We had a very good turnout for our last meeting of the year considering the wet and windy weather. Michael Edwards started the evening by demonstrating how to do a mono print of a Christmas tree.

Everyone set about painting their Christmas tree with great enthusiasm, the styles were all very different

We had a chatty coffee break with the most delicious mince pies baked by Suzette Ball and some gluten free options from David Simon’s wife Peggy. Many thanks to both

Some members decided to paint their own interpretation of Christmas, which was great.Some lovely works were produced.

So from our last meeting of 2025 it only remains for me to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy 2026. Hope to see you all in January and don’t forget- it is never too early to start painting for next year’s exhibition in October!
Lynda

A very enjoyable evening learning to simplify and minimalize our drawing.

We welcomed our new member, Anita West and were pleased to have Val Cook back with us after a year’s break.

Michael showed us a neat trick to transfer an image by rubbing the back of the picture with a graphite stick or soft pencil. Drawing over the picture onto your clean sheet of paper revealed a perfect pencil outline. Outlining the pencil image in fine black ink came next. Michael emphasized how important it was to include the parts of the outline where the line changed direction while leaving out other parts. Your imagination would then fill in the gaps. Then emphasising key points by making them thicker and heavier gave a wonderful effect. When happy with the result, simply rub out the graphite lines and your minimalist ink drawing is revealed.

We all went back to our tables after Michael’s demonstration and started graphite rubbing and outlining with great enthusiasm. By coffee break everyone had got the hang of it and were producing three or four drawings. By the end of the evening there were some excellent pieces of minimalist drawings. Thank you Michael for an interesting evening and sharing your techniques with us.
Lynda

Another successful exhibition by the art club due to the teamwork of the committee and to the loyal members who worked so hard in the kitchen serving refreshments to the visitors. Well done to Suzette Ball, Chloe Gee and Sally Struszkowski for selling unframed works..
Lynda

To open our minds we started by painting how we felt, with eyes closed. It really showed who had had a bad day! We then discussed what forms movement could take. Wind, water, dance, sport, flying etc. We added movement to the first piece with eyes open but standing up. The effects were dramatic. Next on a fresh piece of paper we painted what we heard. Listening to bird song, rain, wind and music created some lovely movement. Especially when it came to the lively ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ the brushes whizzed across the paper. It was interesting to note that the calm sounds were reflected by the use of cool colours where the fast lively sounds attracted warm reds and oranges. After coffee break we had to choose the part of our paintings we liked best and create one last piece and elaborate on it. At this stage you could see people going back to their own style of working rather than the loose, flowing style of the experiments. The whole evening was great fun and raised a lot of laughs while we discovered a new way to approach a painting. Thank you Allie, thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Lynda

A very enjoyable evening on Monday September 1st. The incredibly talented Glenn Badham, who usually treats us to a demonstration, came to critique our work. He started by showing us how varnishing an acrylic or oil painting added depth, especially to the dark colours. Surprisingly he buys his varnish from Hobbycraft.He took a long look at each picture and pointed out its merits and the parts that he liked best. Often comparing the style to a well known artist. Some people brought in ‘work in progress’ and he suggested ways to finish and improve it. He did this in a sympathetic, gentle way so everyone felt they had done a great piece of work.His depth of knowledge on art history was amazing and his tips on painting and colour blending were inspirational.The evening flew by and no one noticed we had overrun the deadline of 9.30 by 10 minutes.We all thanked him and hopefully said ‘see you next year?’ to which he smiled and said he would be delighted.
Lynda