Three late runners this week.
First Sally Ladbrooke:
Here are the original herring, which I started last week, which although a bit of a hackneyed subject were so pretty.
Mine have put on a bit of weight! Probably because I just couldn’t resist the temptation to add another layer. I stuck some newspaper onto a sheet of cartridge first, then used oil pastel and acrylic ink, and then more pastel, and more ink, especially that red ink!
Thanks for the tips on using newspaper as a base, wallpaper paste made it crinkled (This follows discussion on Zoom), PVA doesn’t stick evenly, -next time I’ll try the spray adhesive, or Pritt Stick.

These are Harriet's, 'Rose in Hebe', and two swimming pools.  'Both pictures are, of course, studies of water. I enjoyed the patterns made by the water, made still by the photo, and copied it as best as I could, but became fed up and so some areas are more impressionistic. I might still do a bit more to it, I think it has a bit more mileage in it.'  She told us on Zoom that they were mixed media - a bit of everything.

Finally, here's a contribution from Ian.
'Having not contributed for a while I thought I should pull my finger out. Whilst I haven’t been inspired very much I have finished off a painting from a photo from the distant past. This is somewhere in the country side in Norfolk.
The other one is a lockdown walk and is of Westhorpe church from the fields at the rear.
Now that I have picked up the brushes again I hope to keep at it.'

Here's a challenge.  For the blog of 10th December (that's giving you a good two weeks), instead of the usual mix of pictures, it has been proposed that everyone who wants to participate, should make a digital Christmas card, addressed to their fellow members.  So get your thinking caps on and paintbrushes etc. at the ready!

Suggestions/inspiration from Jane this week.  Left to right: Simple Still Life; Remember Summer? and Visit to Cambridge Last Year.

As usual files available to download for printing below.

Sally P. says, 'A play around with pastel this morning and inks this afternoon. Inks are so unforgiving and permanent. '  She told us on Zoom this morning that she was a bit regretful about using up different pastel paper for the first still life, having so much enjoyed the Pastelmat paper recently.

We were unable to see Sally T. this morning, but she gamely described what she had been doing, and has sent these images with plenty of description.'The still life of looking through the window I showed last week but was not able to send a decent image until today. Oil on canvas. I struggled with this towards the end. Having spent ages on it I think I should try some quicker oil sketches on a smaller scale next time.
'I am now going to work on a silk screen print using a hand cut stencils. I am working out the image using water colour. I want something simple on the lines of Morandi but also very fixed on a surface which is a wooden box. I did an acrylic painting of jugs using a sponge to dye the calico a while ago which does not work. The objects appear as if they are floating in space but I like the colours.'
I hadn't noticed the floating until I read the description.  I think it looks sufficiently abstract that it doesn't matter anyway.

Diana, Jackie and Avril also took the still life that Harriet assembled as a jumping-off point, with differing results.

And from Jackie:
'The still life was more challenging than I first thought with all the different blues and tones. Took much concentration but thanks, Harriet, for setting up those photos for us to use. I liked the fabric pattern too.
I just fell in love with these Turkeys.  They live on a local farm which is on one of my local walks.  They are always so excited to see people and rush towards the boundary fence with guttural globs of bubbling sound, fluffing out their chests and sooty black feathers and staring with their weird faces. This is my second attempt at painting them and capturing their character.'

I have carried on with the shoe theme, with another pair of my old shoes (colour and sketching pencils), and then thought I had better explain why they end up looking as they do, hence the feet, in the same medium, which I have to say, when you look at them for that amount of time, look very odd!

Have a good week, and enjoy the end of lockdown!

Frances celebrated an end of quarantine (even more restrictive than lockdown!) by visiting Redgrave and Lopham Fen in late afternoon, and observing the murmurations.  The outcomes, so far, are drypoint etchings and an acrylic, but she says she is going to paint a larger version over another painting she is dissatisfied with.

From Diana a trio of cats.  First her own painting of Oscar from a photo she took last summer at my house.  Second, her cat Lemmy painted about 20 years ago by her friend Sarah Pyefinch who died in 2007, she was for a short time a member of EAG and lived in Eye.  Thirdly, she says, 'I always loved this painting of Angela's  I took the photo at the Rickinghall exhibition earlier this year.'

I followed last week's shoes with another pair, and I'm currently on a third, with another in mind.  These boots are drawn in a mixture of sketching and colouring pencils.  I also finished an oil painting based on the apples in a bowl from a few weeks ago, with a plan for using this image to make another.

Harriet's contributions start this week with her picture of Oscar, and the painting she has worked on for some time in oils, with rather lovely afternoon light in it from earlier in the year.  It is also her turn to provide the pictures for next week's efforts.

Harriet has provided a broad spread of images for inspiration, from tackling the painting of light through the leaves in a forest, to the sparkle of a swimming pool, there should be something here that sends you on this week's journey!  Larger files below as usual to download.

A quick message for the Zoomers - hopefully the images above are clear enough.  To go from the view where you only see the current speaker, click on the circled button on the left in the left hand picture.  To see just the one speaker, when you see more people, click on the button circled  in the right picture.  Clear as mud.  I hope it makes more sense than it does when I read it!

