All in September

September looks a busy month.

We start with Tim Nash demonstrating Landscape in mixed media on 1st September. Then we have our exhibition on 12 and 13 September in the Burgage Hall. Don't forget to send or hand in your entry forms by 1st September.

Then there's h.Art - Herefordshire's Art Week - 9 days of open studios from 12 to 20 September inclusive. This is usually a real feast of art and there are plenty of venues in and around Ledbury if you don't feel able to venture further afield. For more information and to download a map and guide visit http://www.brightstripe.co.uk/services/herefordshire-art-week-visitor-information/ 

Featured in Leisure Painter

Leisure Painter has a  report from Ledbury Art Society on page 62 of its September issue and features Sarah Amery's painting of the Malvern Hills.

This is the image used for the posters advertising our exhibition on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September - 10am to 4:30pm on both days. The exhibition in the Burgage Hall, Church Lane, Ledbury will be formally opened by the Mayor of Ledbury at the preview evening - 7pm on Friday 12 September.

I look forward to the usual range of good quality paintings and hope for even more entries than last year. My own pictures are not as consistent as I'd like but I'm going to risk public scrutiny and put in at least four. I've always found other art society members to be very encouraging and it's good if our exhibition also reflects the differing abilities of the membership. So don't be shy - get your entry form to me by 1st September!

September 1st is also the day for our first demonstration of the Autumn/Winter programme when Tim Nash will be painting a landscape in mixed media.

Richard Hyde

Ledbury Community Day 2015

Meg painting the Market House

Ledbury Community Day is a great opportunity for community groups to showcase their activities so it was great that LAS had a stall exhibiting some of our members paintings and postcards and letting the public see what we do. We certainly attracted many interesting and interested visitors to our display, including several that we hope to see when our Autumn programme gets going on 1st September.

Three brave artists were out and about with easels or sketch pads. Well done Meg, Mike and Tony!

Tony and Mike at work outside the Burgage Hall

We had a competition for the best painting or drawing on a postcard

which attracted entries from nine children.

 The picture above shows the winning entry and the young artist will receive a £10 book token.

Here's our stall being set up in the Burgage Hall.

Poster competition winner

Congratulations to Sarah Amery whose picture of the Malvern Hills was judged the most suitable for use on the poster to advertise the Annual Exhibition which, this year, is on 12 and 13 September in the Burgage Hall. Sarah has deliberately echoed the style of the railway posters of the 1930's and when the poster is produced it will have a type face that is also reminiscent of those posters.

Paul Weaver - Market Scenes in Watercolour

The end product

I (Richard Hyde) missed this demonstration as I was in Italy at the time. A great pity as I love market scenes and Paul seems to have created something interesting based on three photographs. Andy Castro took some photos as well as working the projector, so thank you Andy. I have cropped a few of his photos and included them here.

Paul Weaver is a full-time artist and popular tutor with many art groups. Townscapes, markets and the bustle of the city are favourite subjects, as well as landscape, marine and coastal. He currently specialises in watercolour and also works in line and wash, oils, coloured pencil and mixed media. You'll find out more about him if you visit his website www.paulweaverart.co.uk

The images that follow shows work in progress

Ledbury Community Day - Saturday 6th June

In case you haven’t heard, Ledbury Art Society is participating in Ledbury Community Day on Saturday 6th June which will give us a wonderful opportunity to showcase our work and the society. We will have a selection of members’ artwork on display (from 10 a.m. until 2 pm) and we will be selling cards, prints and paintings inspired by the local area. Members are invited to submit unframed pictures, prints and cards for display and/or sale. We shall also be inviting visitors to our stand to join in with a drawing competition (on postcards).

We will have our stand in the Burgage Hall and there are several ways you can help. The first is by providing material for display/sale. The reason we are asking for unframed pictures only is due to limited space. The second is that we are asking if there are any members who would like to set themselves up around the town, e.g. outside the Master’s House (weather permitting!) as “roving artists”. The third is that we need some volunteers to man the stand between the hours of 10 a.m. to 12 noon and 12 noon to 2 p.m. Even if you can only manage 1 hour in that timeframe it would be much appreciated and Christine Castro will be organising a rota.

We will be logging sales during the day and it is suggested that 10% of sale proceeds go to Ledbury Art Society and 10% to the Mayor’s nominated charity.

We would suggest that you either bring your pictures, prints and cards to the next meeting of the Society on Tuesday 12th May or bring them along to our stand on Community Day. Title, name and price should be attached to all work for sale.

Finally, can we remind you all about our poster competition, the theme of which is the Malvern Hills in homage to the theme of the Ledbury Poetry Festival which is “Remembered Hills”. The winner’s painting will be used for the poster advertising our annual exhibition in September. Judging will take place at our next meeting on 12th May so could you please bring your entries along. Entries would be perfect for sale or display at the Community Day and after!

In the meantime, if you need any further details, please don’t hesitate to contact a member of your committee.

Thank you in advance.

Ledbury Art Society Committee

David Wilcox - Landscape in Watercolour

Landscapes are not what we associate with David Wilcox. He is, and sees himself as, a figure painter. Last time he came to us it was dancers in watercolour. This was his first landscape demonstration and the first time in a long while that he had attempted a landscape, though he used to produce many when he lived in Devon. He based his demonstration painting on two photographs: one a Dartmoor village, the other a snow scene painting he had done back in the 1980s.

David works very loosely in watercolour and for his sky he worked quite quickly wet-in-wet. Having his board nearly vertical led to some challenges as wet paint ran rather too readily from the sky. The next step was to wash in some greens for the foliage and then he moved on to put in some shadows on the buildings before adding some texture to them. Once he had added darks for the yew trees in the churchyard the battle to balance out tonal contrasts began. There were several occasions where he found some areas were not dark enough. I'm sure for several of us this is a familiar process when a painting needs constant adjustment.

Yet again, a good demonstration. Attendance was not so good with only sixteen members present on this occasion. It was probably too soon after Easter.

The images that follow show David's paintings at various stages of progress.