Thornham Magna Village Hall is celebrating 100 years of serving the local community, and Mick has asked EAG to help the celebrations by making collages with which to decorate the hall.  Sally  P used her week to facilitate the making of the collages.

The theme ‘Celebration’ drew a varied response from the 14 members attending this morning. Sally P had brought lots of paper and ribbon for collage.

Judging by the comments made everyone really enjoyed the challenge of producing a piece of A3 artwork to celebrate the hall’s centenary. Some members even produced two!

For anyone who wasn’t at the Bowls club today,  and for those who were but didn’t finish, do bring your interpretation of Celebration to the session next week, so that Mick Farrell has time to frame them!

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted the rather glamorous non-artist in the photos above - Angela's dog, Lara, who came for the morning (with members' agreement) to get away from the beet harvest.

First we have Sally P's collages - each quite different to the other.  Sally enjoyed filling in the whirls with colour, spot the gold infill... The 100 is painted gelli print, and the third is wrapping paper painted in a stylised way.

Finally, of those who attended this morning, Avril has produced four collages:  The first one wrapping paper cones spewing out coloured pipecleaners, Secondly, tissue paper was randomly glued onto paper and then cut out Matisse-style hopefully showing celebration, Thirdly, painted background with tissue paper balloons, Fourthly, a masked man enjoying the festivities ...
Thank you to Avril for all her help this week with pictures and words.

Frances has sent images from Brittany - First playing with autumn colours and others sketching around and about.

Finally, here is some information from Lesley.  I will also add it to the Stop Press so you can still find it after this page has gone below the next blogs.
Next year we will be exhibiting as part of Suffolk Open Studios at the Bank Arts Centre in Eye. This will be our summer exhibition.  We hope as many as possible of you will be able to commit. Hanging will take place on Monday 23rd June, for exhibiting Wednesday 25th - Sunday 29th June. The weekend Saturday and Sunday will incorporate the last weekend of Suffolk Open Studios.
 
Applications for next year’s S.O.S. opens tomorrow, 1st November. As EAG will be making our application in the next few weeks, it would be very helpful if the organising committee knew how many members will be participating.
There will be a form to sign at the Bowls club, from next week if you wish to exhibit.

Avril will be blogging next week. Please send contributions to her.

17 members at the bowls club today for a mark making workshop.
Beginning with  D.IY. Session making our own mark making tools, and exploring their mark making potential.
​Sticks of all kinds, coffee stirrers, satay sticks, matchsticks , cocktail sticks were topped bits of ‘Brillo’ pad, plastic milk carton cut into various shapes or fringed to form effective mark making tools

We began  some experimental mark making, to see the different marks that each tool could produce.

Next we divided a large A2 sheet of paper with masking tape, and using a large brush and three different colours of acrylic paint quickly painted in loose sweeping strokes in each colour.

Then we removed the masking tape and cut the paper up into separate sections, and then added more marks to each section using the tools that we had made earlier, using inks Neocolour crayons, and oil pastels. Producing some stunning results.

Diana.                                              Angela.                                                Avril

Lesley.                                                Harriet



Jackie.                                                                                                              Ian

Sally P                                                    Richard

​

Sally T.                                                       Ian C.                                                 Ian J

Josie                                                     Jill 

​

Carolyn has sent two completely different images this week. The first entitled From Black to White. Carolyn says ‘it looks quite attractive , but does it work’? I’m going to stick my neck oou here and say that for me it works the other way round, because my eye is drawn to the central focal point, ‘the black’
Next Two black and white drawings of Avril’s dogs looking extremely relaxed, not posing at all.

Frances has sent some recent sketches of the Palais de Luxumborg, Felixstowe, Walberswick and Southwold, and finally her mark making interpretation of an oyster shell, lovely!

And Hannah has sent two images, the first a drawing and then a beautiful almost translucent iPad image of a squid.

If any of the images that you see have been cut click on them and you should see the full image.
i apologise if I have wrongly attributed any of your work, it was more difficult then usual because I didn’t have the usual indicators of your particular painting styles.

​

• Next week’s blogger will be Hannah, please send images to her.
• Sally P’s session next week is entitled ‘Celebrations’ and is timed to coincide with an exhibition at Thornham Village Hall, which is commemorating it’s 100th   birthday.
• So please bring any colours/ collage materials ideas that conjour up the idea of celebration to you.- Open to many interpretations.

​Sally

A great number of members, 17 in total and a super atmosphere was buzzing around. There were several important announcements made regarding a Watercolour workshop, Suffolk Open Studios and next week when Sally Ladbroke will be doing mark making, please look on the STOP PRESS for further details.   

Sally and Angela informing members, see stop press

Sally provided an attractive still life and posed very passionately for us.

John was very productive and enjoyed the graphite and the use of colour

Ian did his first portrait in colour using acrylics

Sally P used water soluble pencils and felt the hand on the right looked good

Angela was pleased with her logs but thought the portraits were poor, nobody else agreed

Jackie was a long way away as a lot of people wanted to do the portraits, next time I think we should put the model in the room a bit more so people can surround the model.

Harriet was productive, she liked the solidity of the chalks particularly the red one and also thought the hands were hard to draw.

I only did four this week using pastels and charcoal, members thought the pastel looked effective on the black paper.

Ian had a go using acrylics on his Derbyshire picture which is not finished yet. Jane made her usual graphic drawing and found it hard to get a likeness and felt it is harder drawing someone you know. Barry our newbie tried his hand at watercolour, like Ian C he has not finished it yet. 

