Dear Member
Your membership renewal will be due on 1st January, 2026. We do hope that you will decide to remain a member of Cookham Arts Club. To renew, simply send your fee by bank transfer to our HSBC account (payee: Cookham Arts Club, sort code 40-42-09, a/c number 41157671) with your name followed by the word SUBS as reference. Fees are unchanged, £20 for single membership and £34 for a couple at the same address.
If you can do this as soon as possible it will be very helpful. We are not asking members to submit a renewal form this year so if any of your details have changed, please do remember to let us know. If you wish to pay by cheque, let us know and we will make sure you are sent the necessary details. Please remember that if you joined only recently (i.e. during or since the Summer Exhibition) your membership runs until Dec 31st 2026.
Recent events have included an oil/acrylic workshop with Paul Alcock, a demonstration of a River Thames scene with Jan Gasca using oils, a watercolour workshop with Brian Smith RA, and our regular Tuesday Painters had a ‘design a Christmas Card’ competition.
Barry was this year’s winner, with his electric hair-dryer boosted, ULEZ compliant Santa sleigh. What an amazing imagination he has! Just think what you might be missing if you do not renew your membership – it seems like good value to us!!
In just the last month we had three enjoyable events as follows:
Recent Club Events
Workshop
Early in October 16 ‘happy painters’ gathered at the Parish Centre for a workshop with Paul Alcock. The theme was an urban scene with figures, using oils or acrylics. He started with a demonstration based on a Southwold Market scene, and brought prints of the photo for us, if we chose to work on that. He gave lots of advice and throughout the day he was busy chatting with members and helping them with their paintings. Altogether another very enjoyable day’s painting.
Monthly Meeting
At our Monthly Meeting in October Kevin Sculley, another new demonstrator to us, came to do an acrylic demo of ‘buildings in the landscape’. He brought a photo of a rather misty scene of a small house and showed us how it could be developed into a charming, atmospheric painting.
Sunday Painting
We had a fabulous day at the History on Wheels Museum for the final Sunday Painting of the year. We were made very welcome by the proprietor Pete Oliver. It was very cold but this didn’t spoil a really lovely day as we could be inside with a good supply of tea and cake from the café. There was so much to see and paint, it really was marvellous.
Events in December
Workshop
The Christmas Party
Thursday 18th December, 12.45 – 3pm, in the Parish Centre (Church Gate, Cookham, SL6 9SP).
We invite you all to come and enjoy some convivial company and good food in the Parish Centre to celebrate Christmas, bringing your partners along too. We ask all those coming to bring a plate of food to share; the club will supply the drinks.
To make sure that we have a good range of foods we are coordinating a list. Please contact us as soon as possible to suggest what you will bring. This will also give us an idea of numbers to cater for.
We will hold a raffle with some lovely prizes including a voucher for a year’s membership. We will have a prize Quiz for each table group.
Tuesday Painting Workshops
At Cookham Dean Village Hall, Church Road, Cookham Dean, Berks SL6 9PY, from 1.40pm to 5pm.
PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR TWO LISTS next time you go to CDVH – one for you to suggest topics for 2026 and one for you to sign-up for cake supply. (N.B. we do provide £15 towards making or buying the cakes)
| Tuesday Painting: cost £2 A topic, appraisal, tea and cake |
Tuesday Extra: cost £2 Painting, tea and biscuits |
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December 9th: Monochrome watercolour exercise e.g. ‘A walk in the woods’ – or any scene of your choice. Use damp paper – sketch distant trees in diffused grey – as paper dries work forward with newer trees in stronger greys and blacks – add two figures walking away – add shadows that they and the trees might cast. (You can, of course, use any single colour, not just black) |
December 16th: Paint what you like |
| December 23rd : NO MEETING | START AGAIN ON JANUARY 6th 2026. The topic will be in your next Newsletter |
TIPS OF THE MONTH
When using watercolour, mixing on a ceramic or glass palette enables you to better judge the colours that if you use a plastic one. It’s the way the paint wets the surface and spreads out on the ceramic, compared to sitting in blobs on the plastic.
Yours sincerely
Robert Jones
Newsletter Editor