Dear Member
Recent Club Events
Critique
In January Laura Reiter came to give us a critique on our paintings. The event was well attended and as usual it was interesting to see the work of other members. Laura gave us many pointers for possible alternative approaches or alterations which we might think of for the pictures we showed her. After the event the pictures were laid out and we voted for our favourite. Rachel won the prize with this super mountain view.
Thanks to Laura for a very positive crit, and well done Rachel.
Elizabeth House Exhibition
Paintings from our ‘Tuesday Painters’ have been on display at the Elizabeth House dining room over the Christmas period (late October to January).
Sales were the best we have had at this venue, with seven paintings and innumerable greetings cards sold, enabling us to donate £125 to the centre from commission. We have rebooked the venue for October this year.
Events in March
Monthly Meeting
Our Monthly Meeting is on 20th March, 2pm – 4pm in the Parish Centre (Church Gate, Cookham, SL6 9SP).
Mark Warner is coming to demonstrate an acrylic landscape with the interesting theme ‘how to be brave with colour’. He has visited a couple of times before – this painting which he did last time will remind you of his distinctive style.
Spring Art Exhibition and Sale, 7th – 9th March 2025
This will be held in Pinder Hall, Cookham Rise, SL6 9EH and is for club members only.
We would love you to take part if you can – let’s make this another super exhibition! At the time of writing there are plenty of screens available.
Please look on our website at the Spring art sale exhibition page. All the detailed information you need for the Spring sale can be found in the FAQ’s.
Fill in the screen/table request form (found in ‘How do I book a screen/table’) if you would like to exhibit.
Once we receive your request you will be sent the Entry form and details of how to pay by bank transfer.
It will really help with our planning if you send your request form as soon as possible – time is getting short, now.
Closing date for your Request is Monday 24th February 2025.
Please remember, also, to sign up for a stewarding slot – see our website for details.
Brief details as follows:
- To exhibit your paintings screens will be available for hire. £10.00 for a 4ft x 4ft screen and £15.00 for a 6ft x 4ft screen. 2 artists may share a screen.
- Members may exhibit single paintings on a ‘mixed artist’ screen for £5 per painting if they do not want a whole screen.
- To exhibit craft items a few tables are available at £15.00 per table.
- If you hire a screen, you may offer greetings cards for sale.
- On the screens we will only hang original artwork, not reproductions/prints.
- If you hire a screen, you may, in addition, put a maximum of 3 unframed pictures for sale in racks – originals or prints are acceptable – prints must be of ‘archive’ quality (probably ‘professionally’ printed Giclee prints). Digitally created artwork (not photographs or digitally modified photographs) may be entered as unframed prints.
- Artwork in the racks, whether prints or originals, should not be priced too low – as a guide; approx. A4 sized, £20 minimum; approx. A3 sized or larger, £30 minimum.
Coming Soon
Outdoor Painting
The first meeting this year will be Sunday April 6th, when we plan to go to Hambleden.
We really need an organiser for outdoor painting to take over from Lyn who is finding it increasingly difficult to get out and about to check out the venues. Please do have a chat with Lyn or any other member of our committee if you think you could help – it would be very sad to abandon this club activity. The task involves finding 6 venues each year and it is always a team effort. We have people willing to help but we would like someone to take overall charge. We do have ideas for our outings this year so if you joined the team it would be a case of learning the ropes, doing a final check on some of this year’s venues and researching venues we might use in the future.
Quite apart from joining the organising team, does any member have a contact for a place we might visit?
Tuesday Painting Workshops
At Cookham Dean Village Hall, Church Road, Cookham Dean, Berks SL6 9PY, from 1.40pm to 5pm.
| Tuesday Painting: cost £2 A topic, appraisal, tea and cake |
Tuesday Extra: cost £2 Painting, tea and biscuits |
| March 4th: “Fast and Loose”: create a painting in 90 minutes. Concentrate on looking mostly at the subject; not the canvas. Acrylics is the best medium for this. | March 11th: Paint what you like |
| March 18th: Use pastels to capture the changing light at dusk. Take a photo as the light fades quickly. | March 25th: Paint what you like |
TIP OF THE MONTH
Do you have a frame you would like to re-use but most of its little metal clips have broken? This is a method I have used.
Cut four triangles from a spare backing board (or similar). Hold the picture frame’s backing board in place with these triangles, temporarily but firmly held down with dressmaking pins. Now carefully apply glue, such as ‘No More Nails’ (I have also used ‘decorator’s acrylic filler’ and transparent ‘CT1’, as here) so that it is just touching the triangles and frame. Allow the glue to set and then remove the pins. You could apply little straight ‘fillets’ at other points if the backing board needs holding down more firmly. Make sure that the glue doesn’t touch the original backing board, then you should be able to cut it away if you want to use the frame again!
Yours sincerely
Robert Jones
Newsletter Editor