Dear Member

It is with great sadness that we have to report that our President, Bert Showell, has passed away. He was well into his 90s and died peacefully in his sleep on 28^th/29^th November.

Bert joined the Club in the early 1970s and exhibited from then until last year – over 40 years! He served on the committee from 1982 and became Chairman in 1988, a post he held until 2000. He then became our current President.

Bert participated in most of the club activities and was a regular at Tuesday painting and Sunday painting, working mostly in watercolours. He, with his wife, Dot, always came to the Summer and Christmas parties. In the early years he went on the club holidays when members rented a cottage and self-catered.

Bert was a true gentleman, had a great sense of humour and had a wealth of knowledge about the Club and how it has evolved over the years. He joined our Zoom committee meetings occasionally, until very recently. He will be sadly missed.

In Memory of Bert, the Club is making a donation to The British Heart Foundation. If anyone else would like to donate the family have requested no flowers, but donations to the BHF via their website.

Last month we told you of the passing of Eric Snapes. His wife Dot has very kindly sent us this note. ‘I understand that you have been told of my husband’s death on November 1^st. He enjoyed his meetings at your club where he was made so welcome, and wished he had joined earlier in his life. In the last few weeks Eric watched Bob Ross which gave him pleasure as by then he was unable to paint anymore. Perhaps you would convey to your club how much he appreciated you all and wished you well in the future’.

An on-line demonstration with Colin Ross was watched in November.

He discussed and showed us an Ukiyo-e style painting. He was an entertaining painter, telling many old jokes as he went along as well as hint and tips on technique and materials.

He recommended the use of sheets of cardboard for a palette. Quote: “Sometimes I have photographed a used one, and put it on-line as an abstract. People have said ‘that’s wonderful!’”.

He discussed the quality of paints. His opinion was that there is a big difference in acrylic artist’s/student paint but not much to choose between artist’s and student’s quality oils.

He also uses Wilco test pots of acrylic/emulsion, particularly for the flat colours of a Japanese style painting – “Good heavy quality paint. Can’t put paint back in tubes – can in the test pots”.

Advice – “Work on whole painting at once – if you finish one part at a time you end up with a box of Smarties”.

‘Member’s Paintings’. Do keep painting and sending me your photos to rdjforcac@gmail.com. 

As mentioned last month, 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 7^th. The critique will be on 21^st 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.

Plans for January to March 2021.

We expect, at least for the first few months of 2021, to be continuing much as we are at present, with Zoom demos and suggested monthly topics. We have booked some artists who we know have given good demos in the past, including Keith Hornblower who we will see in February. Perhaps by April things will be getting more normal and we will be able to hold some meetings?

The February Workshop

Usually in February the Club holds some sort of ‘fun’ workshop and we are trying to come up with an idea to replace this. Please let us know if you have any suggestions!

In the meantime, if you are looking for a new activity………..

One member, Lyn, has been trying cross-stitch, producing this great picture of Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage.

She says “I’m loving cross stitch because it’s almost like painting with sewing. It takes some concentration checking the colours you are told to use for each small square to get the shading correct. If I went wrong on a couple, I could use my initiative to amend the shading a bit. Great way to while away hours. I’m not clever enough to do one from scratch without a kit.”

Coming Soon

The Spring Art Exhibition and Sale

We have booked Pinder Hall for the Easter weekend and will have a four–day exhibition. We are confident that this will go ahead even though social distancing etc. will no doubt still be required.

We will set-up on Thursday 1^st April and open from Friday 2^nd April to Monday 5^th April with all necessary precautions for the safety of visitors and those running the sales desk. We will dismantle on Tuesday 6^th April.

We do hope that members will support this event and show lots of NEW paintings, done during lockdown.

More details of the arrangements will be published in our next Newsletter.

So, keep painting! Let’s put on the best exhibition we can!

Membership Renewal is due on 1^st January 2021.

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. If you were a member in 2020, please see the Newsletter which was sent to you for details of how to renew your membership.

It just remains for us to send you all OUR VERY BEST WISHES FOR CHRISTMAS

and we hope that 2021 will be a better year than 2020.

Yours sincerely

Robert Jones Newsletter Editor email rdjforcac@gmail.com