Unfortunately due to the current situation with the Covid 19 virus our annual exhibition has had to be cancelled for the current year.
The Rayleigh Art Group would like to apologise to all our friends and supporters who have come to enjoy what has become a very popular annual event, rest assured, we will be back.
Take care, everyone, in this unprecedented situation, look after yourselves and loved ones and keep an eye on lonely elderly neighbours.
Colin Mossman
Chairman
Yesterday evening we had an interesting demonstration from Trevor Harwood using mixed media.
Trevor started by using 140lb Saunders Waterford paper, unstretched, on approximately two-thirds of the paper he laid an acrylic underpainting and on the remaining third he laid an underpainting of pastel, which he smoothed down with brush and water.
The idea of separating the picture as he explained, was to show us the different effects that may be had from each method.
He gradually built up the ‘Spring’ painting by using acrylics and pastel on both parts to achieve quite an effective result.
Thank you for the demonstration Trevor it has given us food for thought.
Pictures and report by Colin Mossman
This Wednesday we will be hosting a demonstration by renowned pastel artist Trevor Harwood.
Trevor who has been exhibiting and demonstrating for many years will be painting a Spring scene in pastel.
To know more about Trevor and to see his work, click on this link:- https://www.harwoodart.co.uk/, which will take you to his website.
The demonstration will be held at the Cedar Centre, Castle Raod RAyleigh.SS6 7RE.
7 pm for a &.30 pm start, All comers welcome for a small entrance fee of £4.
Look forward to seeing you there.
Colin Mossman
Shooqi Atrabi IWS England
We’re in discussions about forming an IWS British Isles, incorporating IWS Scotland, IWS Ireland, and IWS England. Details of the first meeting are on this poster to which all are invited. And if you can make the meeting or want more information, let me know. I’ll be contacting art clubs around the country and hopefully, we can be a significant presence in this international society which has over 80 member countries already. Please spread the word! This is for everyone with a passion for watercolour!
David Williams gave us an excellent and extremely interesting talk on the greening of London, David is a historian who takes groups on history walks of London, details of his tours will be circulated to members as soon as received.
Reg White Award.
We had a record number of excellent entries for the competition the subject of which was ‘ English Landmarks’ Dave Mansfield’s painting of the London Corn Exchange, was a clear winner and received the award from our President – Brian Coppard.
Thank you to all who entered, the quality of which made it very difficult for members to vote for the best picture, so well done Dave, a well-deserved win.
Thank you to all who turned out on such a cold evening, we had a full house and with plenty of good food and wine made for a great atmosphere.
All that remains now is to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I think we were all surprised at just how young Graham seemed to be, not in our usual age range. With this younger personality came a brilliant sense of humour that we all enjoyed very much.
Graham explained that he painted outdoors on a much smaller board and then came back to the studio and enlarged the painting. With this in mind, he brought along a small maybe 10 x 8 or smaller pre-done painting and then a large MDF board that had been primed with gesso which had acrylic PVA and chalk powder mixed with it to give a texture. This is to hold the paint rather than the paint just slipping around the board.
Graham then told us the colours that he uses and then ran through the actual colours that he was going to use on his demo. He always uses Titanium white, 2 blues a warm and cool, Ultra Marine and Cerulean. 2 yellows Cadmium and Lemon yellow but tonight he was not using lemon yellow. Cadmium red and Alizarine but also sometimes Magenta, no Magenta this evening though. He explained that he uses Veridian Green as this mixed with red makes a really good grey and is a good talking point for onlookers. We all found that amusing as we all know what it is like having onlookers that you don’t necessarily want to paint in front of and need a good distraction. The last of his colours were Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna. As a thinner, he uses Zestit that apparently is harmless but does smell very nice, better for those of us that like the smell of these oils, thinners etc.
With all this information now under our belts we watched as he very quickly made a drawing with darkish paint and then began to put in the sky colours. He started from the left side of the picture and gradually lifted the colours from greys to blues.
The whole of the demonstration he reiterated the fact that you should remix the colours that you use, this method keeps the picture interesting to the eye of the viewer. Graham did explain that he tried to get triangular shapes into the picture and also to have warm and cool shades of colour against one another again to add interest to the painting.
This Coming Wednesday we have Graham Webber, a renowned Norfolk artist and a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, coming to demonstrate for us a scene of the Norfolk Coast in oils.
The demonstration will be held at the Cedar Centre, Castle Road, Rayleigh, SS6 7QF. guests are very welcome at a small charge of £ 4, please arrive promptly at 7 pm for a 7.30 pm start.
To find out more about Graham click on the link to take you directly to his website, https://www.grahamwebber.co.uk, I think we are going to be in for a very interesting and informative evening, I look forward to seeing you there.
Report by Colin Mossman
