The Pear Tree

This watercolour by Ian Fountaine is, according to his own description, his 'latest daub'. 

Snow

Sue Embrey watched a Zoom demo by Les Darlow on Thursday 29 Oct using Rowland Hilder’s watercolours as the subject for a pan pastel painting. She has used ordinary pastels and an ink pen on this and her own interpretation. It’s her first snow scene!!

 

Snow Squirrel

Daph Willett has named her painting "Snow Squirrel" but this looks like a red squirrel in snow rather than an Arctic Ground Squirrel.  When many of our members were children seeing red squirrels was a delight but not terribly unusual. There were over 3 million in the UK in the early 1950s but now there are about 120,000 and most of those are in Scotland. 

Inktober

Inktober 2020 set the challenge of 31 pen and ink drawings in 31 days. Sue Murphy gave it a try and here's a collage of her first few drawings.

Sunflowers

Catherine Beech has been trying her hand at painting sunflowers. She says "It’s my second attempt at the same sunflowers. The first had a blue background which didn’t set the flowers off. However, I don’t think Van Gogh has anything to worry about!"

Autumn sunshine

This morning was wonderfully sunny and Ian Fountaine's painting is a perfect celebration of such glorious autumn days.

Rock Art

Here's something very different from Diana Woods-Humphery. She writes, "I found this large boulder in my garden and decided to paint this Chinese inspired landscape on it. It is painted with acrylics and I am just debating whether to seal it with PVA." 

Cheerful Harvest

 This bright and cheerful painting is by Jill Bell, acrylics 30 x 15 inches.

Constantine Bay

In contrast to the big waves picture published here last Sunday, Sue Murphy has produced a little painting of waves. Constantine Bay is an oil painting on MDF and is only 8 inches square.

Constantine Bay

Garden Pot

 Daph Willett works diligently at her homework exercises. Here's one from 5th October:

Big Waves!

Sarah Amery says, "I have recently finished a massive 4 x 4.5 foot canvas, biggest by far ever attempted! ... I used decorating brushes for the bigger areas and even decorating paint!! Fun to do, highly recommend having a go at something big!!!"

 

To brighten up dull days

Jill Bell decided to paint something to brighten up dull days. This is her first painting in 12 months. Acrylic on canvas, 18 inch square.

 

Elgin Marbles fantasy

Diana Woods-Humphery says, "This painting may not be finished. I think the background may need further attention. It is a fantasy based on the plaster cast in the Malvern Art College of the Elgin Marbles horse. It is painted in acrylics on a piece of plywood (recycling!?!). Fun to do."

Floating Market

I’ve intended painting a scene from a trip we did to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam a couple of years ago. We visited a Thai floating market and I was struck by the attack on the senses of the noise, smells, colour and liveliness of the scene. As a result, I thought it would make a good subject for a painting but I have really struggled with this one and almost gave up on it. I got tied up in the details and found myself fiddling in small areas rather than keeping it loose and more impressionistic, the result being neither one thing or the other. Compositionally it isn’t very pleasing either but I’d welcome any critical comment from the members........don’t hold back I can take it! - Ian Fountaine

Tiger

This is a new subject for Sarah Amery as she explains. "A recent painting for my son who requested a tiger. Really enjoyed painting the water, in fact ended up making it up as it’s nothing like the photo! Used some gold paint on the water to help it shine. A subject I would never have attempted if I hadn’t been asked to!"

Dark Skies of Autumn

Daph Willett is a regular contributor to this blog and this time we have to of her paintings. The first is very appropriate now that the sun is coming up later each morning.

Dark Skies of Autumn Dawn

Ink & watercolour on gesso

Owl

Sue Murphy emailed about a week ago saying, "I’ve had a week away with no chance to paint so here’s a drawing from a couple of months back that I hope you’ll find interesting.  It is from a wonderful photograph taken by a friend, Philip Batty, with his permission.  I hope to do some more from a couple of other photos of the same owl. This is on black sketch paper, mixed media -  pastels, white marker pen and gel pen."

Scraperboard

We have four images from Mike Russell who writes, "The scraperboard hare and diver are finished, but the stag still needs some background work .The rather wacky picture of 3 sheep was painted for a competition but I didn't submit it. I am working on a WW2 aircraft painting in oils for a friend."

Cabby

Belinda Morgan is three quarters of the way through a painting and says that one day she'll pick up her paint brush and finish it. Let's hope she does. The picture below is the last she completed and is of her old horse Cabby standing in his field - pastel pencil on a sanded pastel paper.

Cabby in his field

Experimenting and more

Daph Willett is proving very productive over the last few months and here are three more of her pieces.

Storm - Experimenting with ink & watercolour 

Visit to Hellens, Much Marcle

Still Life Revisited

This is a follow up to an earlier post on this blog which you'll find here. That showed a rather rough watercolour which was used to explore the subject. The following image shows a much improved attempt at the same subject, again in watercolour.

Still Life with apples - Richard Hyde

 

Painting and Stitching

Sue Embrey wrote, "I was able to spend 5 days at Malham in August in glorious weather! Painting plein air every day was great!" Here is a pastel painting she did.

Sue has also finished another needle project called a Marriage Pillowe, taken from a late 17th century original. Wool on linen in traditional crewel work

 

 

Garden Artists

 Four members met together on Wednesday to paint and/or draw in Catherine Beech's garden.

