Fleet Art Society

Fleet Art Society News
Home	Newsletter – February 2010 The Annual Art Exhibition is to be held at the Harlington Centre, Fleet, 23^rd – 25^th April 2010. AGM 2009 There was a good attendance at the 2009 AGM which took place on 5^th December and the meeting was lively and interesting. The Treasurer, Peter Forey, who has taken over from Dorothy Walkden produced the accounts for 2008/9. Unfortunately, the Society had made a loss on both of the last exhibitions, and this was covered by monies from the Society’s deposit account. However, this was not a situation that the committee felt could continue and it was put forward to attending members and agreed to increase subscriptions from September 2010 from £12 a year to £15 p.a. There was also some discussion about increasing the costs for hanging pictures in the exhibitions. This would be discussed by committee nearer the time of the next exhibition.
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There were reports from the Membership Secretary and the Chairman but one item on the agenda which was open for discussion was the Election of Officers. The retiring Chairman, Peter Forey, who has now taken over as Treasurer, had repeatedly asked at monthly meetings for a member to come forward to take over as Chairman. This has not happened and consequently a contingency plan has been put in place for the Chairman’s duties to be distributed amongst the committee with the Secretary, Barbara Clements, as point of contact.

Monthly meetings are resumed on 16^th January 2010 and we hope to have a successful year.

We hope that everyone had a good Xmas holiday and wish you all a Happy New Year, and we can now look forward to our next exhibition in April. Due to the significant losses at the last two exhibitions it was decided that there would be only the one exhibition this year.

A copy of the Minutes of the 2009 AGM can be obtained electronically by contacting Barbara Clements at the e-mail address in this newsletter.

Barbara Clements

Workshops 2010

Details of our three workshops planned for this Summer are included below. At our recent AGM we decided that the workshops should pay for themselves. Therefore it may be necessary to charge different rates for different workshops. As it happens this year the rates are so comparable such that we can fix the costs at £17 per person per workshop. Also we will operate by the same rules as last year, meaning that each person pays up front. If you are unable to attend then it is up to you to find a replacement and arrange recompense. Sorry to be so hard on this but the workshops are one activitiy at which we consistently make a loss. The three workshops are:

May 8^th Sandrine Maugy, Flowers, Fruits and Vegetables. Watercolour

June 12^th Jean Turton, Chinese painting

July 10^th Sharon Hurst, Damsels and Dragons. Watercolour

All workshops are held at St Philip and St James Church Hall, Kings Road and they run from 10am – 4.30pm. Each workshop can accept 18 participants. If you would like to enrol in any of these then please contact Audrey Ketcher (01252) 622864

Friday Art Group

The Friday Art Group will be holding its Spring Exhibition in mid April in the Memorial Hall, Bentley

Friday 9^th April 12 noon – 5 pm

Saturday 10^th April 10am – 5pm

Sunday 11^th April 10am – 5pm

Several members of Fleet Art Society will be exhibiting their works here and this is always a pleasant, friendly exhibition where free tea and biscuits are served all day with plenty of chat. Come and put the World to rights. Parking and Admission free.

Peter Forey

Meeting Reports
Liz Seward Relfe - November
Mixed Media

Liz is known to many of us having visited on many occasions and has always delighted us with her enthusiasm, energy and skill. So, it was with considerable anticipation that the audience settled. Pinafore on, Daler-Rowney FW acrylic light fast inks at the ready and we were off. Liz usually begins by washing great swathes of brightly coloured acrylic inks onto Saunders Waterford HP watercolour paper, allowing them to mix and run up against one another and this is greeted by gasps of “my word, that is a bit violent – how is she going to get out of this?” But then her first words of advice were “Start loose – end better” rather than “start tight – end worse”. Her first washes were reds, yellows and oranges. And for me that sent some alarm bells ringing because, only that morning, I had read an article by Liz in the November issue of “The Artist”. In this she had written that her mood each morning often determined the colours she was going to use that day: red, orange and yellow was apparently brought on by something that had upset her! So I was much relieved when she then went on to apply a little blue and even a dab of Paynes Grey.

Her subject was a candle lit still life. For Liz, still life has many advantages of convenience, unchanging subject matter, the ability to position both the objects and to control the light direction, colour and intensity. The added variation of candlelight adds to the subtleties and softness of the tones.
The second layer was done by using stronger inks and trying to define the shapes of the objects – but many were defined as negative shapes with attempts to keep the edges soft at this stage. If you paint around the object it makes it look like it is an integrated part of the picture. Gradually the objects came into focus and were more and more defined with addition of white acrylic ink (this can be glazed over if necessary). The final definition was done by using Neopastel to literally draw shapes. This can be softened with water although, because of time constraints Liz left the marks precise.

