Dear Member

Cookham Arts Club is well on the way to having its own website. A small team from the Committee have been working with Robert Bloomfield who lives and works in Cookham and builds websites. Bob is related to a friend of Lyn’s and is grandson to Jack and Betty Bloomfield who used to be members of the club and exhibited in the 1970s up until 2008. Bert and some other older members will remember them.

The website is not complete yet and there are some facilities which are not live yet. Building a website, I have discovered, is a very complicated and intricate process with a lot of work in the background which the viewer doesn’t see but which makes it all work and allows the viewer to move around the site easily. More parts of the website will be added as time goes on. 

The website will not be a static thing which will get ‘tired’ and out of date; information will be regularly added and it will be continually evolving to keep it looking attractive and up to date. 

We welcome members’ input to the site and it will have links to members’ websites and other websites relevant to art. In time there will be a gallery of members paintings with eventually the capacity to sell work if they wish. Bearing in mind that it is still under development, do visit the website on cookhamartsclub.com

Kay Lamb

Along with the development of the website we have decided to make sure that each committee member has an email address just for Cookham Arts Club communication. Please note, for example, the email addresses in the letter-head and my (Robert’s) new one, at the end of the mailed newsletter.

What’s the most relaxing thing to watch on TV? Half an hour of The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross, of course. Who doesn’t like a ‘happy little tree’ or two? Okay, his paintings are a bit like Marmite and some art critics have been scathing about his paintings, but I will confess to being fascinated by his technique of fast and easy, wet-on-wet oil painting (although I haven’t tried it yet). The story of Bob Ross’ rise to fame and his sad death at only 52 from lymphoma was told well on BBC 4. Look on iPlayer for ‘Bob Ross: The Happy Painter’ if you are interested.

Andrew Graham-Dixon is an interesting commentator on all sorts of art topics. If you put his name into a search on YouTube you will find many videos, long and short.

Talking of commentary on art, one App I have on my iPad is called DailyArt. It does exactly what it says on the tin: displays and ‘explains’ a new work of art every day. It’s fun to click on and see the new offering, enjoy or wonder(!) at the descriptions, and you can flick back to previous day’s art (although annoying adverts pop up and have to be dismissed – I don’t value it enough to pay for the ad-free version!)

Members’ art work.

One of the ‘Tips’ this month suggests trying something new. 

Alison, who does those brilliant pottery animals, has put the clay to one side and worked on all sorts of new things.

This truly crazy (I think I can get away with that description) model of a cockerel is made from bits and pieces found during a loft clear out.

The naughty, bunting devouring goat collage was made at the start of lockdown, from old travel magazines. As Alison says “Oh the irony!”

Maralin has incorporated some text with a truly fascinating painting style to produce some portraits inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. They are thought provoking and certainly have a Wow! factor.

TWO EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS:

An on-line demonstration has been planned.

At the moment we cannot gather together for a ‘normal’ demonstration, so we have invited Catherine Beale to give a demonstration of a lovely landscape in watercolour on 26^th August from 3 – 5 pm. Catherine specialises in light-filled watercolours, experimenting with and exploiting pigment behaviours to produce the most wonderful mingling of colours. We do hope that lots of you will join this event, which will require the use of Zoom. As soon as we have the link required to join the demo we will let you know. There will be no fee.

Tuesday Painting is back!

We are going to make a new start with some socially distanced and careful painting sessions ON TUESDAY 1^ST SEPTEMBER, 2 – 4 PM, at Cookham Dean Village Hall. As you can read below, the topic for that week is ‘A view from above’ (but as usual, paint anything you like). We will need to limit the numbers and therefore, if you would like to come along, PLEASE EMAIL Lyn Rackley BY THE END OF THE PRECEDING WEEK TO BOOK YOUR PLACE.

The hall will be cleaned between users and we will be the only user on Tuesdays. The club will be required to pay an extra £12 to cover the cost of the hall cleaning so every session will be £2.

Please note the following:

• Face coverings should be worn.
• Please use the hand gel provided as you enter the hall and after using the toilet.
• Tables will be socially distanced at 2 metres.
• Bring cleaning spray and paper towels to clean your own table at the end of the session.
• Bring your own liquid to drink and cup as we may not use the kitchen to make drinks.
• There will be no appraisal at the end.
• Please don’t come if you are not well, even if you think it is just a cold.

We would love to see you there – maybe it won’t be long before we can resume the tea and cakes tradition.

‘Tuesday Paintings’. Even as we make a tentative start to meetings again, not everyone will be able to get there – so until then do keep painting and send me your photos (N.B. new email address – gmail, not aol). As with the usual ‘Tuesday Painting’, anything goes – so feel free to send me pictures of your art, on or off topic. See extra pages enclosed, or extra PDF sent by email, for pictures sent in last month.