St Ives, straight edge interior

Art Circle continues to meet at The St Ives Hotel until St Annes Library re-opens.  We greatly appreciate their generosity - thank you.

This week we moved into the pool cafe (excellent coffee!) to try drawing an interior space using a restricted pallet and the long edge of compressed pastel.

This caused angst... but the lovely results are below!

Very well done everyone.

Derrick

Dorothy

Christine:  demo piece

Stuart

Ansdell Library & doodling lace

Our starting point this week, was lace in paintings.  We glimpsed at a couple of 17th century examples followed by a Pre-Raphaelite painting and a 1964 piece:  nothing too in-depth but these prompted a conversation around, why and how lace depicted the wealth of the subject and the skill of the artist.

Then, using a white gel pen on blue paper, we doodled lace... and had a natter!

Lovely morning - thank you Fiona.

Fiona

Christine:  demo & doodling lace

a simplified approach to perspective...

These are amazing results!

I have another star baker... this time it's Derrick who, like many folk, doesn't realise how lovely his work is.

The Task...

• using three colours make swathes of simple shapes across the page
• decrease their size as they go further up the page
• strengthen the colours of those nearer the bottom of the page
• add stems from the colours with a downward mark
• add grass with upward marks  
• if using water-soluble colour pencils, add water to the lower part of the work

This process gives a sense of distance - a simplified approach to perspective.

Derrick

Dorothy 1

I suggested cropping Dorothy's work but on reflection, I think the original works better. 

Dorothy 2

Ken 1

We started the session by looking at van Gogh's gardens and fields which inspired Ken to work using pattern with great success.  Brilliant!

Ken 2

Ken 3

Ken 4

Mabel

Again, inspired by van Gogh, Mabel decided to make a plant.  The marks and colour were deliberately chosen to resemble fire.

 

Mike 1

Mike 2

Monica

Beautiful work everyone - well done!

Ansdell, apples & a chance to chat

We had a lovely time in Ansdell Library this morning using water-soluble colour pencils.  We looked at mixing colours and using a limited pallet of red, yellow & blue, painted apples.  

The results are below.

Well done Fiona & thank you for your company!

Fiona

Christine:  demo page

Warton Hall, water-soluble coloured pencils & watercolours

What a lovely way to spend a sunny Saturday!  

Art Circle met at Warton Hall to take full advantage of their open garden event which is part of the National Open Gardens Scheme.

We walked through the gardens making simplified sketches which helped us think about the minimum marks required to start a painting.  Using this approach, we were able to consider composition and tried to capture any visual rhythms in our subject and emphasise differences between the man-made and the organic.  eg The trees made a vertical rhythm as they crossed the page.  The contrast between the house and the tree.   

After a packed lunch followed by tea and homemade cake (yum!) we decided where to spend the afternoon painting.

All the group chose the circle of trees and boulders near the gardens' entrance.  What happened next follows...

Thank you Nicola for making us feel so welcome.  You have a beautiful home surrounded by gardens which get better and better each year! 

demo page plus reminder to
email Cllr Peter Buckley re opening Lytham Library

Dorothy:  simplified sketches

Mike:  2 of Mike's simplified sketches

Mike working on simplified drawing of wellies

Brian:  simplified drawings

Mike

Stuart

Brian

Dorothy

demo page

Well done everyone!