10th December 2020

Welcome to Christmas at EAG!  Here are greetings from members, as well as the artwork they have been busy with this week.

So here first is our chairman, Sally P., who is trying out using a picture of her own from Ayers Rock as the basis for a Gelli print, in response to the tree provided by Frances last week.  She has also made wrapping paper using newspaper and leftover acrylic paint very effectively. Her Christmas card is the beginning of a projected day of collage in the new year.

Merry Christmas to everyone.
From Harriet

Another Gelli print (with watercolour) - Great minds thinking alike!

Carolyn has produced an ink drawing of the tree from last week, full of movement, and a superbly relevant Christmas card!

Here is an interesting progression of images from Noreen towards the finished card.

Jane is visiting family in Dorset this week, and has sent this greeting.

Ian says, 'We have a pair of buzzards living near to us.  One of them decided to have his lunch (pigeon) right outside our lounge window so I took it as inspiration for a quick life sketch.  He was there for quite some time. I didn’t include the lunch.  I have also added a couple of the trees as a study.'  He added this message:
‘Best wishes for Christmas,however you may be spending it, and for a marvellous 2021 to all my fellow club members’

From Sally T. 'This is a photo of the woods as you go towards Thornham Woods. We aim to cycle every day weather and doctor 's appointments permitting and have done so since the beginning of lock down and take photos of the same location each time. We have loads now and it is interesting looking at the changes. This was taken earlier in the year. It does not look like that now!'

Avril had fun today trying out her carbon paper which worked well, using Frances' tree photo as a base.  Brush pens were used to section off the various shapes and black outlines with felt tip.  She says, 'I think it is hard to find the abstract tree but is a different technique to try. It could be sectioned into smaller areas and make interesting shapes for textiles.'

She also used a wreath as the base for her Christmas greeting.

'Hope you all have a very happy Christmas and thank you for keeping me sane with attending the zoom meetings as it has been so nice to see and hear from you.'
Is the message from Avril to go with the card.

The greeting from Jackie that accompanies this festive arrangement is:
'Wishing everyone a merry time this Christmas.'

One oil pastel and ink, one bird print on tracing paper mounted on a stencil print and one Christmas card to say,

'I hope everyone has a very happy and cosy time in their various bubbles. 🥂🌟🥂'
From Frances

From Diana,
'Another collage, with  Press and pencils.  The Fuchsias are in full bloom in the garden, so they can  be my Xmas card to everyone:
'Wishing you all a peaceful and hopefully  uneventful  New Year. Thank you to Noreen and Hannah  for the blog and everyone’s ideas  and challenges, which I’ve really enjoyed.  Diana x'

Two cards from Lesley, who has had trouble sending email to me this week.
First, In the Bleak Midwinter :

Merry Christmas everyone!
Let’s hope 2021 is better than this one
Hope to see you all in the New Year
Best wishes,
Lesley

The second is a collage (a lot of us this week were on the same wavelength), and is:
‘A light to illuminate the darkness’; a collage of acrylic painted newspaper using paint left over at the end of a session and leaves printed from Indian woodblocks.

June has decorated the tree from last week to create a unique Christmas tree.

Sally L.  says, 'My father-in-law Bill, a keen bird watcher, used to send us hand painted watercolour cards of birds for birthdays and Christmas. So I decided to follow in his footsteps.'

Merry Christmas to you all.
Looking forward to our Thursday sessions has kept me going this year. Thanks to everyone involved for keeping us involved!

Freda has also been in touch this week to send her good wishes to everyone in EAG.

Finally, here is my card, a digital collage created using scanned wrapping paper and old cards, assembled on the computer together with a clever font.

This will be the last blog before Christmas, but there will be another Zoom meeting next week, on Thursday 17th.  We would love to see as many members as can make it, with mince pie in hand, and coffee, tea or even sherry!
Have a wonderful Christmas - as much as is possible in the circumstances - and let's all look forward to a New Year that brings good news of vaccines and herd immunity, not to mention, peace and goodwill to all...