Ann England, of Sidmouth Society of Artists, writes for the Herald.
The Jubilee social evening replaced our normal live demonstration at Kennaway House.
The room was decorated appropriately and drinks and a buffer were provided.
This gave members the opportunity to meet new members and meet up with old acquaintances not seen since the lockdown began.
Members were asked to bring in a painting or piece of craftwork which were placed around the room for all to view for enjoyment and interest with no critique. These proved to be very diverse.
After the Royal toast, members were invited to talk about their painting or craft, as to why they had chosen the subject, what mediums they had used etc.
As you can imagine, this engendered much interest, conversation and quite a few questions.
It was so successful (probably because there was no criticism involved) that everyone asked for a repeat of the exercise next year and, of course, we agreed.
A good celebration was had by all.
Our Zoom demonstration took place when the sun was begging to be enjoyed but the internationally known artist Vic Bearcroft gave us an inspiring afternoon as reported by Cherry Ferris:
“Vic took us all back to basics and returned to his love of sketching and illustration by using line, observation and simple shapes to build form and tone to create both a shoebill and Indian elephant in two very different styles of sketching using just paper, pencil and a smile.
“His relaxed approach and friendly manner encouraged us all to work alongside him.
“He showed us how to break down complex images from reference photographs into simple shapes and lines.
“By using observational techniques and a dash of confidence, it wasn’t long before a fabulous Shoebill was taking shape on the page.
“We then moved on to using fast, carefree gestural scribble drawing (a super fun way to sketch) to create a fabulous Indian elephant too.
“We all need to have our sketch books handy if we watch Vic in the future.”
For more information about the SSA contact us on our website sidmouthsocietyofartists@yahoo.com
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