The task this month was to draw or paint your favourite actor playing 007 James Bond in the official EON films. Only two members created pictures, so presumably James Bond films aren’t popular with our members!

Steve used charcoal and white pastel on pastel paper for his image of Sean Connery. He used a grid to accurately draw Sean’s features and the charcoal and chalk is used sensitively to create the different skin tones of the face and hand. It’s a very good likeness, well done.

Tracy found it hard to decide whether to paint Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig, as they are all favourites. She plumped for Daniel Craig as she liked the promotional photo of him in front of the Day of the Dead mask for the film Spectre.

Tracy is not happy with the final painting as Daniel’s face went rather splodgy, but there’s a vague likeness. The skull in the background is much better she says!

For our first Open Day in two years we didn’t know whether to expect a handful of visitors or more. On a bitterly cold and wet day at least 60 visitors came along to admire and buy the paintings. Everyone welcomed the guests and talked about art over the four hours. Your enthusiasm shone through and it was a fabulous day, well done to one and all!

Many visitors signed our guest book and here are some of the comments…

Amazing variety of techniques. Lovely work once again and great to see everyone.

Very inspiring and bought some lovely Christmas presents. Fabulous.

Lovely to see everyone again and the beautiful work as always.

Truly impressed – some cracking work. Lovely to see everyone, well done.

Very good. Very lovely artwork, thank you.

Thank you to everyone who helped with the hanging on Friday evening and on the Saturday made many cups of tea and coffee and kept washing up and drying all the crockery. We couldn’t have this Open Day without all of your help.

There were 74 framed paintings on the walls and 3 browsers of mounted artwork. Five framed paintings and seven mounted pictures were sold, along with one probable commission and two membership enquiries. A great result in only four hours.

Eighteen members attended the day and some managed to paint whilst others didn’t get to open their paintboxes as the day was so busy! One member was visited by her delightful grandchildren and they stayed and created some paintings of their own. Possible M&C members for the future?

Tracy was recently asked to paint some cat portraits as a surprise for a lady’s birthday present. Very apt as ‘novem’ in November means nine and cats are meant to have nine lives with all the scrapes they get up to.

The four cats were owned over the past 3 decades and Tracy was sent over 30 photos for reference. She chose to paint the head and shoulders of each cat and not the whole cat, to give emphasis to their little furry faces. The black and white cat took about an hour but the other cats took 2.5 hours each as their fur and markings were quite complicated!

Watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper with 2 cats in a 8” x 6” aperture of the frame.

Here are Steve’s latest pictures which have now been finished. The first relates to November’s Remembrance theme as it shows soldiers going over the top of the trenches in WW1. With the smudged charcoal representing explosions it is very atmospheric. Created using charcoal on Mi-Teintes pastel paper.

This painting is watercolour and ink on Bockingford watercolour paper. Inspired by a view Steve photographed looking west from Gravesend it’s an industrial scene and beautiful sunset with a little artistic licence. From monocrome to saturated colour, they’re super pictures, well done!

On Remembrance Day it’s apt to post these photos of paintings created last night of a soldier’s silhouette and poppies. Members also painted autumnal and winter scenes, embroidered panels of fabric which had been stamped, coloured and painted and carried on with paintings they want to get finished for our Open Day on Saturday 27th November.

Thirteen members attended and although we did have quiet moments it was good when people walked around to see all the paintings and talk to each other. Thank you all for coming!

Here are the dates of our next meetings…

Wednesday 10th November – 7-9pm

Friday 26th November – 7-9pm – hanging evening

Saturday 27th November – 10am-3pm – Open Day

Wednesday 8th December – 6.30pm-9pm – Christmas Party

Here are some ideas of what to paint, but you can, of course, paint anything you’d like to.

PAOTM – JAMES BOND

Draw or paint your favourite James Bond actor from the official EON film productions. There’s Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig. Paint a classic head and shoulders portrait of James Bond or place him in a scene from any of the films.

NOVEMBER

‘Novem’ in Latin means nine as November was the ninth month in the Roman Republican calendar until 46BCE when two months were added to the beginning of the year. This meant November became the eleventh month of the year in the Julian calendar.

Draw or paint anything to do with November or the number 9…Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph, remembrance poppies at a war memorial, nine drummers drumming from the Twelve Days of Christmas carol, the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes, fireworks, bonfires, Diwali the festival of light, a fancy number 9 etc.

DYOT – Do Your Own Thing

A good way to end the year is by finishing off any drawings or paintings you’ve done that you haven’t got around to completing yet. Bring along one or many pictures and try and finish them.

HANGING EVENING – Friday 26th November – 7-9pm

Steve will soon be emailing everyone to ask how many framed paintings you will have ready for our Open Day, along with their names and price or NFS (Not For Sale). You can have up to 6 framed paintings as long as they’re not in clip frames and not too big to hang from the hooks. All with D rings, strung across the back and a label hanging down below the frame or on the front with your name, name of the picture, medium and the price. You can also have unlimited mounted pictures for the browsers, but they must be for sale, all labelled front or back.

On hanging evening come along from 7pm and drop off your paintings or stay and help hang them all up.

OPEN DAY – Saturday 27th November – 10am-3pm

The day that we open our doors and invite friends, family and Chalk locals to come and look at what we paint. Please don’t be upset if you don’t sell anything, it’s lovely just to welcome people into the hall to talk about art and painting.

CHRISTMAS PARTY – Wednesday 8th December – 6.30-9pm

An earlier start from 6.30pm come along in your Christmas jumpers and enjoy some quizzes and a game keeping our distance called ‘not pass the parcel’! As some members are still unsure about mixing together we ask that this year that you bring along a plate of food and some drinks just for yourself, NOT to share. Your partner/family are welcome to come along too and nearer the time we’ll ask for numbers so we know how many tables and chairs to get out. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available as usual if you want to venture into the kitchen.