Throughout the afternoon Liz gave us tip after tip and I do not think that I have learned so much in so little time. A few of her gems are, in random order:

Never use a colour in isolation - repeat it somewhere else in the picture

For really darks in Acrylic inks use a mixture of sepia and Paynes grey

Lay a red over a yellow wash to make it look red and not pink

Do not use complementary colours in shadows because they will make a dull grey

Put little marks of bright colour in shadows to enliven them

Using a soft reflected light on the shadow side of an objects adds roundness

   When setting up a still life put something tall in the background (it sends the picture
   back another plane).

At the end of the two hour demonstration a wonderful subtle still life with almost luminous quality was left on the easel for us all to admire. And all the time Liz gave us a delightful and entertaining commentary, underlying her great skill at teaching. I hope she will return soon.

Peter Forey

Dave White - January

Acrylics - New Forest Scene

Well, what a beginning to the New Year. All that snow and ice (which I hated) and the possibility that our first meeting of 2010 might be cancelled. Even when the snow lay deep and thick, Dave White said he would still make the effort to get to Fleet. Fortunately the weather improved well enough for more than ninety members to turn out. If anybody was wondering whether the effort was justified, Dave’s mini-exhibition of his work immediately put their minds at rest. His large and totally life-like canine portraits (officially recognised by the Kennel club) showed clearly his considerably level of skills and his love for his subjects.

From the start it was clear this was to be no ordinary demonstration. Within minutes of his cheerful exhortation to ‘Call me Dave’, he had us on our feet, totally involved and interacting with him. In the style of a stand-up comedian he quickly latched on to several members’ names, then kept referring to ‘John’, ‘David’ and ‘Barbara’ for the rest of the afternoon. He was keen to overcome three main objections to acrylics; that they dry too quickly, that the colours are garish, and . . . and . . .oh dear, I’ve forgotten what the third one was. I was so engaged by this charming man that I neglected to write down all his words of wisdom.

With his back to his easel and a constant flow of information and amusing chatter, Dave did very little painting at all. He had arrived with a prepared canvas painted over in grey. At one point he put a broad black stroke down each side to form a frame. Occasionally he added other slimmer trees in a variety to greys. And then some sloshes of white here and there as highlights. As we approached the break, I thought ‘if he talks this much how will he ever get the picture finished?’ The answer is, that never was his intention.

On recommencing, he pointed out his picture was no more than a tonal sketch of black, white and greys, and he would use this monochrome image as a foundation on which to demonstrate his use of colour. This he did by squeezing a transparent red into one of his small plastic pots, thinning it slightly, and applying it as a glaze across the lighter areas of the canvas. After allowing the paint to dry (seven minutes) he repeated the process with other transparent colours. The result was an impressive watercolour effect; glowing colours without the normal garishness of acrylics.

Sandwiched between short bursts of painting Dave White gave us a barrage of facts, thoughts and opinions. Here is just a small sample:

· He uses System 3 acrylics, mainly because they are cheaper, although he did give quite a plug for a new product - Chroma Atelier Interactive. He applies his paints with very old and well used watercolour brushes

· There’s no need to use a stay-wet palette; he manipulates and mixes from-the-tube paint in small plastic containers (any supermarket has them – containing their products, of course)

· To keep the paint wet, simply turn the mixing pot upside down and place it on a flat surface

· Dave uses photographs as a starting point for reference, but not to copy slavishly. Sometimes he combines three or four photos to get a good composition

· He always selects subjects that are certain to sell

· To decide the size of a picture, ask yourself ‘from what distance should this painting be viewed in order to successfully fill the available space?’

· There are several blacks and whites available as acrylics; the best ones are Mars Black and Titanium White

· Each brush you use can do many things depending on the angle at which the point is applied

· He separates his paints in his work box with all the transparent colours in the top tray and all the opaque ones in the bottom

So, in summary then, we saw a very nice man giving one of the most entertaining and informative demo’s I’ve seen for a long time. (And I wasn’t alone with that opinion, at least four others came over and, without any prompting, said the same thing).

I suppose some people might consider Dave’s finished work to be edging towards ‘chocolate box’ in style. Maybe so, but he does sell them, and that’s his main objective.

Ron Clements

New Leader for U3A Group

I have been running a watercolour art group for the U3A and I am looking for a new leader to take over from me when I finish later this year. Would anyone interested from taking over from me please contact Janice Edmunds on 01252 628054 for further information.

London Exhibitions
The Royal Academy of Arts: Van Gogh : 23^rd January – 18^th April 2010 Tate Modern: A date for your diary: Gauguin: 30^th September 2010 – 16th January 2011

Copy for the next newsletter by June 26^th 2010

Are you able to write a short account of a visit to an Exhibition, an interesting painting course, your comments on using a new medium or watching a DVD/Video/TV Art programme?

Please submit copy to Adrianne Gilmore,

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