Sketching at the Samovar Tea House in Ely

A new group has just off the ground, the Fenland Sketchers, and today I joined four other members for the first official meeting to chat and sketch in the delightful Samovar Tea House in Ely.  It was a fitting venue as this was where Anita and Emma-Jane hatched the idea of creating a Facebook group for people to connect and arrange sketch outings.  Nine days later and their idea has successfully come to fruition.

Interior of the Samovar Tea House

Sketching and chatting - great company...

Our sketchbooks were all very different and we enjoyed peeking into each others and sharing information.  Mine are quite messy, Anita described it as 'a working sketchbook'.  She favours an accordion style sketchbook currently and creates beautiful visual journal style pages with added text to capture the moment.  Emma-Jane worked in a smaller book and Isabel had the largest sketchbook.  Amy became the fifth sketcher - she was seated at a table nearby and became interested in what we were up to.  On enquiring how she could join she was encouraged to just grab some paper and get drawing right there and then.  Hats off to her, she dashed out to buy a sketchbook, came back and got on with it!

Water soluble graphite pencil on collage/gesso page

Graphite pencil on tinted gesso page

Pen and Inktense pencils on collage/gesso page

As you can see I had prepared some pages in advance in my sketchbook (an A5 hardback, Seawhite) by tinting white gesso with some acrylic paint and painting the paper with multi directional strokes.  I like the random colouring and matt surface to work on.  I also had a few pages with collage on then painted over that to integrate the material into the surface. 

If you live in and around the Fens and are interested in joining us for meetings locally to sketch then access the Fenland Sketchers Facebook page and click 'Join' (Emma-Jane will sign you up asap).  If you live further away see if there is a similar group in your area, and if not start one!  What are you waiting for?  It's a great way to meet new people who share your passion for drawing, and to find fascinating new places to visit.  Thank you to the staff at the Samovar Tea House for making us so welcome!

Daffodils in Pastel

 

Studies of daffodils

Working on some class preparation today.  The pastel class starts next week with a session looking at bright, cheerful daffodils.  These are attractive but rather tricky flowers to portray convincingly, especially when viewed head on.  Some time spent studying the construction of the trumpet and arrangement of petals will certainly be of benefit, and a real specimen observed closely from various angles is even better! 







Basic structure, viewed from front

 





 

 

Formation of petals

 

 

Top 'frill' of trumpet curving outwards

 

 

The three images above show studies based on structure of the daffodil when viewed almost head on.  The daffodil can be broken down into a large outer disc (where the petals are) and the trumpet, which has a large circle for the outer edge of the 'frill' and an inner circle (top of the trumpet) with a smaller circle (base of the trumpet).  It is worth noting how the petals form diagonal pairs.  Finally, the secret to making the trumpet look like it is hollow is all down to correctly identifying the darker tone inside against the paler 'frill'... 

 

 

Dancing Daffodils, pastel Tod Evans 

 

 

Whilst daffodils are still in season go out and take a closer look, or treat yourself to a bunch, to discover the beauty of these amazing spring flowers!

 

 



Catch Up of News

I really must get into the habit of posting shorter snippets - more often!  This past week or so I have covered quite a bit of ground so will try and catch up on the news without being too long winded.

I had a lovely visit to family in Hertfordshire and one highlight was accompanying my sister to Shardeloes Equestrian Centre, where she works as a freelance riding instructress.  Due to clients still away over the Easter period she only had a few lessons to take and I welcomed the opportunity to take my sketchbook along for a session drawing horses and ponies from life!



A retired Shetland pony...

 

 

  

 

 

 

            

 

 

   

Dozing in a stable...

  

 

 

 

The selection of sketches shown illustrates how gestural sometimes these drawings need to be.  Animals do not stay still!  Sometimes a position will be taken up again and the study can continue, other times the pose will have to be abandoned and another sketch commenced.  It is best to accept the nature of this type of work and adopt the spirit of enquiry.  The drawings certainly have faults but overall contain an essence, a feeling of life.  I love looking at artists' sketchbooks and I hope you enjoy this peek into mine.  I would just to say a 'thank you' to the staff at Shardeloes for welcoming me.

 

The weekend before last I was part of an Open Day at Henderson Art and Framing.  The idea was to invite people to come and see the studio, view some artwork, meet the tutors and hopefully get inspired to sign up to a class.  We didn't really know what the response might be but Sue did a great job advertising the event and several current class members came along to support us and brought interested people with them.  

 

Display of work for classes at Open Studio Event

 

The day was a great success with plenty of visitors and some new people signed up for classes.  Myself and the other two tutors commented on the buzzing atmosphere and felt the event was definitely worthwhile. 

 

View 1 of workshop in progress

View 2 of workshop in progress

 

Finally, the Water Mixable Oils Workshop took place last Wednesday (see images above).  I was pleased with how the day went and the participants were delightful and very industrious!  It was a full day, and working step-by-step can sometimes be challenging as we all work at a slightly different pace - some need to work quicker than they would like and others have to slow down a bit.  I hope that everyone went home with their 16 x 16" box canvas and felt that during the process of painting 'Agapanthus' they had learned some useful techniques and gleaned plenty of information about these products.  As I provided polystyrene plates to use as palettes I made sure they all had some freshly squeezed pain,t in the limited palette of colours we had been using, so that there would be an opportunity to 'tweak' the work should they wish over the following day or so at home... 

 

Whew, a whistle stop catch up of news - definitely need to post more often.  Right, off to the studio this afternoon as time is running short to work on a drawing for the upcoming WNAA exhibition at the end of the month titled 'Drawing Attention' - the closing date for entries is rapidly approaching!