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23rd February 2023

23/2/2023

Unfortunately, Emily was not able to join us today as she was unwell, but Sally P provided a still life and the portraitists drew each other. It is interesting that they felt that having more restricted times for each portrait had sharpened their skills (no fiddling!), and there are some wonderful likenesses today.

So here are the portraits from this morning. I am sure you will all recognise some of them. The portraitists this week were Angela, Avril, Elizabeth, Ian J, Freda and Jill (I hope I haven't missed anyone out!).

Carolyn was not able to come, but has been documenting the beginnings of spring in her garden, rough sketches of winter aconites and snowdrops.

Sally L says,'A chance to use my favourite Opera Pink!'

Ian C was working on another seascape this morning. That workshop again! This is Aldeburgh beach, right.

And Les (left) was working on the sky for a new painting...

Here is Diana's work from this morning - 'Felt like a scribble today. Used graphite , black felt tip,water colour , biro and oil pastel. Working over the top of old disasters.'

Harriet's impressions of the still life this morning...

Sally P has also continued with the seascape theme, finishing the painting of Southwold Beach, and here is her sketch from the still life, for which we have to thank her, as she provided items at short notice, as I think Lesley did too?

Speaking of whom, Lesley's painting of an aeonium (?), hope I have that right! - which formed part of the still life.

And, left, Irene's tulips - thanks to Noreen, who nabbed a photo.

This is Liz's gloriously colourful still life (left), which started off quite sober, and got more colourful as it went along.

And, right, Josie's still life.

Maggie-Anne made a very detailed study of these hyacinths (right).

And Freda had a go at the Aeoniums as well as the portraits (left).

I am afraid I didn't get very far with my attempt at a view local to me, but I will show it when it is nearer completion.
In a fortnight's time there will be an all-day mark-making and textile workshop run by Lesley and Avril. Details are on the Stop Press. If you want to come, please let Lesley know by next week. There will be a tick sheet at the session, or you can contact her by email. All day will cost £6, but for £3 you can come just for the morning, but there will only be the workshop available, no still life or model.
If you have any ideas for venues for the Summer programme, could you please let Lesley know. Again, there will be a sheet out at next week's session for you to put down your ideas. Somewhere with interesting vistas, loos reasonably close at hand, and where we can convene for coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. Any new members with an attractive garden?
Membership renewal time is upon us, and forms will be coming to you shortly.
Finally, is anyone interested in learning how to do the blog? We could do with an extra person to cover for Noreen or me, when we are unavailable... Let me know.

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Thursday 16th February

16/2/2023

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There was a good crowd at the EAG session this morning, about twenty I’d say. Some were working on portraits of Hannah, some were doing their own thing and some were picking their way through Hannah’s objects for the still life. This had a craft theme, with a sewing box, materials, wool, and various objects created by Hannah and others. Here are some of the still life set up in closer detail.

Here is Hannah, followed by some of the portraits.

Avril has divided her time between the model and the still life. Here are her portraits. “Not the best” she says, being typically modest. But practice makes perfect and you can see that here.
I like the portrayal of the cute little mouse in the still life..

First this is Elizabeth’s rendering of Hannah, in her recognisable style. Next, Frieda had two tries at the portrait, the first in pastel - feeling her way - and the second in colour washes.

Sally P decided to try another seascape following up from last week workshop. This is work in progress.
The second is a play with some water soluble pens that she picked up from a supermarket this week, finding that some worked better than others!

Diana calls this "hard work". Two stages , the second with her view of the layout.

"So much choice" says Jackie. "But I decided to spend half the session on still life, the second half drawing Hannah who was crocheting at a furious rate using jewel coloured wools." Thanks to Jackie for the photo of Hannah with the crochet work (above), as well as for sending us a stage in Les Bragg's painting of a hare.

John has tackled two different poses of Hannah.

Another portrait, this time from Jane. Hannah is obviously concentrating hard on her crochet work. (Not tatting, John, see the crochet hook, clearly drawn by Jane.)

Carolyn has used an antique 1848 sewing box as the subject for her still life drawing this week, using Inktense pencils with added water. Says she has struggled to get the perspective right. (I thinks she has done pretty well, perhaps better with the lid than the top of the box itself. N.)

Richard has provided us with a drawing done earlier.
He also offered members lots of freebies - brushes and other implements he no longer has any use for. As Sally L says below, "Thanks Richard!"

Sally L gives us
1 Wet in wet pen and wash
2 Indian ink applied with a ‘freebie’ from the selection that Richard had to give away. I think it is some kind of wooden clay modelling tool with a spatula type end. It held the ink for a surprisingly long time, and made some lovely marks. Thanks Richard.

These are from Lesley "The top one is the acrylic piece posted on the blog earlier. I’ve done some work to the sky and foreground field to the view across the fields to Eye and added the church. The second piece also acrylic, is a slightly different view. I’m reasonably happy with the mood portrayed (cold frosty morning) but I am struggling with finding something fine enough to do foreground trees. Or I could just leave them out!"

Another set of pieces from the still life, from Frances. She says, "first small sketch, second larger bolder version and then third smaller sketch again with me actually trying to be delicate!!!"

Following last week's workshop, Sally P received a link to her YouTube slide show. You can find this by going to Messages or click here.

Emily is in charge of the Model and Still Life next week and Hannah wil be doing the blog, so please all send your artwork to Hannah. And remember to ask someone else to photograph your piece and send it in, if you can’t do that yourself. We’d really like to see 100% of work done put on the blog.
Till next time, Cheers, Noreen.

