We have held the last workshops of the year with two ’Taster Days’ and one two day workshop on Egg tempera painting, all at Hadspen Village Hall, near Bruton. In October we spent a ‘Taster Day’ exploring and trying out ‘Gouache’ paints with Kate Cochrane; an artist well known for her impressionistic, textural paintings of woods, trees and waterfalls, which was followed the next day, with Su Elsden sharing her skills in soft pastels with us and generously bringing a kaleidoscope of colours for us to use. Sally Ridout also brought oil pastels to experiment with for those unfamiliar with them.
In November we were very happy to have a much appreciated and fully booked two day workshop with James Lynch on Egg tempera painting. James is well known as a painter of English landscapes and skies in egg tempera; often from an aerial viewpoint, as he is also an experienced paraglider.
As we draw towards the end of another year of interesting and stimulating workshops it is good to see some feed back from one attendee, the talk and workshop being led by our organiser, Sally Ridout herself. For a number of years Sally has organised a rich variety of quality workshops for Bruton Art Society members this year being no exception. There are still a few workshops left before we wind things up. A programme of what’s on can be found by clicking here.
We very much looked forward to Sally’s workshop, “Picasso in Context”, particularly as we had recently visited the Picasso museum in Barcelona. The workshop was very timely, we were eager to explore some historical context and to try out some new techniques.
So how to summarise one of the icons of the 20th century, an artist who was prolific in painting, sculpture, printing, ceramics, theatre design and who produced over 20,000 works of art and 100,000 prints in his lifetime, all 91 years? A daunting task.
Sally described and illustrated some of the influences in Picasso’s life, his upbringing, women in his life, loves and losses, the effect of 2 world wars, other renowned French and Catalan artists, the ballet, circus harlequins, his passions and pet hates etc, portrayed through paintings such as Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (influence of African art), Guernica (effect of the Spanish civil war, pre WW2), 3 Musicians (cubism).
As a group, we discussed various Picasso works, from the weird and wonderful, the sublime and surreal, sometimes the erotic and sometimes dark. Overall, Sally’s presentation was very interesting and thought provoking and gave us an insight into finding out more.
In the afternoon there was a chance for hands-on drawing and painting such as; drawing from memory, illustrating ‘Picasso hands’, a still life from different viewpoints, and some freestyle painting (creating our own form of abstract or Picasso-esque art).
Many thanks, Sally for such an informative and enjoyable day and for your guidance, visual aids, helpful material and reference books. Such a busy day!The Picasso workshop followed on seamlessly from your Cubism workshop that we similarly enjoyed.
We have had three very enjoyable workshops recently, two in April and one in May.
Alex Cree, painter and teacher, took us through ‘Basic Oil painting skills’ over two days on the 11th and 12th April, which revitalised some of us who are familiar with the medium and inspired those who are total beginners. We went right back to basic colour mixing, tints and tones and the effects on the eye of juxtaposed colours and among other interesting oil painting techniques, we learnt about “scumbling” from William Turner (1775 – 1851) and “tonking” from Henry Tonks (1862 – 1937)
The artist Sarah Ball inspired us to “Play, Explore and Create in Acrylics” the following week on the 18th and 19th April. We were encouraged to interpret the landscape around us in abstracted lines and shapes and to let go of what is expected of us in our art practice and find self fulfilment and happiness in what we enjoy doing most. Sarah demonstrated many different tools to work with using in acrylics such as credit cards, sponges, rags etc and showed us how versatile acrylics can be. It was very refreshing and enlightening. I know some people were inspired to continue working on their pieces over the weekend.
The workshop on the 10th May ” Landscape painting with earth Pigments” was with Amanda Bee, a landscape painter who has recently been combining earth pigments with acrylic binder in her landscape paintings and has researched the origins and places where they are found . The ochre colours are the main earth colours ranging from yellow to orange, red and brown and we learnt that ochre has been found in archaeological sites in Africa dating back 300,000 years and in Australia back 50,000 years. We were also given the thrill of using a pigment called ‘Green Earth’ which was found to have been used by the Romans on wall paintings in Pompeii.
