Dear Member

Can you help? Our Outdoor, Sunday Painting meetings have been ably organised by committee member Lyn Rackley for some time now. However, due to personal circumstances she really cannot continue after this year.

We are looking for one of our members who would like to take on this task. It involves, around the beginning of each year, choosing six local locations where members could meet for outdoor painting sessions, from April to October (not including July, when the club holiday takes place). A ‘site visit’ to each venue is likely to be needed, and at some of the sites it will be necessary to liaise with people to gain access permission and to plan the day more formally. Such visits and liaison can be spread throughout the year.

If this is something you would like to do for the Club please contact us by email or at a Tuesday Painting session for more details.

Events in October

Sunday Painting

1st October 10.30am to 4pm.

Meet at Higginson Park, Marlow. There should be plenty to paint; Marlow bridge, boats, trees (which should be showing some autumn colours), play park, café.  There is a fee-paying car park, so car-share if you can.

Elizabeth House

Elizabeth House Day Centre in Cookham Dean has invited us to put on a display of paintings.

This will start on 5th October and run until January 2024. If you would like to exhibit paintings and offer them for sale, here are the details you need:

Please bring your exhibits to Elizabeth House at 2pm on Thursday 5th October. You may bring 1 or 2 framed paintings, up to 3 unframed and up to 20 greetings cards/packs of cards. Make sure the pictures are labelled on the back with; artist, title, medium and price. Label cards with; artist, number of cards in pack and price. We will make out the picture labels for display on the day.

Workshop

Workshop, Saturday October 7th 10am to 4pm in the Parish Centre (Church Gate, Cookham, SL6 9SP).

Joel Wareing will be taking us through the painting of an urban scene with figures using oils or acrylics. If you have booked a place, please arrive at 09.30, to make sure we are all set up and ready for a prompt start at 10am. Tea and coffee will be available all day. Bring your own mug and packed lunch. Sue will email participants with any other requirements for the day.

There are, at the time of writing, a few places still available.

To join the workshop, for which the fee is £40, please contact us requesting how many places you will require.

Sue Sepehri will then email your confirmation and outline your payment options. No payment will be required until Sue has emailed you and confirmed your place.

Monthly Meeting

Monthly Meeting, Thursday October 19th, 2 – 4pm in the Parish Centre (Church Gate, Cookham, SL6 9SP).

A demonstration meeting with Jenny Whalley, who will be painting a guinea fowl in watercolour/mixed media. Jenny is a new artist to CAC; an internationally renowned mixed media artist, who states on her website:

“Boot polish, coffee and gin aren’t things you’d usually associate with paintings but – to be honest- I have never been one for following convention.”

Sounds as if it will be an interesting meeting: do come along!

Coming soon

Workshop

Workshop, Sunday November 12th, 10am to 4pm in Cookham Dean Village Hall (Church Road, Cookham Dean, Sl6 9PY).

Come and join in as Catherine Beale will help us to loosen up our watercolours. If you would like to take part get your applications in as soon as possible, and not later than 22nd October.

To join the workshop, for which the fee is £40, please contact us requesting how many places you will require.

Sue will then email your confirmation and outline your payment options. No payment will be required until Sue has emailed you and confirmed your place.

Recent club events

In August we held our Summer Exhibition in Pinder Hall. We hope you found it an enjoyable event to take part in and to visit. As always, we wouldn’t be able to do it without our brilliant band of volunteers, from those who helped with the set-up to all our stewards at the sales desk. Many thanks to everyone involved.

People who wrote in the visitor’s book described the exhibition as fresh and lively, and the variety was really appreciated.

Fifty-seven of our members exhibited this year and seven non-members, and it was good to see some fresh ideas in the craft entries. The balance sheet of sales and expenses will be ready for our AGM in November, but briefly, sales were as good as last Summer and, again as last year, there was a small loss. Our costs have risen, and a small loss here and a small rise elsewhere tend to balance the Club’s books over the year.

Best in show this year was won by Susi London – congratulations Susi!  Susi and her winning work is shown at the top of this page.

On our website (www.cookhamartsclub.com ) we have been working on a video section – do have a look at the video of this year’s exhibition as well as other little snippets.

We are also working on a Frequently Asked Questions section about exhibitions. We hope that, in future, this will provide a ready-reference about entry requirements.

There are always a few niggles as the paintings arrive – we too often find we need to improve the hanging cord, or notice that the frames are not really of a standard that would encourage a sale. Hopefully, the FAQs will give you a quick way of checking what is expected and avoiding these problems in the future.

Outdoor painting

Outdoor Painting at Taplow Court. We had seven painters at our painting day on an unusually hot day for September. Most of us retreated under the shade of a lovely tree which gave views of the fine waterfall or down the path to the main house. Friendly staff on duty for the open day stopped by often to see our work, as did many interested visitors. We all went off at some point to enjoy one of the delicious cream teas available in the nearby café – irresistible.

It was a wonderful location which would offer great views and flowers at any time of year.

Tuesday Painting Workshops

at Cookham Dean Village Hall, Church Road, Cookham Dean, Berks SL6 9PY, from 2 to 5pm.

TIP OF THE MONTH

Here’s a ‘resist’ technique to experiment with, which will probably work best with a rough watercolour paper.

For texture on your watercolour rocks, try applying white acrylic with a palette knife onto the rocky area and, when dry, wash over with watercolour. If you do not have acrylic paint, try household emulsion instead. You could try other colours, of course.

Yours sincerely
Robert Jones
Newsletter Editor