Our first Saturday meeting of the year had 30 members in attendance so a very good turnout.
Most members painted wild animals but a few painted domestic animals. A wide range of mediums have been used including watercolour, oil, acrylic, pastel and wax resist. Some managed to combine animals with snowmen following on for our Wednesday evening meeting.
A few members carried on with ongoing projects.
The collective noun for a group of snowmen is variously given as a freeze, dusting or melt. We won’t use the last one as that implies ex-snowmen!
Our first Wednesday session of 2020 was very well attended with 21 members, 3 of whom were new to the group. A very warm welcome to you and we hope that you enjoy painting with us throughout the year.
Thank you to everyone who paid the yearly subs, we hope you enjoyed meeting and having a catch-up with your arty friends.
We painted snowmen, snow ladies, literate, happy and very plump snowmen in watercolour, acrylic and inks. Some members painted local snowy scenes in Meopham and Rochester and others used their Christmas cards as inspiration and painted a robin, cat, penguins and a Christmas Goth.
Other members drew an Art Deco design, continued with a train commission and finished a watercolour of a view in Sicily.
JANUARY
Wednesday 8th 7-9pm – Snowmen
Keep your favourite snowman snow scene Christmas cards. Use them for inspiration or use your own imagination to paint a snowman, using any medium, but you could use tissue paper, cotton wool or texture paste to make your snowman 3D. Perhaps it could be your Christmas card for 2020?
Also pay subs and have a catch-up with friends.
Saturday 25th 10am-3.30pm – Animals in Winter
Think of animals in Wintertime and use any medium, although unpainted white watercolour paper is perfect as snow itself. Imagine snowy fields with farm animals of cows, sheep or horses. Huskies or reindeer pulling sleds, Arctic or Antarctic animals such as polar bears or penguins. Animals with their winter coats like arctic hairs, foxes or ptarmigans.
The fee for today is £6, no need to book.
FEBRUARY
Wednesday 12th 7-9pm – Ink
February is usually a dull, drab month, so let’s get colourful. Use Brusho powders, any inks in bottles or palettes, washable or permanent. Your choice of ink and subject. If you don’t have any inks then perhaps use watercolour or gouache in strong tones to achieve a bold effect.
Saturday 22nd 10am-3.30pm – JMW Turner
The new, polymer £20 note is due for release on 20th February, featuring JMW Turner. Use any medium and paint in his style… plenty of movement, loose, areas of light and dark. Either your own subject given the Turner treatment or use one of Turner’s paintings for inspiration.
The fee for today is £6, no need to book.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone and THANK YOU for your continued support. 2019 was another good year for our group, culminating in our Open Day in November, with many visitors, membership enquiries and many paintings sold.
In 2020 we’re having our Open Day on Saturday November 28th and we’ll be painting at Chalk Church on the July and August Saturdays
Our blog continues at www.medwayandchalk.art where the newsletter is published every two months, together with anything relating to the group and with photos of the sessions. This gives you the opportunity to have your work on show, so please continue to look at the blog and email Susan your paintings for inclusion.
Please become a ‘follower’, if you haven’t already done so, to ensure that you get email alerts every time something is posted on the site. Click on where it says ‘follow’ on the home page and put in your email address. Go to your emails, find the one from WordPress and click on the link to confirm you want to ‘follow’ the blog. If you don’t have an email address or internet access ask a family member to follow for you as they can also look on the blog as it is a public site.
This coming year all Wednesday evenings will be free, unless something is arranged. We do ask for £6 on a Saturday towards the hire of the hall, unless there is a tutor and then the fee will be more, but will include both hall hire and the artist’s fee. No bookings are required for Wednesday evenings and non-tutored Saturdays, but please book for all Saturday workshops.
We know Wednesday evening sessions aren’t as popular as the Saturday ones, but do please try to come along to support these sessions as they’re always good evenings.
Free coffee, tea and biscuits will be provided at all meetings.
The session ideas we suggest are to help you think of what to paint. If you’re already working on something else, no problem at all, please come along anyway for a cuppa and a natter!
Membership for 2020
The annual membership fee of £15 is now due and should be paid by the end of January 2020.
A paying-in form is provided with this newsletter and cheques should be made payable to ‘M & C Art Group’. Please send forms and cheques to Susan or hand your form and your cash/cheque to Tracy at the next Wednesday meeting on January 8th. New this year is paying your subs by bank transfer, so look out for Susan’s email with details of how to do this, but which will also have her postal address if you prefer to send her your subs.
If you will be on holiday then please email Susan, so she knows your membership fee will be paid on your return.
If your membership fee is not received by the end of January 2020 then you will no longer be a member. If you wish to re-join after that date then your name will be added to the waiting list and you can return when a place becomes available.
We do have a waiting list of several people who wish to join and be active members as soon as they can, so if you no longer wish to be a member then contact Susan asap, so your place can be offered to another person. If you think you won’t be attending any sessions in 2020 then please let a new member join in your place.
Workshop etiquette
On some Saturdays we have workshops with visiting artists. We will continue the ‘first come, first served’ policy of putting your name down for a workshop. We feel this is the fairest way as everyone can see the newsletter on the blog at the same time. If you don’t follow the blog then you may miss out if you can’t see the newsletter when it’s first published. Even if you receive a paper newsletter you can ask someone to check the blog for you regularly, or become a ‘follower’ for you, so you know of future sessions before the newsletter is posted to you.
Many tutors only want to teach 15/20 people, but we always persuade them to accept more at our group. However, any more than 25 and we run out of tables and time for the tutor to speak to everyone is limited.
If we have more than 25 members wanting to attend, we will have a waiting list.
When you see a workshop you want to attend…
On the day of the workshop…
Tutors have mentioned to Tracy that it’s annoying when mobile phones ring or make noises and it disturbs other artists too.
Have you got a new diary/calendar for 2020? Write down the dates of our meetings in 2020 or print them out now:-
| 2nd Wednesday | 4th Saturday | |
| January | 8th | 25th |
| February | 12th | 22nd |
| March | 11th | 28th |
| April | 8th | 25th |
| May | 13th | 23rd |
| June | 10th | 27th |
| July | 8th | 25th – Chalk Church |
| August | 12th | 22nd – Chalk Church |
| September | 9th | 26th |
| October | 14th | 24th |
| November | 11th | 28th — Open Day (Fri 27th hanging evening) |
| December | 9th – party |
Saturday dates are for the 4th Saturday. Some months have 5 Saturdays, but we meet on the 4th one.
2020 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION
Please complete this form and post to Susan with a cheque for £15.00 payable to ‘M & C Art Group’. Alternatively hand in with cash or cheque at the next meeting, or pay by bank transfer.
Name_________________________________________________
Address_______________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Postcode__________________
Telephone Number/Mobile______________________________________________________
E-Mail Address__________________________________________
Your email address will be shared with M & C Art Group members only. Please advise if you do not want this information given out.
Medway & Chalk Art Group 