Dear Member
Recent Club Events
Summer Exhibition 2024
The Summer Exhibition is over for another year. These are some of the comments from the visitors’ book.
We hope you will agree that Cookham Arts Club put on another quality exhibition for our visitors to enjoy.
There is always the inevitable question, how did we do this year? Painting sales were stronger than last year, but craft sales not quite so strong. Card sales were, as always, good. Visitor numbers were well up – by 60% or more. Overall, the income from sales was quite a lot better, but with increasing costs and less income from sponsors we expect that the final calculation will show a similar small loss to 2023. The final figures will be available at our AGM.
A big thank you to all our members who contributed to the exhibition.
After the vote by our visitors, Amy Lovell won our Peoples’ Choice Award, kindly donated by Art2Card. Amy’s painting called ‘Sunset Waders’ (shown below) was closely followed in the vote by the work of Victoria Jack-Thomas and Sandy Herz. Well done to all.
Sunday Painting
Early in September several members enjoyed a day painting at Littlewick Green. We were really lucky with the weather as rain had been forecast. Everyone went back to Pam Hammond’s for tea and cake where we were joined by Joanne and Kay. Very many thanks to Pam for her hospitality.
Events in October
Sunday Painting
We will meet for an outdoor painting day on Sunday October 6th.
At the time of writing, we have not quite settled on the venue – sorry! We will let you know as soon as we can. Please put the date in your diary.
If anyone has a good idea for a venue (which could be this October or next year) please do get in touch.
Workshop
The workshop on October 12th with Tushar Sabale is now full.
If you are attending, please remember it starts 30mins later than usual at 10.30am. Please arrive to set up at 10am, but not before, so we do not disturb the early morning event in the Parish Centre. You will receive a list of what to bring, soon.
Monthly Meeting
October 17th monthly meeting is in the Parish Centre, Church Gate, Cookham, SL6 9SP, from 2 – 4pm. Rodney Kingston is coming to demonstrate a coastal scene in oils. After a graphic design degree at Camberwell College of Arts, Rodney followed a full-time graphic design career working on weekly print publications between 2006 and 2024. He has recently concentrated more on his oil painting with figurative work and en plein air painting.
He writes: ‘Painting has given me some great experiences such as taking part in Sky Arts Portrait and Landscape Artist of the Year competitions, being invited to paint inside the moat gardens at Windsor Castle for a competition launch event and many live painting demonstrations at various events. I will become a full-time professional artist in September 2024 and look forward to what the future brings.’
We look forward to an interesting afternoon.
Coming Soon
Elizabeth House
Tuesday painters have been invited to put on a display over the Christmas period. This will run from Thursday 17th October until Thursday 23rd January. The paintings will be for sale. More details will be given at Tuesday Painting sessions.
Workshop
A date for the diary: on Sunday November 10th there will be a watercolour workshop with Frank Walters at CDVH. Booking details will be in the next newsletter.
Tuesday Painting Workshops
At Cookham Dean Village Hall, Church Road, Cookham Dean, Berks SL6 9PY, from 1.40 to 5pm.
A few thoughts about Tuesday Painting. We pay for the hire of the hall from 1.30 to 5pm every week. If you are able to help set out the tables and chairs, please arrive at 1.30pm and no earlier. Painters, please arrive no earlier than 1.40pm, when the hall will be ready for you. Our finishing time is 5pm on both ‘topic days’ and ‘paint what you like’ days. (Previously, we hired the hall from 2 to 5pm. People started arriving earlier and earlier, occupying the hall at times we had not paid for. We have now paid for the hall from 1.30 – 5pm, to allow some setting-up time)
| Tuesday Painting: cost £2 A topic, appraisal, tea and cake | Tuesday Extra: cost £2 Painting, tea and biscuits |
| September 24th: Swans | October 1st: Paint what you like |
| October 8th: Cloud formations (sunset) | October 15th: Paint what you like |
| October 22nd: Design a Christmas card competition | October 29th: Paint what you like |
TIP OF THE MONTH
Magic Sponges
Have you discovered ‘magic sponges’, or ‘magic eraser’ sponges? They are great for lifting out watercolour from your painting, for example for producing sun-beams.
If you want to lift out paint from a more complex-shaped area, cut a stencil of the shape from something quite waterproof (a sheet of transparent plastic for example) and use it to mask the area.
Painted picture frames, especially white ones, are easily marked by accident. Try a magic sponge, before you resort to re-painting it.
You can, of course, use the sponges for cleaning around the house, too – they really are quite magic!
Yours sincerely
Robert Jones
Newsletter Editor