SECOND LADIES ART GROUP MEETING

Had our second Coltishall Ladies Art Group at my home last Thursday, everyone doing something different. I'm taking these Thursday afternoon sessions as a regular opportunity to get back to my sketchbooks I have so neglected this year.

Helen had brought along a cutting from her passionflower to draw after she finished her acrylic canvas of mixed flowers. I liked it so much, I decided to paint it directly into my garden sketchbook - maybe it will encourage my new passionflower to grow in my garden next year!! Philippa and I sat alongside each other so we could share the cutting and both tackled it with watercolour. At the end I added a few lines with Stabilo fineliner water soluble pens. Here's my sketch:

Before the time for the afternoon gathering, I walked up the lane and cut some blackberries which I also painted into my garden sketchbook. Well! I can always imagine the lane is part of my garden!!

Jasmine sketched one of my figurines - an elegant Edwardian looking lady with long flowing dress and big picture hat. Penny tackled the conkers we did the previous week and improved with each water soluble pencil sketch. Maggie had brought along a very funny bouncy chicken ornament to create an acrylic on canvas for a gift.

Lots of comradery, chat and fun by all. What a lovely afternoon it was together.

AUTUMNS HERE VERY EARLY

Had my first Coltishall Ladies afternoon Group meeting last Thursday and Maggie chose some of the conkers, acorns and rose hips I had collected from the lane to paint in watercolour. So today when I found I had an hour to spare, I decided to have a go in my monthly garden flower book, which I have neglected since July.

I realised how much I enjoy painting in this commissioned Sanders Waterford watercolour paper sketchbook, so have decided to get another one done for my Italian trip. At £15, a 7" x 7" chosen cover, size and paper its a great bargain. Just need to remember the name of the website for the lady in Cambridge!!

Was good to play with watercolour after so long. It is such a delightful medium to work in, putting layer upon layer onto the conker to achieve the strong rich warm colour, followed by a quick flick of the brush with blue and purple for the shadow.

Then I put three acorns in front of me with their little cups that we always called pipes when we were small.

A simple little posting today folks, but I am now enjoying so much freedom without any new oils or acrylic paintings to get ready for shows, as I have everything ready for Wymondham. Yarmouth and Sheringham. I shall definitely put the autumn/winter months to come over to sketching practice... although after another sale of a local landscape work at the Rising Sun riverside pub this week, I may need to do one or two more to hang in my permanent show there.

SPRINGTIME IN THE WOODS

My trio of seasons have now been delivered and I thought you might like to see the final one on Spring which was commissioned after purchase from the Reepham Gallery of summer poppyfields and autumn harvest time. All three works were acrylic paintings on stretched canvas 20" x 44" .

I really enjoyed creating this one from ideas gleaned from stopping off at woods on my way home and thoughts of springtime wild flowers even though it was well into May. Hurrah for my natural history background that always seems to get into my work. It sort of created itself as I painted along, starting with the pair of central silver birch trees, then the idea of creating a 'dell' in the foreground for the wild flowers and somewhere along the process deciding on a pathway through the wood. The thought of the broken tree trunk on the right for the ivy arrived as I felt it was a little bland just petering the pathway off the canvas on the bottom right. Wonderful what imagination can do once you have the references and ideas in your head and heart.

Not the easiest of formats to work with, but by having full closeup detail at the bottom it seems to work.

Here's a photo of the wild flower detail in the foreground:

... and here's the complete work.

Now I am all packed ready to leave for Ruth's cottage by the sea to meet up with Anita for three full days sketching, chatting, sipping and just being girls!!!

OCTOBER WORKSHOP

A small group met up on Saturday for our day's workshop on autumn leaves, berries, cones and acorns etc. We had visitors who were leaving the same time I went off to the venue, but after a good fry up breakfast together, I popped up the lane to pick some fresh holly with red berries, hawthorn with berries, blackberries in fruit, oak leaves and acorns in their cups to go with what I had collected in the week.

I left the students to choose their own subject matter from the above collection and things they also brought in from ferns to massive cones, but planned the day around a first pencil tonal sketch of one chosen object. Then again in pen.



After finding how to set the heating system as the morning went on and we began to realise we were well into our Autumn temperatures , we had a lunch break and discussed the afternoon's programme. Each gathered together a number of subjects and formed a composition to create a full watercolour.



Some very successful work and all inspired again after the summer break. We have Christmassy plans for the December workshop but on asking what they would like to do at the next workshop in November, it was unanimously declared they'd like to try their hand at acrylics. I was thrilled. Really looking forward to our day together with this fun medium.