Newsletter April 2008

 

Click to read the latest newsletter as a word document April 2008

As we start a new year the members of Haydon Artists' Society are looking forward to finding different and inspiring subjects to paint. We all seem to go through times when we don’t know what to do next, but one of the good things about belonging to a group is that there is usually someone who will talk you through the sticky times.

Exhibitions
Last year we had our first two week exhibition. This was a great success and we had lots of people looking round and most were very complimentary about our work which this time included collage work and some applique needlework. We also, for the first time, invited local schools to visit the exhibition and Haydon Wick and Haydonleigh Primary Schools took up the invitation. The children came in groups and whilst one group looked round with Nickie Moon helping, the other group stayed downstairs with Barbara Moody and did some portraits of each other. We had a competition for the children and the winner was a little girl called Lauren who attends Haydon Wick Primary School. We are now looking forward to our next exhibition in May. The new hanging system means we can have many more paintings on show so we have to work hard to produce more.

Logo Competition
We have also had a competition to design a logo for the group. The result is at the top of this letter and was chosen by all the members of both the Tuesday and Thursday groups. With so many ideas it was difficult to choose one design, but we thought the fairest way was to have all the entries and voting done anonymously, this seemed to work very well.

Christmas Party
In spite of all the illnesses around we managed to have our usual Christmas celebrations. 24 members of the Tuesday group had lunch at the Abbey Meads and 35 of the Thursday group went to the Blunsdon House Hotel. Both groups had a really good time.

Workshops
We had two workshops taken by a local artist Patric Bown who paints in watercolour. These were very well attended and everyone agreed they were really enjoyable. Some people tried watercolour for the first time and were surprised at the results, others who already use watercolour found the new and different techniques really made them think. We have had demonstrations by a portrait painter from Abingdon and from a pastel artist, Christine Russell, who showed us the most inspiring still life.

Texture Mediums
We are now looking forward to having more workshops this year in different mediums and are also hoping to have some more demonstrations. We also plan to have more life drawing evenings as the one we had last year was so successful. One evening which is happening on April 17th is going to be an experimental painting session. Paula Dagnall and Karen Miller are arranging the evening when we will all have a canvas and acrylic paints and other things in an attempt to do an abstract painting. For the members who have never done abstract painting it is going to be very different.

Visits
On May 7th 25 members are going on a day out to visit Jack Russell’s Gallery in Chipping Sodbury and then on to have a tour of the garden at Highgrove House, the home of the Prince of Wales. It is almost two years since we applied to go to Highgrove so we are really looking forward to it. Jack Russell was the England wicket keeper who found he had a talent for sketching. From this he moved on to painting and had an ambition to open his own gallery, this he has done and the gallery, in the High Street in Chipping Sodbury is well worth a visit.

In July there will hopefully be another visit to Art in Action which is held at Wheatley just outside Oxford. Last year over 30 of us went and although there had been so much rain and flooding around, the day was fine and dry and we had a good time.

Join Us!
Whatever we do, we are certain to enjoy painting at our weekly meetings and we hope that if anyone who reads this letter feels they would like to come and have a go, they can be certain of a warm welcome.

Meetings are on Thursdays from 7pm to 9pm at North Swindon Library and on Tuesdays from 10am to 12 noon at the Haydon Wick Council Offices.

Beginners are always welcome and although these are not classes there is usually some one who will help. The cost of belonging to the group is £6 per month and as members we pay whether we go to every meeting or not.
For more information please call
Barbara Moody on 01793 722410

For more information come along or call

Past Newsletters

Oct 2005

Jan 2006

April 2006

July 2006

Nov 2006