Blog Archives

Thursday 27 October, Palette Knife painting with Angela

27/10/2022

This week Angela stepped up to tell us about her 4-day course at Newlyn Art School with Maggie O’Brien, using a palette knife. Before getting to the knife techniques, some general points were made, such as advice to do a drawing first to get the feel of the subject and avoiding painting direct from photos - though these could be used for reference later. In the drawing just get down the lightest lights and darkest darks, whilst considering composition and what you want to say in your picture, omitting features not contributing to that.

Angela then turned to the palette and showed how to squeeze out quite small amounts of Alkyd oil paint in limited colours and carefully mix these on the palette, using the square end palette knife (or digger). Many new colours could be produced from very few in this way. In doing this, she showed how to manipulate the digger to get a variety of marks and put them on the board to see what emerged.

Some of the works that Angela has trialled.

NOW SOME OF THE RESULTS BY OUR MEMBERS TODAY.
The first three have been sent in by Angela, who says, "All three did them so quickly and so beautifully. They are by Hillary, Ian and Jill.

Diana says, "excellent morning, thanks to Angela. Must practise one-stroke marks, more difficult than it looks.

From Sally P, "What a great day. Lots of new ideas to take on board - and remember! The first is of a flooded river down Wittons Lane, Hoxne. The second a seascape of somewhere in Cornwall.

Here are Avril's who says, "Good day today. I learnt a lot."

From Harriet, who says, "I really enjoyed Angela's take on oil paints." Her two attempts are: Looking down at Barmouth Beach, and View of Mountain.

Sally L has done one picture from today's workshop and says, 'Thank you Angela.' The second is a picture from last week of the apples that she brought in for the still life set up, (She says, "They were such larger than life apples that I couldn’t just eat them, and they sat very still!")

This is a second one from Ian. (See his first above.)

Here's what Sally T did today, in what she calls a very enjoyable session

Lesley says, 'We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and learnt a lot. Thank you Angela for an inspiring tutorial ! The first effort shows a very depleted reservoir in the Peak District this summer. My second painting, done after lunch shows part of the coast of Galloway in January this year.
She has also sent in Josie's painting below and says she loves its energy!

A few members who did not participate in the workshop submitted work on their own projects.
June completed a very colourful watercolour of autumn leaves. Les Bragg has been continuing on the mixed media painting we saw last week.

Finally, a couple of reminders:
1/ The oil workshop with James Power takes place on 10 November and there are still some places remaining. For full details, go to Messages or click here.
2/ It's Hannah's turn to do the blog next week, so please remember to send your work to her.

Best wishes to all for the forthcoming week, and thank you all for your contributions today. Noreen.

0 Comments

20th October 2022 - with Sally L.

20/10/2022

0 Comments

quick late addition

Here are two pictures from Freda, from this morning's work, which arrived later. She tackled both the still life and the portrait.

Today Sally L set up an autumnal still life and provided some action poses for the portrait artists, with binoculars, very Biggles!

The morning started out quite chatty, but we did eventually all settle down to work in deepest concentration - as you can see below.

Above, the drawings resulting from Sally's first poses, and below, without binoculars. Harriet added more colour to hers when she went home, and Avril filled several pages of her sketchbook.

And here is the work done from the still life, which you can see some of in my panorama above, but, I have failed to photograph more than the section I was drawing (!). I have, however, included that photo if anyone wants to use it for their own drawing practice. There was a consensus that the stone grapes were the most fantastic subject, so simple and yet so complex, with all that reflected light.

As usual, there were a number of members who chose to work on their own subjects. First Noreen, who started with a drawing of Sally, and went on to this delightful bearded tit, from a photograph.

Next Ian, who was working on a landscape from his holiday.

And then Diana (who I must thank for the photo of Sally, above), who worked from her own still life.

In addition, Noreen sent me a lovely watercolour by June, painted at the Bank on Wednesday, of colourful autumn leaves...

And finally, from Carolyn, a drawing of logs to suggest winter warmth that we all will be hoping for, and a drawing of a hen pheasant with a story. The pheasant appears to have an injured wing, and has become habituated to running to Roy to be fed, well away from where the pigeons can get at the food!

Next week Angela will be in charge of the first of the themed mornings (although you can stay for longer as the Bowls Club has been booked for the day. She will be sharing what she has learned this year about using alkyd oils with a digger knife. Details of what to bring and what will be provided can be found on the Messages from Members page. If you want to stay all day, don't forget to bring a packed lunch.
In three weeks time, on !0th November, there will be a Workshop on Landscape in Oils by James Power. If you are interested see the 'Messages from Members' page for further details.

Noreen will be in charge of this page next week, so send your entries to her in good time.

0 Comments

Addition Friday, 14th

14/10/2022

0 Comments

I tried umpteen times to include Jackie's contribution yesterday, and again this morning, but someone else's pictures kept popping up! This website is a mystery to me sometimes. So here I am trying again - with many apologies. Noreen.

