-printed designs on, of which the fascinating results can be seen in the slideshow.
Rachael then gave a very informative talk and demonstration of a wide range of tissue papers which have wet strength, particularly tea bag paper, which can be laid down with diluted glue to apply overlays to paintings. Rachael's paintings are abstracts in which the spontaneous addition of extra elements can produce exciting effects. For the second part of a busy and well-attended meeting, members produced their own abstracts on small pieces of card, using paper supplied by Rachael, many with pre-printed designs on, of which the fascinating results can be seen in the slideshow.
Saturday 21st January - members' workshop using Andrew Jenkin's loose watercolour techniques
The meeting began with an impressive presentation of work by Carol Wood. Carol is renowned within the Society for her outstanding ability in portrait and life model painting, and members were able to see a wide selection of her work, both individual studies and in sketchbooks. Carol works almost entirely in oils or acrylics. As well as attending the weekly portrait group and leading the life drawing group, Carol regularly attends the outdoor painting days.
Members then worked from their own reference photos of landscapes, aiming to follow Andrew's technique of using plenty of water, both combined with paint and laid on to the surface, and to convey the basic shapes from the source but avoiding precision by using a loose style. It was interesting to see such variety in the resulting paintings.
Saturday 7th January - Andrew Jenkin demonstration -
impressionist style watercolour
impressionist style watercolour
Today's session began with an excellent presentation of work by David Whiting. David has been a key member of the society but this was the first time he had presented his work. It was great to see such a wide diversity of work representing some of his many interests in art, but also to hear about some of the projects he has worked on in the past including doing murals for various departments of the Royal Infirmary.
Andrew Jenkin has been a member of the art society for many years, filling key roles in the past before his move to North Wales where he now conducts his art career including teaching workshops. His demonstration today was focussing on a loose, more abstract approach to watercolour, taking inspiration from impressionist artists but putting his own twist on it. He is not afraid to experiment which was really encouraging to many of us there!
After discussing impressionist approaches and how he teaches and guides his students, Andrew then demonstrated his approach on a large sheet of watercolour paper working from his own reference photo so that we could see how he 'abstracted' the key features and 'feel' of that landscape.. Because we can now project onto a screen (most of the time when the technology behaves itself!) Andrew was able to work flat showing how he uses lots of water to keep his work loose and to manipulate the pigment on the paper.
Andrew shared lots of tips with us and I am certain that it will be an invaluable inspiration to us when we have chance at the next session to have a go ourselves.
You can find out more about Andrew and his work on his website at www.andrewjenkin.co.uk
After discussing impressionist approaches and how he teaches and guides his students, Andrew then demonstrated his approach on a large sheet of watercolour paper working from his own reference photo so that we could see how he 'abstracted' the key features and 'feel' of that landscape.. Because we can now project onto a screen (most of the time when the technology behaves itself!) Andrew was able to work flat showing how he uses lots of water to keep his work loose and to manipulate the pigment on the paper.
Andrew shared lots of tips with us and I am certain that it will be an invaluable inspiration to us when we have chance at the next session to have a go ourselves.
You can find out more about Andrew and his work on his website at www.andrewjenkin.co.uk