Seven members took part in our Portrait Artist of the Month challenge this time, with Juliet drawing two beautiful portraits and Steve rising to the challenge and creating three portraits, an incredible feat!

Grayson Perry is a fascinating person to paint or draw as he is famous as himself, but he also dresses as Claire at award ceremonies and parties. Philippa, his wife, has an interesting face too, with her glasses and two-tone hair. Alan Measles, Grayson’s beloved teddy bear, makes an appearance in our portrait gallery, but sadly Kevin the cat wasn’t painted by anyone.

At our Saturday session at Chalk Church last week Cynthia painted Grayson in watercolours. The detail and subtle colour changes that she painted around his eyes is incredible.

At the same session Doreen worked from a black and white image but used colour to create her image of Grayson.

Juliet drew portraits of both Grayson and Philippa, using pencil to make light strokes and heavier strokes to make darker lines, both giving depth and texture to their features.

Steve’s three portraits are in three different mediums and show his skill in each. The portrait of Grayson is in pastel, on Canson 160gsm pastel paper.

Philippa’s portrait is in coloured pencils with white acrylic highlights, on 140lb watercolour paper.

Alan Measles is pen and watercolour on 140lb watercolour paper.

Angela D used water mixable oils, taking about 5 hours for her portrait, where Grayson is giving an intense stare to the viewer. His hair looks so real with many colours combined.

Dot had the brilliant idea of using two images of Grayson/Claire, folding them in half and joining then down his/her face. The resulting portrait is very clever and striking.

Tracy liked lots of online images of Claire, because she is usually bright, bubbly and smiling. One image was different in that Claire is staring away from the camera , not smiling, but looking very thoughtful and almost nervous. Someone can wear a lot of make-up to cover their face, but caught off guard they can look vulnerable. Watercolour on Hobbycraft 300gsm watercolour paper, taking about 2 hours.

Detail of Claire’s eyes. There were lots of eyelashes to paint!

Dot has kept busy painting during the last few months, creating many images with different themes. Here are a few of her acrylic paintings. Keep up the excellent work, Dot.

These three paintings show that you can easily paint what is in front of you, as you don’t have to travel far from where you set up your art equipment. Your mug/water pot is a real statement piece!

Just sitting in a garden has brought pleasure for many whilst we’ve had to stay at home, so why not get your paints out and capture the view? Beautifully painted, Dot, the colours you have brought together here are very harmonious.

Saturday saw 18 eager members meet at Chalk Church, some who came last month and others coming along for the very first time to paint outdoors in the church grounds. We had about 10 minutes of very light rain, but after that the clouds melted away, the sky lightened and we had a marvellous day.

The grounds look so lush at the moment, the greens of the trees are really intense. As you can see we all managed to keep our distance from one another, yet be close enough for a good natter!

A huge thank you to everyone for all your donations to the church fund and I’m very pleased to say that your contributions total £101, a very good sum.

Some members carried on with paintings they’d started last month and others started something new, either from their own reference photos or of views in the grounds. Mediums used were watercolours, acrylics, oils, coloured pencils, sketching pens, graphite pencils and mixed media including inks and skeleton leaves. There were a few pictures of Grayson Perry, but they’re not shown here, they’ll be put on the blog at the end of the month.

Rosie has been busy painting in acrylics and here are her three latest paintings.

Firstly she has painted a beach with a lone sandcastle left by visitors. Rosie might add a tree, umbrella or people to the painting.

Here is a colourful, autumnal image of a couple walking through trees.

Rosie calls this painting “Stormy Souls” and says “it’s about emotion and how sometimes you feel like you are swamped and drowning with anxiety.”

They’re all beautifully painted, Rosie, with the final painting being especially thought provoking. Well done!

No one has sent me any photos of paintings they have done this month, so I’ll show you what I’ve painted recently.

I absolutely love poppies and have painted them many times. Mainly as ‘weeping’ poppies at Remembrance time, with the red of the poppies bleeding into watercolour paper and with a quote dripping from the poppy’s black centre.

This time I painted poppies on a lighter theme, being inspired by a couple of photos on the IgersKent photo account on Instagram, where photos of Kent are posted every day.

The first painting is a bee flying to a poppy and the second is a view across a field of poppies, near South Foreland Lighthouse. Both are watercolours on Bockingford Not paper, 300gsm, 5” x 7”.

I’ve also painted a few beach scenes lately, so here are my favourite three.
Greatstone beach in Kent, where I went on holiday every year with my parents until I was 15 and which I still visit regularly with my own family. Watercolour on W&N Not, 300gsm paper, 8” x 10”.

A beach umbrella on sand, just out of my head. Acrylic on W&N Not, 300gsm, watercolour paper, 8” x 10”.

Sunset from the beach in Arenal d’en Castell, Menorca, on our holiday last year. Watercolour on Bockingford Rough, 300gsm paper, 5” x 7”.

Finally a painting I did last year of waves coming in on a beach. It is something you could do with your children or grandchildren, by collecting sand and shells from the beach. The close up photo shows I used newspaper, sand, shells, metal foil and gold paint for the beach. The sand stuck well with PVA glue but after the shells fell off I glued them on again with clear multi purpose glue and they stayed on. It was fun to do and easily done with younger members of your family.

Please send me any photos of any paintings you have done this month!

We cannot access the parish hall again this month but we should be having our 4th Saturday session at the church on 22nd August. There are 5 Saturdays in August but we always meet on the 4th one. Watch out for more details nearer the time.

Steve, Patrick and Tracy met at the hall the other day with a couple of hall committee members to discuss when it will be opening again. With government guidelines as at the moment, the hall should be opening in September but with new rules about social distancing. We have come up with a new layout for tables and chairs and about how to keep apart during our sessions. Once details are finalised we will let you know, but if guidelines change again then we will have to rethink. Watch this space!

Here are some ideas to paint this month, if you’re struggling to think of subjects. Please send any paintings you do to me (Tracy) by email, WhatsApp, Messenger or text, on the mobile number I have emailed to you previously. Don’t forget to tell me the medium, paper used, the inspiration, how long it took etc.

If none of these ideas take your fancy, then paint something else and send it to me, we’d love to see what you’re painting at the mo. About 20 members haven’t been heard from since March, 5 months ago, what have you painted during lockdown?

Portrait Artist of the Month (PAOTM) – Grayson Perry/Claire

Many members watched Grayson Perry’s series of tv programmes during lockdown and thoroughly enjoyed them. Now is your chance to draw and/or paint Grayson Perry himself or his alter-ego Claire. You could also paint Grayson’s wife Philippa, who he had a great rapport with during the programmes, or his first love, his teddy bear Alan Measles, who means so much to Perry.

Lots of photos are online so show us what you can achieve. Any medium, any size, any interpretation, you have a whole month to create your picture, so you have plenty of time.

Poppies

The official flower of August is the poppy, so paint a poppy or poppies in a vase, in fields, as the symbol of remembrance, in a hedgerow etc. There are so many ways to paint poppies in their various colours, so please get painting.

Beaches

Even though most holidays aren’t going ahead, I’m sure you can paint a favourite beach that you have been to or one that you’d like to visit. Use any medium or used mixed media to include sand and shells to make your painting 3D.