Jackie was attracted by some of the shapes in her garden and did some quick sketches earlier in the week (first photo)
The painting in the second photo is part of the still life set up by Harriet.

0 Comments

Thursday 13 October '22, Harriet in charge

13/10/2022

0 Comments

Great to see so many people back at the Bowls Club for the first activity session of the Winter Programme. Harriet was in charge, providing the still life and the model (her husband, Dave).

Lesley agreed it was a good turnout today - 18 by my count if you include me - and lovely to see members who were not able to participate in the summer programme (Irene and Freda). She has sent shots of two new members working: Ian and Jenny, and a photo of her pastel painting this morning.

Lesley gave out a notice about the 40th Anniversary Project, which was mentioned at the AGM. To mark the 40 years existence of the Eye Arts Guild, we are asked to work on a project entitled simply “40”. It doesn’t have to be about the history of the EAG; any loose interpretation of 40 is acceptable and results will be shown at this year’s Christmas Party on 15th December.

Here are some photos I took from members who are sometimes reluctant to show, saying “It’s not very good”. Don’t we all say that!

June's still life watercolour, done at the Bank on Wednesday

June's still lifewatercolour at Bowls Club today

Irene's watercolour, still life today.

Freda's

Les Bragg's bunny

Avril concentrated all her efforts today on the model and sent us 5 pieces of work.

Jane too stayed with the model, with attention to fine detail and very good likeness.

Diana was a busy bee: she took photos around Worlingworth and Horham, then went home and did the biro sketch, then the fascinating collage. She finished with the lovely watercolour from today’s still life. Her photo of an autumn day might inspire you to paint a picture from it?

Frances tells us she has been playing around with mono printing at home. Today she did a watercolour and ink sketch.
She was interested in the technique Sally L talked about at the AGM. (I think I missed that.)

Our new member, Jenny Burton, did a still life pencil drawing, with impressive handling of the curves and of the shading.

Sally T’s picture today is pen and ink with water colour.

Sally P had two go’s at the model and both were very successful. One in charcoal and one in pencil. She was quite pleased, she said, as she hasn’t done figure drawing since the last winter programme.

Harriet has also done two pictures of Dave, her husband; the one in profile is the one I prefer.

PS I confess to doing this poor sketch of Dave this morning in just a few minutes, and a sketch with cows earlier in the week. (Noreen)

For those of you who have said you wish to attend Angela’s Themed morning on 27th October, there will be more information about materials and costs within the next day or two. So please keep your eye on the Stop Press. Staying on into the afternoon is optional.

Best wishes for the forthcoming week. I hope you will find some time to hone your skills for next Thursday. Please remember it is Hannah’s turn next to do the Blog, so send your contributions to her.

0 Comments

AGM 6TH OCTOBER 2022

6/10/2022

0 Comments

On a day that was full of glorious autumnal sunshine, we were welcomed back to the Bowls Club, and held our Annual General Meeting. There will be changes at the helm this year, Sally P having stayed beyond her allotted three years to see us safely through the pandemic. She was presented with an orchid and a vote of thanks, which I am sure those who were not able to attend will echo.
Lesley took over today, and Richard and Les Bragg both stepped down from the committee. Avril and Frances will be joining. As Maggie-Anne was unable to come, I (Hannah) had to take the minutes; a somewhat daunting task, as I know how my attention wanders, and the doodles take over!
We also welcomed two new members, Jill and Liz. The latter some of you will know from The Bank. There was a show and tell of our favourite pieces of work from the summer, and a lot of catching up over coffee and biscuits (Thanks, Sally P, for replenishing the dark chocolate digestives that go so well with coffee!).

You will find the full Winter programme now on the Events page. Make sure you check when it's your turn, and make your own arrangements with another member to swap, if you can't do it. There are also some additional notes regarding setting up, protecting tables, etc. This year there will also be a washing up rota. Don't forget to check the 'Stop Press' for any changes that may be made to the weekly programme.
Below you will find the show and tell array and a couple of additional individual pictures.

In addition, June had sent this wonderful watercolour to Noreen for inclusion in the blog - this year's harvest?

And Carolyn sent me her favourite work from this year, Her painting for the Chairman's Project 'Movement', strongly influenced by a video from Joe Cartwright. It was very helpful using watercolour (which she doesn't do much of these days), and an inktense study of apples from this week.

Noreen will be in charge of the blog next week, so send your work to her for that, and in the mean time, have a good week.

0 Comments

Thursday 27 October, Palette Knife painting with Angela

20th October 2022 - with Sally L.

quick late addition

Addition Friday, 14th

Thursday 13 October '22, Harriet in charge

AGM 6TH OCTOBER 2022

Archives

Categories