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9th February 2023 - SEASCAPES IN ACRYLIC , with Denise Allen

9/2/2023

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addendum

Having put this to bed, it turned out that Lesley's very full contribution didn't reach me, and she has now re-sent it. it was obvious that I should come back and add it straight away, as it had such a full description of the workshop, and lots of informative pictures.
So here we go...
A great workshop today with an excellent tutor. Denise Allen took ten of us through how to paint a seascape in stages- see first set of photos. She gave really clear explanations of how to achieve realistic waves, after each stage of her demonstration we applied this to our own paintings before she did the next,. Everyone had different images, mostly their own so we had very different results.
Images below show: A detail of one of Denise’s finished acrylics, Stage 1 Sketching the main elements, Stage 2 Main areas blocked in, Stage 3 using colour to add form and definition, Stage 4 Details- here spattering with a toothbrush.

Some of the group at teatime.

Three paintings, Sandra's, Angela's and Lesley's - Yes, the Southern Ocean really is that colour

Finally, Lesley says, 'Well it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, everyone was concentrating so hard. We all agreed it was a really good day.
All the paintings need further work,to finish but we now feel inspired to find more waves. En plein air in the summer programme?'
I think you will all agree that this was well worth the addendum!

Well, it looks as though this was a very successful workshop! Denise demonstrated her painting process in stages, and then everyone worked on that stage in their own picture. Thanks to Avril for these pictures.

Here is the painting Denise worked onshown at various stages, thanks to Sally P., and to Avril for the final version.

Here is Diana's work, also in stages... 1 Blocking in from photo, 2 Landscape or seascape?
3 Beginning to look like water, 4 So far so good...

Here is Avril's own work from today.

From Frances - her final painting and her sketch in preparation for today done standing on the beach at Dunwich Coast Guards Cottages on Sunday. The third image is of four quite large sea paintings I did 23 years ago, which have not come out very well in my photo but done after a holiday in Paxos. She says, 'I really like the more abstract approach. I feel I will be off to the coast this weekend!'

Harriet has also sent two stages of her work, so we can see how it developed.

Here is Ian's painting from the workshop.

Sally P's painting from the workshop, which she hasn't finished working on. She says, 'I'm thinking of painting out the lower left section and putting in a wave as I'm not happy with it!' Looks OK to me! [Hannah]

I have been working on some local views for turning into postcards for the tiny local craft shop here. Apparently tourists kept asking for postcards last year, and there weren't any.
Next week it's my turn to provide the still life and model, and Noreen will be doing the Blog, so send her your pictures in good time. Have a good week in the meantime.

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Thursday 2nd February, with Jill

2/2/2023

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We had a packed house this morning. So nice to see everyone again after what I hope has been the worst of the winter weather. Jill Wood was in charge, posing brilliantly as a copper in her uncle’s old uniform, and presenting us with a very good array of items for the still life. Not too over-crowded, these included a good assortment of colours, a variety of textures and both natural and man-made objects. Lots to get your teeth into - or rather your brushes and pens. Here are some photos of the still life and of the model.

First in with a picture was Carolyn, who was not at today's meeting. She did a drawing of 'Bruin' sitting on a lace mat. She used coloured pencils apparently by Staedtler.

Another contribu-tion from a member not able to come today, namely Frances. She did a 'very quick' mixed media sketch at home and she has included some marine paintings.

She visited The Castle Museum Norwich yesterday and was intrigued with the variety of styles prior to the workshop next week. She thought others might be interested.

First of the portrait artists today was Avril, with three sketches. She had a go at oil pastels and realised that is is hard to get details on small paper. On the good side, she says it made her concentrate and she believes that the pencil drawing, which only took 10 minutes, captures Jill better.

Jackie gave us a skilful watercolour portrait, while Jane did a very fine pencil drawing. Both seem to have captured a good likeness, in their different ways.

Sallly P turned her hand to the still life, just the one from her today. She decided to use her watercolour pencil crayons but felt there was not enough strength of colour for her.

Harriet also concentrated on the still life and sent in two images

Sally L and Liz both worked on the still life. Sally did two paintings, for the first one she put a wash down first and pen and Indian ink after. For the second one she did the pen and ink first, and the wash after - wet on wet. Liz used her usual acrylic inks.

Some more artists did their own thing today. First Diana used scraps from magazines for inspiration, then made it up as she went along.

The first of these two is a painting Eileen has been working on for quite some time and is still not finished, but she got some very helpful suggestions at break time. Next is Ian's landscape painting, also work in progress.

Lesley started an acrylic painting this morning of the view north towards Eye from her garden, on a very frosty morning last week. Lots more to do, she says, and finding it a challenge working to A4 scale.

Angela didn't go to Frances's session last week, but says she "put it to good use looking at composition, vertical and horizontal lines and tones. I have done a painting of the early morning light on my frozen pond and then I abstracted a piece of shoreline from a painting I did in Cornwall.

"My two efforts today, well I came home and darkened the tones in my pencil drawing which improved it but am not happy with what I did to my ink drawing. Adding colour was a risk but hey, it’s good to take risks and find things out!"

Lesley has asked me to remind you that next week is the workshop on Acrylic Seascapes. There will be no model or still life and no accommodation for you unless you have signed up for the workshop.
Emily Procner has asked us to let you know she is running a Saturday Mixed-Media at the Bank Arts Centre in March. If you are interested you can find further details on the Bank's website.
I wish you all a good week and look forward to seeing you in two weeks' time for the model and still life session. Noreen

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23rd February 2023

Thursday 16th February

9th February 2023 - SEASCAPES IN ACRYLIC , with Denise Allen

addendum

Thursday 2nd February, with Jill

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