Dear Member
Our club had a busy September and October!
Recent Club Events
Monthly Demonstration
On Sept 17th Catherine Beale came to talk about painting negative shapes and to demonstrate a woodland scene. She gave some thought-provoking ideas about negative shapes, in anything from portraiture to landscapes, and then applied them in a contra-jour woodland scene. She used watercolours and gave useful tips on the use of that medium at the same time as painting a very pleasing scene.
She worked on Aquafine cold pressed art board by Daler Rowney. She emphasised that laying the paint on with a single stroke, rather than brushing over and over the same area, made lifting-out paint much easier – as she demonstrated by softening the edges of the sun with a damp tissue and creating the sun rays by ’washing out’ (not scrubbing) with a damp brush.
Cookham Dean Village Fete
On September 19th our club supported Cookham Dean Village fete with our usual display of paintings in the village hall. A few paintings and cards were sold, and our club made a contribution to the Fete’s fund-raising effort.
Sunday Painting
On Sept 27th we arrived in Goring for our last en plein air painting meeting of the season and following some deliberation, we decided to cross the bridge into Streatley, where we found a marvellous spot next to the Swan hotel. The weather was kind to us, albeit a trifle chilly, and we had a lovely peaceful spot next to the river facing Goring lock and the lock keeper’s house with St Thomas of Canterbury church peeking through the trees.
The atmosphere was very pleasant and calm with people quietly chatting amongst themselves or just sitting on benches admiring the view. Even the ducks were quiet.
Later we convened to the cafe in the Swan hotel next to us for tea and coffee, as we sat down, the heavens opened and it poured with rain. We couldn’t believe our luck or good timing. All in all, we had a fabulous and productive end of season day.
Workshop
On October 3rd we had our ‘Loose and Lively Florals in Watercolour’ Workshop with Nicky Hunter.
The workshop with Nicky was very successful. She took us through the picture, left, step by step with demonstrations, and at each stage explained the different processes and techniques necessary, the problems to avoid and how to rescue, or embrace, mistakes. She said it was important to work from light tones to dark tones, and large shapes down to small shapes.
Nicky also discussed the dilution of the paint, working first with ‘herb tea’ progressing through skimmed milk, semi skimmed, full milk, cream, and neat paint out of the tube to avoid cauliflowering. She explained the idea of hard edges bringing forward vs soft edges pushing back. We all felt that we had learnt a lot from her.
Many thanks to Nicky for a brilliant workshop.
Events in November
AGM and Guest Speaker
The AGM followed by a Guest Speaker is on November 19th from 2 – 4pm in the Parish Centre (Church Gate, Cookham, SL6 9SP). Do come along to hear our review of the year and ask our committee any questions you may have. Any member who would like to raise an issue/question please send it to us via our contact us so we can add it to the agenda as appropriate.
The talk this year promises to be fascinating for all of us who have wondered what has been found in the church grounds where archaeologists have been so busy! Paul Seddon (trustee – Friends of Cookham Abbey) is coming to give us a talk entitled ‘The Archaeological Dig and discovery of ancient Cookham’.
Workshop
Our Portrait Workshop on Sun 15th November is now full booked with four people on reserve.
Coming Soon
The Christmas Party
December 17th is the date for our Christmas Party – Pop the date in your diary and we’ll give you all the details in the next newsletter
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 |
| November 3rd: Paint what you like | |
| November 10th: Design a patterned tablecloth or napkin etc. | November 17th: Paint what you like |
| November 24th: A landscape in portrait format | December 1st: Paint what you like |
Further news
Finances
Following the rather disappointing sales results of the Summer Exhibition, which we reported upon in the last newsletter, our committee has discussed our general financial situation. There will, of course, be a review of finances in the AGM, but we thought the following points would be of interest.
Our membership subscription has been kept at current levels for many years and we hope you will agree that it represents excellent value for money. At present we have 153 members. We have regular demonstrations each month by a professional artist and apart from a small fee to cover the costs of refreshments this is covered by your Membership subscription. Our Tuesday painting group pay a small fee each meeting, which covers refreshments and almost all of the hall hire – any shortfall being covered by subscription fees. We do not see the need to increase the subscription fee at present.
It is pleasing that our workshops are well supported and usually fill up quickly. Sixteen is the usual number of participants. We continue to try and keep our Workshop charges down, but some of our professional artists are now charging in the region of £500 for a workshop (in many cases a 100% increase from a few years ago!) which we have to pay in addition to the hire costs of the hall (approximately £100 – £200 depending on the venue).
To keep pace with these increasing costs, we will increase our general fee for the 2027 workshops from £40 to £42, which we hope you will agree is a very reasonable price for an all-day workshop.
Obituary
It is with regret that we have to announce that Tess Marsh has passed away suddenly. She was having tea with some of our members when she suddenly became ill. They called an ambulance and informed her son but unfortunately, she died later in hospital.
Over the last ten years or so she came regularly to Tuesday painting, workshops and demos and had a individual style of painting. She was very knowledgeable about art and enjoyed going to art galleries to see famous artists’ work. She contributed in a lively way to our discussions, always interesting to chat with, she will be sadly missed.
The photo shows Tess on our September outdoor painting in Eton
TIP OF THE MONTH
How to get a clean edge when painting with acrylic. Use masking tape around your paper/canvas and then put a clear medium over the inner edges of the tape and let it dry. When you remove the masking tape you should get a lovely clean edge. If the tape is a bit too firmly stuck, heat it with a hair dryer to soften the glue before pulling it off.
Yours sincerely
Robert Jones
Newsletter Editor