Dear Member
Recent Club Events
Summer Garden Party
This summer’s garden party got drowned but that didn’t dampen the spirits of those who came to Rita’s house. We thoroughly enjoyed lovely food and delicious desserts while admiring the beautiful garden through the windows.
After the lunch we had a quiz (quite difficult) organised by Freddie and won by Ann King. Raffle prices were numerous so there were many happy winners.
Our thanks go to Rita for having us (and managing to seat everyone in the dry) and to everyone for the lovely company.
Some hilarity in the conservatory; the beautiful garden (briefly in sunshine after pouring rain!); partygoers enjoying Rita’s hospitality.
Monthly Meeting
In June the artist Cathy Read gave us a demonstration of her quite unusual techniques of watercolour and acrylic ink painting. Her technique basically involves making detailed pencil drawings of her subjects – largely buildings and city scenes – and then outlining nearly all of her drawn lines with masking fluid. After ‘background’ watercolour washes she applied acrylic ink to main areas of colour, spraying with water to make the ink spread in interesting ways, and in some areas sprinkling salt. This was a slightly disorganised demo and she did not make a lot of progress with the main picture. She did show us some of the final removal of masking fluid from another picture, revealing the white outlining it produces, and also brought numerous of her finished, quite excellent and unique pictures for us to see.
The images show Cathy’s starting stages on a bridge scene and then a more complete picture, showing the white outlining revealed by removal of some of the masking fluid.
Club Holiday
A great time was had on the recent club holiday to Eryri National Park (previously known as Snowdonia). We enjoyed good weather and many interesting trips to lovely locations such as Penmaenpool, Barmouth, Port Merion, Harlech Castle and the Torrent Walk along Afon Clywedog.
Hard hats were required for our visit to the Llanfair Slate Caverns which inspired Ruth’s winning entry for the Pathways Fund Exhibition. Many thanks must go to Wendy and Freddie for organising the wonderful holiday.
Events in August
Sunday Painting
Sunday August 4th, 10.30 – 4pm. Our next outdoor painting day sees us return to Nashdom Abbey in Burnham at the invitation of the residents who first welcomed us early last spring. This imposing country house, designed by Lutyens for a Russian prince, later became a monastery and was converted to private apartments in 1997. It sits on the corner of Nashdom Lane in Burnham, postcode SL1 8NJ.
The house has an attractive frontage on Nashdom Lane, or there are views from the large gardens and woodlands. We will have the use of the facilities by the swimming pool, where we can also make drinks. Our club organisers are planning to take some cakes to have when we get together at the end of the day.
Please park in Nashdom Lane from 10.30am close to the entrance – car share, if possible, especially if more than our usual 5 or 6 people attend (as mentioned in a recent newsletter, the organisers of outdoor painting really would like to encourage more members to come to these events – it really is a lot work, if only 3 or 4 people turn up). Due to traffic congestion on the A4 between Maidenhead and Burnham from the Sunday market, it is strongly recommended to avoid the A4 and approach from Bourne End, Cliveden, Burnham Beeches direction. Any questions, feel free to ring Lyn.
There is no Monthly Meeting in August, the month of our Summer Exhibition.
The Annual Summer Exhibition
August 13th to 25th in Pinder Hall
Please read the details below carefully if you have entered the Summer Exhibition, or have volunteered (or would like to volunteer) to help.
Our 82nd Annual Exhibition is fast approaching and preparations are well in hand. August is our busiest month and all your help will be appreciated for setting up the exhibition. Most volunteers will already have been in touch with Wendy – if not, and you would like to help, please contact us.
Stewarding: Please contact us if you have not ‘booked’ stewarding dates and times (2 dates).
Exhibition arrangements are as follows:
Saturday 10th August: Artists bring paintings (framed and unframed) and greetings cards to hand in from 10am to 12noon. Please don’t forget the Greetings Cards form.
Selection takes place in the morning and templating (planning what goes on each screen) after lunch.
HELP – we need lots of volunteers to porter in the morning on that day. Please contact us if you are available. We would like helpers to come from 9.30 am – 12.30, or after lunch 1.30pm – 5pm, to help move paintings and tables during templating.
Selection Panel: Arrive at 9.45 am. Club Members: Hazel Rowland (lead), Aiko Hester, Roy Baker. Non-members: Gary Spencer, Tushar Sabale.
Sunday 11th August: Craft hand in 1pm
Screen erection from 9.30am and hanging the pictures from 11 am.
At 9.30am volunteers from ‘Good Gym’ are coming to put up screens.
At 11 am volunteers are needed for hanging pictures, an easy job, as all screen layouts are planned during templating. In the afternoon we need people to clear away tables and prepare the hall for Preview Night.
Your help will be greatly appreciated.
Please contact us if you are available.
Monday 12th August, Preview Evening 7- 9pm.
All members are welcome to come along. We invite Guests who have previously supported our exhibitions.
Tuesday 13th August the Exhibition opens at 10 am. It runs until Sunday 25th August.
Sunday 25th August: A bell will be rung at 4.45pm and the end of the Exhibition will be announced. The hall will be cleared, for health and safety reasons, of everyone except those who have a job to do. Craft exhibitors may begin to collect their unsold work. Will all other exhibitors please go around to the side door to wait and buyers go into the lobby. This will make it much quicker and easier for everyone to prepare the tables for checking out. Paintings may not be taken down by artists before 5pm.
At 5pm exhibitors and buyers will be invited back in to collect their unsold paintings and their purchases.
If you are unable to be there yourself, please send someone to pick them up on your behalf.
After taking your pictures down you must check them out. Do not forget your reserve, unhung, unframed work and cards. Cards must all be checked out or you won’t be paid!
At 5.15pm the Dismantling Team start to pack-up screens etc. Again, we have ‘Good Gym’ volunteers to help dismantle and store the screens and other equipment, but other help to clear the hall would be appreciated.
The club will not be responsible for paintings left behind.
The committee appreciates your help and would like to thank you all in advance.
Art2Card, the greetings card printer who have supported our exhibition this year, have kindly printed some FLYERS TO ADVERTISE OUR EXHIBITION.
These will be available for you to collect at the Monthly Meeting or during Tuesday Painting in CDVH.
PLEASE PASS THEM ON AND DISPLAY THEM IF POSSIBLE.
(Some flyers will be sent by post to POSTAL recipients of this Newsletter)
If you use social media, please advertise the exhibition for the Club,
or perhaps circulate some flyers by email.
We plan to email other flyers for you to use, in a while.
Tuesday Painting Workshops
At Cookham Dean Village Hall, Church Road, Cookham Dean, Berks SL6 9PY, from 2 to 5pm.
| Tuesday Painting: cost £2 A topic, appraisal, tea and cake | Tuesday Extra: cost £2 Painting, tea and biscuits |
| July 30th: A figure in an athletic pose | August 6th: Paint what you like |
| August 13th: A mountain landscape | August 20th: Paint what you like |
| August 27th: Design a monogram |
TIP OF THE MONTH
A better way to sharpen a pencil!
Sometimes a conventional pencil sharpener is likely to break the lead on delicate pencils such as crayons and pastel pencils. Try this – take a sharp blade such as a craft knife. Hold the knife in your right hand (assuming you are right-handed) and pencil in your left. Push the blade slowly and carefully with your left thumb so that you remove the wood, leaving the cylindrical lead exposed. Then with sand paper (such as a nail file) you can sharpen the lead to the shape desired.
Yours sincerely
Robert Jones
Newsletter Editor