Monthly Demonstrations/Critique
There is a small charge of £1 to cover the hire of the hall and refreshments, (non-members or guests are welcome but they pay £4 per session). Details of the demonstrations may be found in the Events Calendar and the newsletter.
Stewart Beckett
Stewart Beckett gave us an interesting and informative demonstration of a portrait painting in oils, in September. One of the most helpful aspects of the demo was the way he had fixed his palette next to the painting so that we could more clearly see his colour mixing. Very many thanks go to Marsha, who volunteered to be the model and to Stewart for the good demonstration. Marsha was very pleased to be to be given her portrait to keep.
Jo Harris
In July our month’s meeting was for the New Arts critique and appraisal. Jo Harris, a local artist from Henley was invited to do it. She was informative and very entertaining! There were about 34 paintings to go through and the quality and subject variety was remarkable. The winner was Sue Carter, with Satu and Pam the runners-up.
Cathy Read
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 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.
Becky Gouverneur
Our Monthly Meeting in May was a demonstration by Becky Gouverneur. Becky used coloured pencils to develop an animal picture. Each of her finely detailed works takes many hours to finish, so she brought along a partly completed picture of a peacock. She showed us some of the techniques she would use on that, as well as demonstrating some separate elements of animal portraiture.
Keith Hornblower
In April Keith Hornblower came to demonstrate a watercolour landscape and produced this lovely loose painting of the Kings Arms in Cookham High St. He explained his train of thought throughout the process and highlighted some interesting, practical aspects. The final result was very pleasing, looking very realistic seen from a distance but retaining an attractive looseness viewed close up.
Paul Oakley
In March Paul Oakley gave a very enjoyable demonstration using oil paints. He specialises in landscapes, and particularly likes a ‘big sky’ – so that’s what he did for us, a great Norfolk Broads scene! He used a fairly limited palette and gave clear advice about colour mixing, especially all the different tones he used in the sky.
Tushar Sabale
For our February demo Tushar Sabale talked entertainingly while creating an oil painting of the fountain at Trafalgar Square. His touch was deft and colour mixing confident.if you missed this demo and get the opportunity to see Tushar at work, or join him for a workshop we think you will certainly have an enjoyable time!
Jan Gaska
The first monthly meeting of this year was a Critique of our paintings by Jan Gaska. Jan gave us an interesting afternoon, with astute comments on colour, tone, light and atmosphere, and what was ‘working’ or ‘not working’ in our pictures. At the end of the afternoon, we voted for our favourite. The winner, with a superb portrait, was Fred, pictured here with Jan.
Jenny Whalley
At our monthly Meeting in October Jenny Whalley painted a whole flock of them using wonderfully loose, sweeping brush strokes of watercolour for the body and bright colours for the neck and head. bit of line work for their large feet, a suggestion of flight feathers, a bit more definition around the head and she was done. After our coffee break she used other media for a more detailed portrait of one bird – Inktense for the brightest colours, Neocolour water soluble wax pastels and water soluble crayons for the more subtle tones.
Peter Keegan
Peter Keegan came along to share his thoughts on our paintings. He gave a list of ‘Things to Consider’ such as composition /drawing, tonal values (gives shape and form), colour (every colour has a tonal value), mark making/edges (how we touch the surface which gives our own style to the artwork) and the message (best works of art are those in which the artist has something to say)!
Liz Baldin
Last month the club welcomed Liz Baldin, an artist who gave us a beautifully detailed demonstration of how to paint a lovely bouquet of summer flowers in watercolours. Foliage first. Lemon yellow, indigo and turquoise from which she made three different mixtures to paint from. She likes to paint from dark to light and uses a maximum of three layers of colours. Flowers next. Lavender, pink, opera rose and a different blue. She made it look very easy!
Susan Gray
In May we welcomed Susan Gray who ran a fabulous landscape demo in acrylic. She was very informative about her approach to acrylics and showed/explained many new tricks unknown to many of us. Her tools: big brushes, palette knives in various shapes, tissue paper, knitting needle and old credit card for mark making, fingers, spray bottle, cotton buds for instant flowers and lifting off little details which were not quite right and finally a feather for soft wiggles. We are hoping to get Susan to run a workshop for us next year!