Here is Val McDonald's sketch of Diana Veasey and Val McDonald hard at work

And this is what Diana was working on

Still Life

This photo shows a still life set up with a bright single light source to create strong shadows. The set up was viewed and photographed from several angles before this one was selected.

The next choice to be made was how much of this to include in a painting. Thumbnails are a good way of reaching a decision about how to crop the scene. The first Notan sketch, though crude, looked interesting enough to be taken further. 

A pencil sketch followed.

Eastnor Castle

 Daph Willett is certainly keeping up with her homework. Here are two more of her paintings.

Loosening up

 Ian Fountaine writes, "I was quite pleased (unusual I know) with my last painting effort, Polperro harbour, but it was still rather ‘tight’. In an effort to loosen up a bit, I watched several of Tim Wilmot’s YouTube videos before attempting a painting in his style and based on a selection of bits from his paintings; Tim demonstrated for Ledbury Art Society a while ago and I’ve always been a fan. This is the result. Some of it seems to work but plenty doesn’t so I think another go is in order."

Tim Wilmott's visit to Ledbury can be found on this blog here and Ian Fountaine's previous watercolour of Polperro Harbour is here

Felt

This time we have another member who has been busy with craft projects as well as art work. Helen Welch has sent photos of a felt piece she has made, involving wet felting, prefelt and needle felting and also two bags she's made. Having avoided putting in zips for some time she decided to tackle that particular phobia, despite not having zips the right length for the project. She also made a necklace of large beads that she's had for years and a leather cord, but "since a two-day old gorilla could have done the same" she decided not to send a photo!

Pre-loved

Here are Diana Veasey's two recent apple pictures: Pre-loved 1 and Pre-loved 2 painted on successive days. 

What a difference the background makes. Can you spot the grub exposed Day 2?

Self inflicted torture

Jill Haiselden has been busy with a demanding craft project over recent months. "Here at last, is a picture of the cross stitch embroidery I started before the lockdown. As you will see from the close up, which covers less than a square inch, it was a kind of self inflicted torture as the colours changed stitch by stitch in some places! I chose for the subject which made me smile even when I was cursing it."

Reworked and revised

This is Sue Embrey's reworked buttercup heaven - "It’s so useful going back and revising and revising! One learns a lot!!!"

Favourite Spot

Catherine Beech sent in this image. She says. "It’s the arbour at the end of our garden, a favourite spot for a glass on a summer evening, complete with Boaty the cat who thinks we put it up just for him!"

Apples

Canon Stephen Hutchinson, a gifted pastel artist, developed his skills by painting nothing but apples week after week. Fellow students on the part-time course he attended in Redditch called him the 'apple man'. 

There are so many ways to paint a single apple and it's a challenge that lends itself to experimenting with different media. It was Ian Fountaine that suggested this challenge for LAS members so his is the first of the many apples below.

Watercolour by Ian Fountaine

Diana Woods-Humphery said, "I have just spent most of the afternoon painting an apple in acrylics. As you will see, I cut it in half first!  Hope that comes within the terms of the challenge"

Acrylic by Diana Woods-Humphery

Sue Murphy said, "Rather than try to emulate all the skilled watercolourists in the Society I thought I would try a somewhat abstract apple so here’s my Royal Gala in acrylics using brush, palette knife and comb."

Homework

Brian Griffiths is running an online class and one of the participants is Daph Willett. The first image below is one of her homework pieces. The second she says is very Arthur Rackham - only needs a fairy.

Found

"I found these feathers in the garden and I’m always amazed at the intricacy of nature’s patterns so it’s a challenge to try and draw them. This is pencil and Derwent lightfast oil pencils, blended with Zest-it pencil blend on medium texture cartridge paper, A4 size." - Sue Murphy

'Found' by Sues Murphy

Sea Symphony

Sarah Amery has shared another three paintings she has done recently, all in acrylic on canvas.

"The first", she says, "is an attempt to paint myself (I usually avoid painting people!) playing viola, which I get a lot of pleasure from. This viola is a very special instrument as my father made it for me! I really wanted the viola to be the main subject, I chose a lot of greens to help the viola stand out and it’s a peaceful calm colour, playing makes me relax!"

"The other two are pretty much made up from lots of photos of the sea, just miss it so much and hoping to go to Cornwall in a few weeks."

Do what ever you want

A recent email to members mentioned difficulty deciding what to do and also a lack motivation. They were asked to share some tips for overcoming creative blocks. 

The "lack of motivation" and how to overcome the creative block resonated with Helen Welch. She says:  

    I've always been indecisive and with so many exciting things to try I usually end up doing none of them, exhausted by the thought of it all! One thing that I hope is helping me is to have a "Something" book on the go - I don't know what to call it as it's hardly a sketchbook, or a journal, but I have heard them described as a Creative Sketchbook. Basically you do whatever you want, putting colour - or anything - on paper. If there happens to be a bit of leftover paint around you could sponge or roller it on to get started. Anything goes - you can tear/cut off corners of pages if you want. It's your book and you never need show it to anyone! It's very freeing and great fun. I stencil, spray (sometimes using a fern from the garden as resist) stamp, do a rubbing, anything I can think of.

On one of the pages I have stuck a bit of Acrylic Skin on and another has a quote from the Dalai Lama - "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."