Our Club’s Committee NEEDS YOU
Unless we receive some new members on the committee it will be unable to manage the club to meet all members’ expectations. We have lost two committee members due to work commitments and two who have had to reduce their involvement for personal reasons. I am, as chairman and treasurer for over 9years, going to have to reduce my time spent on the club for personal reasons.
We are aware some club members don’t want to be a full committee member but are willing to take on a specific task, e.g. Membership secretary, Tuesday Club evenings, Demo video/screening operations.
On 6 December the Committee is meeting in Centre 70 at 7.00pm and are inviting any club member to ask any questions they may have on the running of the club or becoming a committee member.
Annual Subscription fees of £33 (£44 couple) are now due on 1 January 2023, not on
1 September as in the past, as the club extended the financial year to 31 December. This gave members 4 months free club membership as a compensation for the loss of facilities during the Covid lockdown.
The AGM will be held on 21 February 2023 when we also would like to hold a display of work by our club members, especially for that evening, to be enjoyed in a relaxed social setting.
On 10 October we enjoyed a Sketching day at Mouslford with members from the Watercress Artists of Ewelme. There were ten of us from the two clubs, the sun shone and the wind blew which made finding a sheltered location with a good view difficult, but in the end we all achieved a sketch(s) or a painting. I experimented with oil pastels, below, the sky changed as usual! As the sun moved around off the river front where we were, we all adjourned to have an enjoyable lunch at the Beetle & Wedge. The waiter celebrated the event by spilling (accidently) a good glass of Merlot over Pat, luckily no major damage except the embarrassment of the waiter. Pat, I must say, you took the event in good spirits.
Our visit to Stanley Spencer Gallery at Cookham on 12 October. The exhibition “Delight in Nature“ was very enjoyable, especially having his thoughts behind each painting explained. It was also interesting to see his palette and selection of brushes, and the pram he used to wheel his equipment around the village.
The gallery provides a rare opportunity to see an artist’s work in the village where he was born and spent much of his working life.
In our October Demo Les Darlow gave us another of his excellent demonstration in the use of Panpastels.
Les’s approach to painting a landscape is based on composition. His objective is to create light, energy and movement in the work. Water based medium is slightly rejected by the Panpastel which helps create this technique of broken lines suggesting grass, trees, walls stones etc. It sort of takes out the need to be so precise.
If you want to try Panpastels we have a set available in Centre 70 that you could experiment with during one of our Tuesday Club evenings.
Les has put the video of this demo on his “Google drive and share”; he will need your email if you wish to watch it. Les Darlow www.lesdarlow.com
Tuesday morning and afternoon art classes recommenced on the 1 November and last class of the term is the 6 December.
Tuesday Evenings – Club members’ drop in and social evenings, 7-9pm.
If you know of anybody interested in joining the club please ask them to join us on a Tuesday evening, as a visitor, to meet members and to get to know the club and it’s members who are always willing to help new artists at all levels and using any of the media, including the Panpastels mentioned above.
This month’s Demonstration, on Tuesday 15 November 2022, is an online live demonstration entitled “An Active Street Scene” in watercolour by Brian Smith. We will also show it at Centre70 on the screen for those that can’t get Zoom or prefer to watch it with a group of fellow members.
Brian is a Sheffield-born artist and illustrator with an uncommon breadth of expertise in an unusual variety of fields. He is an inquisitive observer of all that goes on around him, he paints for the joy of it, describing in watercolour whatever takes his eye, rural and urban scenes, interiors, portraiture, people at work and at their leisure – all are ripe for record.
Our demonstrations are held at 7.30pm online. For non-members to join, please email: admin@wallingfordfordartclub.org.uk or davidbooth7@outlook.com for zoom link etc. or join us at Centre 70
All viewing is free to members, friends of the club and local artists/clubs, as part of our “Art into the Community” project.
December Art Exhibition
WADAC Annual December Exhibition 2, 3, 4 December (or only 2 days)
We have eventually received notice that the Town Council has agreed to take over from the Town’s shopkeepers to arrange for a Christmas Market in the first weekend of December. We usually arranged to have our exhibition to coincide with this event and for us to hold the exhibition in such a short period we need members to fully support the club in achieving it.
We need to establish:
- Members willing to exhibit art this year.
- Members willing to form a working group to help arrange and manage the exhibition, as our usual exhibition committee members who have in the past arranged it will be away for some of the time over next four weeks.
- if we have a location in the town where we could hold it. We have approached two possible shops and hopefully in the next few days we will know if one is available.
It’s therefore essential if you could please let us know by email, text, phone or on Tuesday to confirm if you are willing to:
exhibit paintings;
be part of the Exhibition working party.
Failure to have our members’ support and a location to exhibit in means we cannot hold an exhibition this December.
Demo 13 December – “ Still Life” in Oils live online by Mike Skidmore
Demonstration will also be projected on screen at Centre 70, at 7.30pm
The evocative shadow and light, portraits with character, and sometimes a narrative running through the picture are central to Mike’s approach. He also enjoys adding a little humour or trompe l’oeil into still life artworks. He works in layers of transparent glazes for shadows and impasto for lighter areas
December 20 – Christmas Dinner at the Dolphin
We are checking with the Dolphin to agree on the number of tables, Maximum/minimum, we could book for the 20 December, while taking into consideration the normal precautions to be observed re Covid. Once we have the confirmation from the Dolphin an email will be sent out to all Members, with the menu and costs , asking to book and pay to secure a seat(s) (refundable if cancelled due to Covid or other incident beyond our control) to ensure we have sufficient numbers to proceed with the evening.
Sale of used art material
At Centre 70 on 6 December and via a page on our website.
We have a page on the website for members that wish to donate/sell used or new art material that they now do not need. The club has received donations from two ex-members and these will be first offered to members at Centre 70 on 6 December and then included on the web site.
Items donated:
Various paints (oil, acrylics, watercolour, pastels) pencils, brushes, cleaning liquids/paste, canvases new and used (free), used canvas boards (free), room easel, fold-away easels, painting boxes, picture frames new and used, paper etc.
David Booth
Chairman