Mark Fennell
Our Monthly Meeting was with Mark Fennell, a professional portrait painter. It was an interesting session with good advice on measuring the proportions of the face and colour mixing. As you can see, his palette was very simple – black, white, yellow ochre and cadmium red.
Stephen Cheeseman – Nov 2022
At our monthly meeting Stephen Cheeseman entertained us with his skills with oil pastels. He worked on Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper in a pale blue colour. Although we might associate this paper with dry pastel work, it is also ideal for the application of oil pastel followed by blending with a solvent such as white spirit.
Mark Warner
In October we welcomed Mark Warner who, with a help of very ordinary looking photo, created a wonderful landscape in acrylics. He used a blue pastel paper to paint on so no white gaps were showing at the end. Mark also used a flat square brush that he turned in all directions to achieve very believable trees and bushes. On his palette he had a mixture of different makes, for example Liquitex and Golden. Various greens and blues were used, with a touch of Permanent rose and Yellow Ochre here and there.
Keith Morton – Critique
In May, Keith Morton gave us an entertaining evening running the critique on our ‘New Arts’ paintings. A small select(!) group of painters turned up, making for an enjoyable, relaxed time. We were able to have a good look at all the artwork at the end and we voted for our favourite painting of the day. Congratulations to Andrew who took the prize for his abstract diptych!
MELISSA WISHART
Thanks to Melissa Wishart for her demonstration on Zoom. She demonstrated a beautiful seascape. Wouldn’t we all love to get away to the seaside at the moment?
KEITH HORNBLOWER
Keith Hornblower prepared a video especially for the Club – ‘An Icelandic Scene in watercolour’.Members might remember his skill with watercolour when he demonstrated a painting of Cookham High Street.
TONY JACKSON
In January we usually invite a professional artist to run our critique. Thanks goes to Tony Jackson who ran a recent critique over Zoom.
SUSAN CLARE
Working from a few images and a reference plant in the studio, Susan made a few thumbnail sketches to decide on the best composition. Using Acrylics she worked up the painting using layers of paint to achieve the shape and colour of the plants and the background.Susan had to switch to solar power in case the electricity failed, thankfully with no signal issues despite zooming from Jamaica
COLIN ROSS JACK
Colin Ross Jack gave a great demo on Japanese Ukiyo Style Painting demo in November 2020 via Zoom due to Covid restrictions.
TIM WILMOT
Tim painted a scene of Cookham familiar to the club members. His drawing included the main elements mindful of the composition and the perspective, leaving out extraneous detail. He painted in a loose style using a variety of tones and values, using darks and lights to give depth to the painting and enhance the sunlit buildings. He used warm shadows at the front and cooler ones further back to aid aerial perspective.
CATHERINE BEALE
After a brief drawing Catherine began by applying a pale, loose, varied wash over the whole painting. She then built up the scene using layers of washes in a loose and free style, only applying some detail at the very end.She added bright colours not there in reality to add interest and brightness to the painting.HASHIM AKIB Hashim used acrylic paint and big brushes for his colourful cityscape at night. He applied blocks of colour for the main shapes and then gradually built up the definition of the buildings working over the whole painting, without painting too much detail. He added highlights at the end.
HASHIM AKIB
Hashim used acrylic paint and big brushes for his colourful cityscape at night. He applied blocks of colour for the main shapes and then gradually built up the definition of the buildings working over the whole painting, without painting too much detail. He added highlights at the end.
Stephen Cheeseman
At our monthly meeting in July Stephen Cheeseman entertained us with his skills with oil pastels. He worked on Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper in a pale blue colour. Although we might associate this paper with dry pastel work, it is also ideal for the application of oil pastel followed by blending with a solvent such as white spirit.
FIONA PEART
Fiona used watercolour for her picture of horse riders. She kept the background very loose and understated so that the riders stood out. She applied the paint wet-into-wet so that the riders and horse merged, using a variety of colours so that the shadows were interesting.
SONIA BACCHUS
Sonia started her painting of the mother in traditional costume and child in acrylic paint and completed it using oils.She specialises in painting figures in an interior, using light from a window to illuminate the subject. The icon on the wall in the picture mirrors the mother and child theme, depicted softly so as not to detract from the main figures..