Here are two paintings from the session on texture that were started on Saturday and then finished at home.
Margaret W’s watercolour woodland picture uses texture to enhance the bark of the trees and the foliage in the foreground. It’s a beautiful painting, Margaret, well done!
Tracy Q-Ps acrylic painting uses the impasto technique of putting on thick layers of paint. This was done with a paintbrush and then the colourful paint on the ampersand was added with a palette knife.
What an interesting session we enjoyed by incorporating texture into our paintings. It was good to see so many artists painting together as there were 33 members present.
Some continued their January ‘depth of field’ paintings and added texture to the foreground, by using an impasto technique with palette knives or texture medium.
Others started new paintings and used thick paint, paper, string, feathers, matchsticks, sand, netting, collage, shells, embroidery, tissue paper, pastels, beads and gravel to create texture. Some paintings remained flat, but the artists had applied paint or used pencil in a textural way for animal fur or foliage.
It was a successful day for all the artists, so why not use these techniques again in your next painting?
MARCH
Wednesday 13th 7-9pm – European cities
With Brexit nearly upon us, think of a visit you’ve made to a European city and paint a favourite view. If you haven’t travelled to Europe then paint a picture of a city you’d love to visit. We’ll display our paintings at the end of the sessions and see if we can name all the cities.
Saturday 23rd 10am-3.30pm – Watercolour workshop with Kit Leese
A new artist to us, Kit will be running a watercolour workshop based on a landscape or garden view (final details nearer the time). See Kit’s paintings on his website at www.kitleese.com
If you’d like to attend, check your diary first to see if you’re free. If so, please email or phone Susan asap (her contact details were emailed to you last month) and she will add names to the workshop list in the order received. If there are more than 25 names, then a waiting list will be used.
Do not use the comments box on the blog to ask for a place, as messages can take days to appear.
The fee for today will be £14, which includes Kit’s workshop and hall hire.
APRIL
Wednesday 10th 7-9pm – Topiary
In formal gardens all year round, paint a picture of topiary in any medium. Hall Place in Bexley has many topiary trees, including those called the Queen’s Beasts, planted in 1953 to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II…www.hallplace.org.uk. The world’s oldest topiary is at Levens Hall in Cumbria…www.levenshall.co.uk, Hampton Court Palace has magnificent topiary…www.hrp.org.ukand Hever Castle has many examples too…www.hevercastle.co.uk. Another interesting website is www.topiaryintheuk.co.uk.
You may have visited many more gardens with topiary, so bring any photos with you.
Saturday 27th 10am-3.30pm – Spring Greens
Spring should be with us by now, so use today as practice for making greens in any medium. Try different yellows and blues, or use a favourite green paint and learn which colours lighten or darken the tones. Paint a spring landscape, a vase of daffodils, a tulip field full of greens and colours, an Easter scene, trees full of leaves and blossom etc.
The fee for today is £6.
Apart from the small postage style paintings these are approximately 4 x6 inches so smaller than you are seeing them on your screen. Quite a challenge, especially for those of us who usually paint large and loose! A worthwhile exercise, if only, to show how difficult it is. The meeting was unusually quiet, a sign of intense concentration.
Medway & Chalk Art Group 