Christmas Exhibition Final Day

Marcle Steam Rally - Ian Fountaine

Ian Fountaine sold a second painting on Sunday and there was a trickle of card sales so we finished with total sales close to £700. Visitors throughout the week (323) had been appreciative of the quality and range of work and it was good to have twenty members exhibiting in the Weavers Gallery. This was the first time the art society had exhibited in a gallery rather than a public hall. Some had exhibited there before but for many members this was the first time their work had been shown in a gallery and, from comments heard, it sounds as though this was a good experience.

After the record number of visitors on Saturday, our final day seemed a bit of a let down but at least it gave us time to draw breath before dismantling everything. How strange it seemed at the end with bare walls. Even more strange visiting today and seeing it transformed by colour once more but with textiles rather than paintings. I enjoyed my brief visit to the current exhibition by a group of textile artists called Out of the Blue

Christmas Exhibition Day 6

Lots of visitors today with crowds of people attracted to the town with all the events leading toward the Christmas Lights being switched on. Cards were selling extremely well and yet more copies of Tony Bateman's reprinted Ledbury Sketchbook were bought today.  They would make an ideal Christmas present and we only have one more day when you can buy at the Ledbury Art Society Christmas Exhibition.

Christmas Exhibition Days 4 and 5

Waiting for the off - Tony Bateman

Although we had 50 visitors on Thursday only cards were selling. Much better today with three framed pictures sold in addition to more cards.

The three that sold were "Waiting for the off" by Tony Bateman, "Snow on the Malverns" by Ian Fountaine, and "Beach Boats, Aldeburgh" by Richard Hyde.

Snow on the Malverns - Ian Fountaine

Beach Boats, Aldeburgh - Richard Hyde

Christmas Exhibition Day 3

Bee-cause by Diana Veasey

Not so many visitors today but cards were selling well, Tony Bateman sold two copies of his Ledbury Sketchbook and we also sold four paintings (unframed).

As I had missed some paintings from my photos earlier in the week I took some more using my phone and here's a selection so you can see something of the variety and standard of the exhibits.

Christmas Exhibition Day 2

Improved visitor numbers on day 2, plenty of card sales and two more pictures sold.

Goldie - Wendy Bulmer
sold on day 1

Poppy - Wendy Bulmer
sold day 2

Autumn - Daph Willett
sold day 2

Christmas Exhibition Day 1

An exhibition in the Weavers Gallery is a first for Ledbury Art Society. We finished setting up by the end of Monday morning (21st November) and open the doors to the public in the afternoon. What dreadful weather to start us off! Nine brave souls found their way through the door and were probably very glad to get out of the rain. Despite the low numbers we still sold two pictures and some cards.

The photos were taken before setting up was finished so not every picture is shown and I cannot guarantee that you'll find them in the same positions when you visit.

The gallery will open from 10am to 4:30pm from Tuesday 22nd to Sunday 27th November.

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Painting/Drawing Challenge

Here's a challenge for you. Produce a painting or drawing based on the photo showing a knight from my Lewis chess set. If you wish you may send a digital image of your artwork to Knight Challenge. Depending on the response level, I'll post images on this blog.

I set this first of all as a challenge to myself. "I can't draw." That's what I've been telling myself for years. As a result many of my paintings rely on tracing from photos, sometimes with help from the computer. So I've set myself a target for 2017 - I shall learn to draw. Why wait for 2017? I made a start this week with the knight with black card behind and underneath. That helped me concentrate on the figure itself.

I was reasonably happy with my drawing, though I'd really like to get more variation between the dark values and the highlights. Perhaps I need to try ink or paint for the same figure.

Vicki Norman - Indian Townscape in Acrylics

Sketch

What an excellent teacher and communicator Vicki is!

She usually paints in oils en plein air but teaches in all media. For our demonstration she worked in acrylic using as reference a photograph she had taken in India.

A painting usually begins with thumbnails using just black shapes onto white paper to establish that the composition works. When working from a photograph she will also print it first in monochrome as that shows the values and if the picture doesn't work tonally it will not work in colour. The next step is a small scale sketch such as the one shown here.

Drawing prepared for demo

Vicki had prepared her drawing in advance and also added some texture to the upper right of the drawing using a heavy acrylic medium.

She would normally mix that in with her pigment but it takes a long time to dry so she had applied it well in advance so it formed a textured ground to paint over it during the demonstration.

Do take a look at her website http://www.vickinormanstudio.com/ to see more of her work.