Dear Member
As I settle down to write this Newsletter another lockdown has just<br />begun. Rather than the bluebells and primroses seen during the first<br />restrictions, my local walks are now filled with autumn colours and<br />misty views. I have quite a few autumn paintings for you this month;<br />hopefully more will be painted and sent in for the next newsletter.</p>
<img width="512" height="352" src="http://cookhamartsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/unnamed-23.jpg" alt="" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/cookhamartsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/unnamed-23.jpg?w=512&ssl=1 512w, https://i1.wp.com/cookhamartsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/unnamed-23.jpg?resize=300%2C206&ssl=1 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />
<p>An on-line demonstration by Max Hale was<br />watched in October. He used water mixable<br />oils to paint a still life. Although we have<br />received feedback saying that the demo was<br />enjoyable and we were pleased with the<br />painting quality, as much cannot be said<br />about the video quality. We have found that<br />artist’s internet links are a bit unpredictable,<br />but we hope that you are enjoying the monthly<br />‘broadcasts’.<br />Left: Max at work. Right: member Andrew<br />Baker’s painting, done during the demo.</p>
<img width="308" height="392" src="http://cookhamartsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/image2-2.jpg" alt="" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/cookhamartsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/image2-2.jpg?w=308&ssl=1 308w, https://i2.wp.com/cookhamartsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/image2-2.jpg?resize=236%2C300&ssl=1 236w" sizes="(max-width: 308px) 100vw, 308px" />
<h3>Forthcoming events</h3>
<p>Another on-line demonstration has been planned for Thursday 10th December at 3 – 5pm when<br />Susan Clare (www.susanclare.art) will paint a colourful Christmas painting. Nearer the time<br />you will receive, by email, the details of how to join in. I expect we will all appreciate a bit of Christmas cheer by then! Have a look at Susan’s website to see some of her inspirational paintings, such as Red Torch ll, right. She was SAA Professional artist of the Year in 2016.</p>
<img width="177" height="274" src="http://cookhamartsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/image1-3.jpg" alt="" loading="lazy" />
<p style="text-align: center;">‘Member’s Paintings’. Do keep painting and sending me your photos, we love to see them.<br />(rdjforcac@gmail.com). Anything goes – so feel free to send me pictures of your art, whether you<br />use the suggested ‘Tuesday Painting’ topics or not.
‘Tuesday Painting’: Suggested Topics
Autumn, season of mists
A collage
The bright colours of Autumn
Snow
A composition in black, white and grey
Children at Christmas time
Pets
It’s blowing a gale out there!
Owls
Sunset
Member’s News
A couple of months ago we told the story of painting portraits of NHS heroes and our member Clare Rowan, who
had taken part. Now a book of the portraits, including the one painted by Clare, has been published and royalties
from the book, a minimum of £2.50, will go to ‘NHS Charities Together’.
Portraits for NHS Heroes, initiated by
portrait painter Tom Croft, is a book of
remarkable portraits from leading artists
such as Alastair Adams and Mary Jane
Ansell, showcased as both a celebration and
remembrance of the dedication of our NHS
key workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
If you would like to buy a copy go to the publisher’s website, where you can enter the code PORTRAIT30 for a 30%
discount https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/search?q=nhs+heroes&gid=1 . You can find the book for sale at ‘all
good bookshops’ – for various prices!
Carole Baughan has sent me a lovely, if rather sad, tale of a cat called Bob. Here’s what she wrote:
Well here we are again going into lockdown so I thought I should be telling you what I have be up to.
During the summer an icon of The Big Issue Bob the street cat died; he was the pet of a vendor of TBI James Bowen who sold TBI years ago at the Angel Islington. Bob sat on his shoulders and was very popular with his
customers. He was approached by one of them with the idea of writing a book about his story of how Bob had help turn his life around. This took off and then was a famous film a few years ago. The sequel to this film is due out this Christmas, ‘A Christmas gift from Bob’.
Coming Soon
Membership Renewal.
The coronavirus has brought to a halt virtually all Club activities for 2020. We do hope that our 2020 members will wish to stay with us in 2021. As a goodwill gesture, bearing in mind the restricted activities of the Club in 2020 and the limited value members received from their subscriptions, we will charge just £10 (or £16 for a couple) for existing members to renew. This change has been agreed at the recent AGM. Also agreed was a small increase in membership fees for 2022, from £18 to £20 for individual members and from £30 to £34 for joint memberships. New members in 2021 will be charged £20/£34.This increase is in response to the ever-increasing costs of demonstrators, workshops, rooms for our meetings etc. We will publish the full minutes of the AGM in the next newsletter.
Renewals will be due 1st January 2021, and there will be a form for this in the January newsletter, which will be out in mid-December.
Zoom Critique
In January we usually invite a professional artist to run our critique, and we have booked Tony Jackson to run the critique in 2021, over Zoom.
We will send photos of our work to Tony, in advance, by
email. Tony will then look at the artwork and during the
Zoom session, he will show the paintings individually and
discuss them.
So if you like this idea, please prepare your paintings (one per artist) and send a good quality photograph to Tony tandj.jackson@gmail.com with your name, title and the medium of the work and also mention Cookham Arts Club. Please send them after Christmas, but before January 7th. The critique will be on 21st January from 2 – 4pm. Do support this event if you can, and help to make it a success – we do think that January will be too soon to hold a normal meeting, because of the coronavirus. We will send you the Zoom link, later.
Maidenhead Heritage Centre are having a Zoom talk on Maidenhead in Art and have asked us to let our members know.
Title: ‘Maidenhead in Art – from Turner to Spencer’. Free Zoom lecture, 2nd December 7pm, lasts about 40 – 50 minutes. For login details email info@maidenheadheritage.org.uk
As you can imagine, the Heritage Centre is really struggling financially during lockdown and would welcome a small donation from participants, but this is purely voluntary.
<h2>Obituaries </h2>
<p>It is with regret that we have to report that Ron Damer has died. He was a member for 20 years and was on the committee for a few years from 2002. He had a very individual style of painting and he exhibited until 2017 when he won Best in Show at the Summer exhibition. <br />Another member who has recently died is Eric Snapes. He had been ill for some years. He was a member for only a few years but in that time, he regularly attended Tuesday Painting and enjoyed doing the fortnightly topics. <br />Our thoughts are with the family and friends of these members. </p>
<p><strong>TIP OF THE MONTH</strong> for Portrait Painters <br />Sky Portrait Artist of the Year can be seen on Wednesday evenings at 8pm on Sky Arts and on Freeview channel 11. <br />Also, every Sunday they have organised a free portrait painting session with one of the finalists, who paints a celebrity LIVE through their Facebook page. 10 - 2pm. People from all over the world take part and then send their paintings to Sky Arts Instagram page. #myPAOTW (portrait artist of the week). There’s a tv program at 1-2pm of the event on the same day.
Yours sincerely
Robert Jones email rdjforcac@gmail.com Newsletter Editor