Hannah was playing around with layers on her i pad using her special pencil, members hinted that they would like another session on computers.

Sally used watercolour and ink flowers which looked delicate. Eileen is still working on her painting,  members thought it was colourful and Angela thought the texture was good.  Josie did not have time to do the background and she thought the jar on the left was the wrong shape.

Elizabeth said she had not done anything for months  so enjoyed using the charcoal pencil. Sandra made a wonderful pastel of  flower which was realistic and had good movement and depth.

Blogger next week is Sally

Today was the first day of the standard winter programme at the Bowls Club.  12 members attended.  Plenty of views here of members hard at work, the model (thank you Jackie for this) and the still life (and thanks to Jackie for that too), which was suitably autumnal in theme and colour and featured a magnificently fungus-clad  log.  We also welcomed a new member, Barry, the first of several who we hope will enjoy the guild as much as the rest of us.

Frances says:
'First A3 water colour and inks. Used colours and shapes in the still life. Thought I had brought my pens but no, so found some feathers outside to use in true Sally L spirit!!!
Second based on begonias from outside club house. Shall probably chop it up for use in other ways!'

Lesley produced a quick line drawing and watercolour, and then a chalk pastel drawing, with real depth to the baskets.

So now we turn to the portraits, and some very good likenesses here...

Next, three from Jane

Harriet used charcoal, of which the general view was that it was a good medium for portraiture.

Sally T was feeling her way experimentally

And Avril said she was out of practice, I don't see that myself from her portraits, but she won't be for long anyway, at the rate she works!

Apologies to Barry, but  his picture does not seem to have reached me.  Hopefully that can be remedied next week.
I have been working on something at home, using pencil and procreate on my ipad, but it's not anywhere near ready to show. 
If you are interested in coming to the watercolour workshop on 14th November, please look at the Stop Press for details of materials required.  The minutes of the AGM Aand the Chairman's report will be on 'Messages from Members' shortly.
Hope to see you next week, providing nothing else intervenes!  Avril will be blogging next week, so send your contributions to her.
Hannah

Sixteen members were present this morning for our annual AGM.
Lesley and Maggie Anne led us efficiently through the morning’s business a précis of which I include here. The full version will be available in Messages for Members​

Lesley mentioned in her report the sad loss over the summer of Irene, a founder member, and Hilary.
​ Liz has also moved house. This leaves three vacancies, and three new members will be joining us shortly.
The Summer Programme included a variety of venues old and new, all appreciated,  presenting different challenges (no mention of the weather) and thanks must go to the programming committee for their hard work. Those of us who enjoy Plein air painting would really appreciate a bit more company, it’s much more enjoyable working outdoors when you are with a group of friends, so next year why not give it a try?

Ian reported that our finances were in a healthy position. The workshops that ran last winter had broken even, and  although they were expensive to run enough members participated to keep the costs down.
The winter programme starts next week *see note at the end of the blog
and includes  three professional workshops and three themed sessions led sessions by members.
 ( any suggestion for next summer sketching, or next winter workshops welcome )

Our annual summer exhibition at the United Reformed Church was disappointing. The exhibition sub committee have come up with some suggestions and as a result in June we will be participating in Suffolk Open Studios, and the Eye Open Gardens - more details to follow.

Thanks must go to Lesley and all the members of the committee for the hard work and commitment that goes into making the Guild such a successful group keeping it solvent and interesting, and for keeping  us on our toes. The rather formal title belies the vibrant and successful group that it is and on a personal note, the kindness and compassion that has made what could have been a horrible year for me more bearable.

After coffee we shared our favourite pieces of work from the summer

Angela has distilled her summer into a zig-zag sketch book, what a great idea to see all your sketches spread before  you, or in this case stretched, an idea worth copying.
she has also dipped her toes into abstract painting, not her natural element, but with her teacher’s hat on has told herself ‘not to be so narrow minded’ and this is the result.

Sally Tyley’s favourite summer images are of Thornham walled garden, a place she knows well, and she reflects as many of us do when we revisit a favourite spot how it has changed, and how our approach has changed over time.

Jo’s favourites from this summer show a departure, moving towards a colourful free interpretation of what she sees. We all like this change of direction, Jo of course is far too self-deprecating to agree!

Diana brought us the Tour de France, perfectly captured, and what she describes as ‘scribbling’! Using a double ended felt tipped pen and washes of water, bottom L&R finally working towards an image in acrylic to capture this approach.top R

Jackie has selected two images, Frog Farm, showing the lovely old buildings that edge the invisible road (top) and Old Hall Farm at Southwold with Jo, Ian and Sally P. Geared up to face the elements.
You see - this is the fun of Plein air sketching in a nutshell.

Avril has selected this picture from Thornham Woods, and believe me she had many to choose from…but I can see why, it’s a very distinctive monochrome image with the emphasis on the patterning and no distractions which makes it more powerful.

Elaine has chosen two ‘companion pieces’ lovely strong Mediterranean colours which evoke summer, heat, lazy relaxing days…

Frances has chosen her theme of the summer, colourful summer damselflies, a lovely composition of complimentary summer colours and strong graphic shapes, and a collage of previously printed leaves with a Swallowtail butterfly in acrylic.

Ian has chosen an image of Old hall Farm in Southwold looking across the estuary towards Walberswick.

And finally two lovely images of Freda, painting in the garden with her great grandson. This must surely sum up what creativity is all about making an image in the moment that you both share inspired by place.