It’s time for our annual competition which is a friendly affair and NOT compulsory.  If you don’t want to enter a painting, that’s okay, please use the suggested idea as inspiration for a drawing or painting.

The competition theme will be on both the Wednesday and Saturday sessions, but if you prefer you can come along and ‘do your own thing’ and not enter the competition.

Wednesday 11th – 7-9pm –    Start painting for the competition

The subject is –  PORTRAITS

This is a very broad subject but hopefully a popular one as many members like drawing and painting people. A portrait can be a literal, realistic representation or interpretive and symbolic.

The subject can be a self portrait, a family member, a friend or someone famous or infamous, living or dead. Any size, any ground, a single medium or mixed media. A simple black and white sketch in pencil or charcoal, or a colourful multi media picture.

Don’t just plonk someone in a landscape, make the picture of just their head, or head and shoulders or include their whole body or a relevant background if it adds to the portrait.

Info from the National Portrait Gallery in London for schools, but scroll down and there’s info from Curtis Holder, winner of Portrait Artist of the Year in 2020… www.npg.org.uk/schools-hub/art-explainer-what-is-a-portrait

Here are a few people with milestone birthdays in 2026…

Will be 100 years old – Sir David Attenborough, Mel Brooks.

Would have been 100 – HM Queen Elizabeth II, Marlyn Monroe, Eric Morecambe, Kenneth Williams, Bill Pertwee, Lionel Jeffries.

Will be 90 – Brian Blessed, Samia Halaby.

Would have been 90 – Glenda Jackson, Sir Bobby Charlton, Pope Francis.

Will be 80 – Dolly Parton, Liza Minnelli, Cher, Sylvester Stallone, Sir Barry Gibb.

Would have been 80 – Freddie Mercury, Alan Rickman.

Any person, past or present, at any age in their life, can be your subject.

There is no right or wrong way to create this subject…just your way.

Saturday 28th  –  10am-3pm   –    Competition continued

Continue with your portrait, or paint another. All pictures to be on the display tables by 2.30pm then we all cast one vote for our favourite painting. There will be small cash prizes for the winner and runner-up.

A maximum of TWO drawings/paintings per member.  

If you have a picture but can’t attend today, please arrange with someone to take and collect your artwork. Or if you come to the Wednesday session but know you can’t make the Saturday session, your picture can be put in our storage cupboard upstairs and brought down for the competition.

If you feel uncomfortable entering the competition, you don’t have to. Paint a portrait but leave it on your own table so it won’t be on the separate tables with the submitted pictures.

Good luck everyone!

Steve finally finished two pictures that he has been working on recently.

Watercolour on Bockingford paper.

Soft Pastels and Pastel pencils on White Pastelmat

2026 started well with many members attending both sessions in January, so hopefully you want to keep coming along!

Here are two suggested ideas for February, but if you prefer to draw or paint your own theme that’s absolutely fine. Come along and join your friends for relaxing art sessions over a cuppa and biscuits.

Wednesday 11th – 7-9pm – Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse

February 17th is the start of the Chinese New Year, which this year is the Year of the Fire Horse. Along with the twelve zodiac animal, years also have one of five elements associated with them, earth, fire, metal, water or wood. The sexagenary cycle means this combines the horse and fire for the first time in 60 year.

Draw or paint your vision of the fire horse. If you prefer your subject to just be a horse, that’s fine.

Saturday 28th – 10am-3pm – People in Winter

Last month we drew and painted animals in winter. This month we look at people in winter but add in landscapes as they are very popular, and portraits, which some members prefer.

Landscapes – people in a wintery landscape, urban or rural, walking, working, skiing, ice skating, building a snowman, having a snowball fight etc

Portraits – at home draw a person in a woolly hat, wearing earmuffs or a hooded coat. Bring your sketches to the session and paint their portrait.

Fast and loose – work fast and loose with pencils and paints to bring energy to your picture. A downhill skier zooming past would work well.

Texture – as suggested last month, add watercolour ground, acrylic ground, fabric or paper textures to your surface and paint over the top.

Collage – collage the whole image. Bring a cover for your table if you choose this as collage can get very messy!

Mixed media – use three or more mediums to create your people in winter picture.