The existing Committee has been very busy lately considering the future of the Club. A few vacancies on the Committee have arisen and need to be filled as soon as possible. From the date of the AGM at the latest the following people are definitely standing down: Valerie Currie, who has been Treasurer for 9 years; Dorothy Daniels, who has organised our Saturday meetings for the past 2 years; Barbara Swindin, who has been Secretary for 4 years. In the meantime Dave Hooper has recently taken over the role of dealing with membership issues in order to lighten the load of the current Secretary.
It is vitally important that we have both a Treasurer and Secretary, without whom there would be no Club. The following people have already offered their services: Dave Hooper as Treasurer (in addition to his new duties regarding membership) and Paul Johnson as Secretary (merging that role with the role he already undertakes as Minutes Secretary). We are, however, now asking the membership if anyone else would like to volunteer for these roles. If so, would you please contact either the Chairman, Evelyn Howson, or the President, Martin Bowden, without delay. The membership will have the opportunity to vote at the AGM for these new Officers as well as any other committee posts which arise.
We also urgently need a volunteer to take on the role of Meetings Coordinator. We cannot stress too much the importance of this role, without which there would be no demonstrators for the Saturday meetings. So if you think you could take on this interesting task of finding and hiring demonstrators, please contact Evelyn or Martin as soon as possible. It would be a great pity if the Saturday meetings had to be dropped once Dorothy Daniels’ current arrangements have ceased.
It is up to YOU, THE MEMBERSHIP, to ensure that you continue to have a Club. Please consider any way in which you can help. If anyone wishes to know any more about the above-mentioned roles, the current holders of these posts would be happy to oblige.
Contact details for the Chairman and the President are as follows:
Chairman, Evelyn Howson 01242 515646 evelyn.howson@googlemail.com
President, Martin Bowden 01452 854007 miesv@talktalk.net
On a personal note, it has been a pleasure to act as Secretary for the past four years, but the time has come for a change. This will therefore be my last Newsletter. As far as membership issues are concerned, please no longer refer them to me, but to Dave Hooper: 01242 530780.
Barbara
Membership:We have received the sad news that Bill Bacon, a long term member of the Club, has very recently passed away on Friday, 25th August. We have not yet received notice of funeral arrangements.
On a happier note, welcome to Matt Osborne, who was elected to Full Membership at our meeting in June.
It has been good this summer to receive more enquiries than usual about joining our Club. This is undoubtedly due to our recent publicity efforts and to those of you who’ve been busy exhibiting and promoting the Club during the Imperial Gardens Show, as well as at Lower Slaughter. Just looking around at the Saturday meetings, it’s been a pleasure to see quite a number of new faces. The Club is thriving. Lets keep up the good work. (Ed.)
Also on a happy note, it is a pleasure to announce the 2017 winner of the public vote for Most Popular Artist in our Lower Slaughter Exhibition: Congratulations to Trudi Hayden!
Forthcoming Saturday Meetings from 2.30 – 4.30pm at the Pavilion, Hatherley Lane, Cheltenham GL51 6PN:
Saturday 16th September: – Jenny Westbrook – abstracts
Saturday 21st October: Roger Matthews – Urban Landscape – Mixed Media
Saturday 18th November: Paul Weaver – Subject/medium to be decided
Saturday 16th December: AGM and Christmas Tea.
Saturday 20th January: Christine Russell – Cornish seascape – Acrylic Ink & Pastel
Summary of Saturday Meetings held at the Pavilion from April – June 2017:
April: Jenny Bowden gave us a most interesting demonstration of how she cuts mounts for watercolour paintings. She was using the Longridge Bevel Mount Cutting System from the SAA. A great deal of concentration and care is required to produce a framed or mounted painting at the standard required by a professional gallery, and we watched the team effort involved. Martin, the artist, our President, was on hand to assist when required!
May: John Horton’s demonstration was in complete contrast to the highly colourful works we had seen earlier in the year. John painted in watercolour on hot pressed paper using da Vinci brushes for his dilute washes in subtle colours depicting a beach scene. It was interesting to watch him moving about in front of his work seated on an office chair with wheels, and also using a Mahl stick to steady his hand when painting in with a very small brush tiny images of birds, a man and a dog. John’s mark making was very controlled indeed.
June: Jackie Garner chose badgers as her subject for a demonstration of wildlife painting. Her reference material included her own sketches from life, photos and previous drawings. She emphasised the usefulness of various texture mediums to depict animal fur, and colours were achieved primarily through the use of acrylic inks. She praised these for their transparency when painting over the texture. Jackie also recommended Abstract Pouches produced by Sennelier as they are particularly good for transparency too.
Exhibitions: Statistics for the Lower Slaughter exhibition earlier this summer are also available. Our next exhibition will be in Cirencester at the Corinium gallery during October 2017. Full dates are as follows:
3rd Oct. Handing in and setting up. 5th Oct. Exhibition opens to public. 29th Oct. Last day of exhibition. 30th Oct. Taking down and taking away unsold exhibits.
Please note that 30% commission will payable on sales at this venue.
Our usual exhibition rules will apply and a few weeks beforehand information will be sent out to members who wish to exhibit. If you have not exhibited previously, or not for a long time, please contact Debby well in advance so that your name can be added to her exhibitors’ list.
If you need to make contact about this exhibition, please note the following telephone numbers/email addresses:
Debby Hooper: 01242 530780 info@debbyhooper.com
Dawn Niven: 01242 522189 dniven2015@gmail.com
but only call if absolutely necessary. General exhibiting details are in the documentation received by all exhibitors on Debby’s list.
Workshops:
WILDLIFE ART WORKSHOP Saturday 30th September 2017 10.00 – 4.30pm
Come and join us on our September workshop with local wildlife artist NICK DAWE. Nick paints wild animals in their natural environment. He has been teaching for over 20 years and currently has art classes running in Evesham, Pershore and Cheltenham. Nick’s work can be seen regularly throughout the year at art exhibitions.
LANDSCAPE PAINTING WITH OILS AND PALETTE KNIFE with local landscape artist RUPERT AKER Saturday 25th November 2017 10.00 – 4.30pm
Earlier this year Rupert opened his own studio/gallery, a quaint little place called THE LOOVRE, in Painswick, and (maybe you’ve guessed already) it’s situated in the old public toilets! Well worth a visit… but contact Rupert first on 07702 097457 to ensure it will be open. Rupert likes to paint local Cotswold landscapes and exhibits at various locations and galleries throughout the area. It’s a few years since he last did a workshop for us and if this one is just as exciting, then you will be well rewarded if you come along. If you use acrylics instead of oils as I do, I’m sure you’ll benefit just as much as the oil painters. (Ed.).
Application form workshop-application-form . Please send this in to Traceyjane Rees at 2 Pilgrove Close, Cheltenham GL51 0QY.
In order to gauge interest in future workshops, it would help the workshop coordinator if you would complete and return the attached/enclosed questionnaire. This will help us to offer more popular, and hopefully, viable workshops to the club on a regular basis.
Traceyjane, our workshop coordinator, is also contactable as follows: 01242 690171 or email: t-jrees@hotmail.co.uk
Finally, thank you once again all for the support you have given me during my time as Secretary and Editor of our Newsletter. I am looking forward to having a little more painting time in future! Barbara Swindin