What an excellent way to start our 2024 Bruton Art Society’s workshops.
On the 7th and 8th of March, 11 members of the society took part in Melanie Deegan’s “Sculpture in Wire and Resin” course at our familiar venue of Hadspen Village Hall.
Melanie is one of our regular tutors, much admired by those members who have had the pleasure of her calm and professional
approach. Her students always produce amazing work considering they only have two days to do it in, and this year was no exception. Some participants go on to do more sculpture in wire and resin in their own time having learnt about the materials and processes from Melanie and we are very grateful that she travels from the North Somerset coast each day where she has her studio at the Watchet “East Quay” contemporary Art Centre.
The next workshop “Basic Oil Painting Skills” by Alex Cree is now fully booked, but there are still spaces available in the other workshops planned through the year. The number of places is always limited and once they’re booked they’re booked! So have a look at the 2024 Programme and if there’s anything you fancy participating in book it whilst you can.
As winter turns to spring so we see Bruton Art Society slowly coming to life. Very soon our first workshop of the year, “Sculpture in Wire and Resin”, will take place under the tutelage of Melanie Deegan. Altogether there are eight workshops planned for 2024 with the introduction of 2 taster days; one on gouache and one on pastel (oil and chalk). We are also delighted to have James Lynch doing a 2 day workshop on egg tempera painting.
The full programme is listed in the new ‘What’s On’ calendar which can be found under ‘2024 Programme’ in the menu. This is also where to book a workshop if you want to. (There is a quick link below.)
There are also eight ‘painting days’ planned. These are free to members and will be hosted at a variety of interesting local venues including Lovington Mill, a listed grade II mill probably dating from 1086 in a lovely setting with stream and weir, the ancient almshouses at Sexeys Hospital in Bruton and the Heritage railway at Cranmore near Shepton Mallet.
Our retiring chairman, Will Vaughan has arranged a wonderful lecture in April by Jill Dunkerton, a restorer at the National Gallery in London, on the science of investigating a Renaissance painting.
Full details of all the events planned can be perused in the ‘What’s On’ section of the website.
“Still life in Fabric and Mixed media”Tutor: Imogen Bittner Imogen showed the group how to make compositions using patterned and coloured fabrics to create ‘still life’ compositions from piles of wonderful textured, decorative and multicoloured materials which she supplied. Those with sewing machines brought and used them expertly while the rest used glue and hand stitching. Imogen gave excellent guidance and the group were pleasantly surprised with their results.
“ Mixed Media Landscapes” Tutor :Amanda Bee This was a one day workshop where Amanda, who is a well known semi -abstract landscape painter in mixed media, gave the group a very structured day encouraging them to combine mixed media in their landscapes. She demonstrated some exciting approaches using mono printing, collagraphs, charcoal and acrylics, which resulted in some excellent and brave landscapes from the group.
“Paint like a Cubist” Talk/Workshop This was the last workshop of 2023, which included a PowerPoint presentation, followed by a few fun exercises to help understand what Cubism was all about. In the afternoon, the group responded brilliantly when asked to paint a ‘still life’ composition in the ‘Synthetic’ Cubist style from real life objects they had been asked to bring in, based on the theme of “Kitchenware”. The results are very exciting and all so different.
On Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October Maureen Bond will hold a watercolour course for members at Hadspen Village Hall.
In Maureen’s words:
“This workshop is suitable for beginner artists and for those who generally work in other mediums and would like to add watercolours to their skill set. Watercolour painting is often referred to as ‘Difficult’ and ‘Unforgiving’. It isn’t. All that is needed is a sound understanding of the underlying principles – the importance of the type of paper for example and the way that water is used in the mix”.