One final thing, sorry to be so long-winded this week!  If you want to send pictures of your work, and are finding it difficult, try these ways.  If you have an iPhone or iPad, in the image on the left, you can select the symbol circled below the photo, once you have done that you will see the screen on the right. Selecting the envelope will allow you to email the picture, once you have written in the email address.
On the right is an example (in this case a Samsung Galaxy tablet), showing the symbol to select to get to the second scree, which again shows the email symbol, allowing you to send the picture, having put in the email address.

Firstly, an update from the committee about our winter exhibition, to take place at the Bank in December.  Of course this was planned before the world turned upside down.  We have reluctantly decided that we cannot go through with it this year, partly because of all the difficulties of getting pictures to the Bank for hanging with lockdown in the way, and because the time that will be left for the exhibition to be seen before the Bank closes for Christmas was too limited to warrant the amount of work involved.  Rest assured, there will be exhibitions next year!  Once we are all vaccinated...

Noreen has got a new iPad to play with, that came with an Apple Pencil, and so in addition to producing the beautiful pencil drawing on the left from Sally's photo last week, she has also used these new tools to draw the picture on the right directly on the iPad.  This is such an interesting start and I look forward to seeing the finished image.

Frances took inspiration from the landscape photo last week and made these three. First two acrylic and Art Graf. The last based on Sally’s photo. Acrylic, charcoal, pen and Art Graf.

A trio of lanes from Diana.  Sally's, on the left and two from Thornham Parva.

Sally T. also took the inspiration of the photo of SallyP's boots, and applied it to a pair of her own shoes, drawn with pencil and pen and ink.

Avril says. 'Felt a bit restless today, so I did small artworks. The top one in the first image is brush pen, and intense pencils. The one underneath pastel.
I also used a long stick and attached brush pens, then water, it was definitely loose, not so sure it worked but it is good to try.' 

Jackie's sketch of a lane in Scole, painted in the car, with the glorious colours of autumn leaves.  And then, something completely different and wonderful. 'My other project that I have worked on now and then. He just needs some whiskers now and I have asked a neighbour to groom her horses and send some to me.  It makes a refreshing change to work on 3 dimensional figures.'  Fantastic!

From Harriet,  'Here are two images that I have been working on this week, one is a sketch from Sally's lane photo and the other is an oil painting that I am working on, which I started in the summer, in situ, and now am developing further.'

Finally Sally P's own take on the subject she gave us last week.
'Three pics, half hour sketch of boots with watercolour wash, hour drawing of Mick in pencil and a pastel picture of Mick that I still need to work on. Not sure who the model is!'

Now something to think about for next week...  Files below to download.  Not quite such wonderful quality as last week, I'm afraid!

Stay well everyone.

It is interesting to be reminded of life before electricity.  No quick kettle, no oven, no instantly lighting hob, no internet or TV.  We have been so lucky during this year that we have all this entertainment and ease in our lives.  Yesterday, the electricity pole in our back garden was replaced because it was rotten, so we had no power for most of the day, and a bevy of workmen milling around the scaffolding they had built round the new pole, while in the road the traffic was controlled by lights - such fun for everyone.  Thank goodness it didn't go on until after dark! So of course I had no excuse yesterday for not drawing...

First from Jane: 'I loved the photo of the Three Sheep and decided to try different ways of interpreting it. 1 Crayon and ink 2 Acrylic Ink 3 Mixed Media ( ink/ oil pastel/crayon / acrylic paint)'

Now for something completely different from Diana - what she describes as three scribbles.
1st. Following on from last week,using double ended felt tips for the scribble, then spraying with water took 7 mins.
2nd. The same subject, (both from photos) these two are from under Stiperstones, but with added collage.
3rd. White acrylic, graphite plus felt tips sprayed with water,  this one Bodmin moor.

These two are both from Avril, who says, 'Just done a quick sketch with my new brush pens, only trouble no brown in set so I used my inktense pencils over the top.
'I tried very hard to make some mushroom linoprints, what a mess, still not mastered the technique.'  Looks like she had fun trying, though...

From Sally P. 'After a slow start this morning......in fact after12.00 Zoom time! I finally got into the studio with some fungi to have some fun!........ Pens, twigs, inks, watercolor and pencils and a variety of paper..... watercolor, flat white (recycled) and yupo. Not forgetting the King Oyster Mushrooms.Thanks Sal for the ideas.'
And thanks to this Sal for the variety!

'This morning I sat in the garden and sketched a little statue we have, inherited from my mother, with one of Rebecca’s (The Bank) fish by her feet. Over zoom Harriet mentioned that by mistake she had bought a sketchbook with black paper, so this afternoon I turned to mine for the first time and used acrylic and finally some ArtGraf and based it on a photo I took on a walk in Brittany last week.' From Frances.

From Harriet a delicate study of '4 Mushrooms' and also 'Still life with Money Tree'.  Lovely colours in both of these.

This week's photos to inspire you, or give you a subject, have been provided by Sally P.  They could not be more different from one another, and definitely are something for everyone.  I always think that shoes somehow have character of their own, which these certainly do! The colours in the landscape and the light and shad of the portrait should give you plenty to work with.  As usual the larger files for working from are below for downloading.  Have a good week, and it would be wonderful to hear from some of those who have been invisible for a while (?) in time for next week...