To keep our creative juices flowing during the ‘Stay at Home’ Covid-19 break we introduced regular activities that are displayed in our new online galleries on our website.
The galleries have been popular with both entrants and viewers.
We contacted our current financial members and tutors via email and updated our galleries regularly.
Works could be in any form such as a drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, sculpture or digital art – however no photography permitted.
The works could be created especially for the theme or could be from your collection of works.
Our Virtual Online Theme Galleries
Year 2020
View From My Window
A Dominant Colour
- When painting, do you have a colour that you always struggle with? Or maybe just a colour that is not your favourite? Personally, I would say green! Your nemesis colour may be orange or brown or something else entirely. As a result, we often avoid it and so we don’t improve in this area of our work.
- Embrace this colour in all its tints, shades and variations to complete a piece in which this colour is the dominant colour tone.
Drawing Everyday
Spend some time each day drawing something – it doesn’t matter what it is and it doesn’t matter what the outcome is like. This builds observational skills and neural pathways between brain, eye and hand and importantly helps to reinforce art as a “practice”, something all of us need if we aspire to do better with our artistic endeavours.
Drawing Everyday Wall 2
Dig Out Your Magnifying Glass
Life Drawing with Professional Life Drawing male model John McCullough
- If you haven’t been game to try life drawing, now is your chance. Not quite live but this is the best we can do in the circumstances.
- Try a few 5 minute sketches then a longer pose of 20 minutes plus.
- For new “lifers” charcoal is a great medium to start with.
- John McCullough, one of our regular models kindly provided images for us to use.
Chiaro-scuro
- One of the main aspects of painting or drawing, is light. Artists, such as Rembrandt, and Leonardo, have used light, to create amazing “Chiaro-scuro” effects.
- My idea for the subject I’m proposing, is to create an Artwork, using simple objects around the house, and drawing or painting them, with a strong light and a contrasting shadow.
Cropping and Stippling
Cropping is the cutting away and discarding unnecessary portions of an image. Cropping can change the emphasis of a design. An image may be cropped or zoomed in to present information more clearly.
Stippling is also known as ‘pointillism’. It is a type of drawing that involves creating shapes and images by making many small dots on a piece of paper. Stippling is quite time consuming. What better time to have a go at it than this lockdown period.
Stippling is either black or white. There are no greys. To create the illusion of grey, just space the dots further apart.
Botanicals
Many artists love to use flowers as a subject for artworks, but at this time of year and due to the lockdown restrictions we may not have access to as many fresh flowers as a resource. But plants in all their forms are rich subject matter for art.
Topsy Turvy
- Has your life been turned upside down?
- Now is the time for art to imitate life!
- Pick a picture and draw it upside-down.
- Unfortunately we don’t have a gallery wall for this one
Miniatures
If you do you not have much room at home for art, are running out of art materials or just looking for new challenge, this could be just what you are looking for.
A common definition of a miniature is a drawing or painting having a perimeter of 400mm or less, although they are often much smaller. So 100mm x 100mm or any combination like 150mm x 50mm are fine.
We don’t have a gallery wall for this one either.
Autumn Leaves
- These days, everywhere I look around, I see the Autumn leaves, on the ground, or some, still on the trees, and especially when we have lovely sunshine, I can see how the light is glowing through those colourful leaves, and I’m fascinated by those colours, the colours of Autumn.
- My suggestion is: To collect some of those leaves, (before they disappear!), and try to reproduce the shapes and the colours, or simply to observe the trees around, and use those colours either realistically, or even as an abstract composition.
Abstract Art
- Have a go at a bit of abstraction!
- Abstract art is art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead uses shapes, colours, forms and gestural marks to achieve it’s effect.
Getty Art Challenge
We are conducting our own version of the Getty Art Challenge based on Australian masterpieces or non Australian works in Australian galleries.
The idea is that you recreate a work of art using items available in your household.
When you have done this send a photograph of your creation along with an image of the original artwork.
No gallery wall exists for this one.
Drapery
- There are plenty of examples to be found around the home, however I was reminded of it when I recently came across a painting by Sorolla – Sewing the Sail – 1896. I find the whole painting to be fantastic, and I have never heard of Sorolla before.
Not Exactly Plein Air But Close
- This skycam “Olana Eye,” sits above Olana the home of Frederick Church (1826 – 1900) a prominent member the Hudson River School which flourished in New York State.
- Just the thing for isolation.
- If you would prefer a different time and view here are some more live webcams
- If you use images from webcams for commercial purposes you should check your copyright obligations before doing so.
The Lake District UK 9 hours behind
http://www.camsecure.co.uk/derwent_water_webcam.html
California USA 17 hours behind
https://explore.org/livecams/zen-den/live-redwood-cam-1
No gallery wall exists for this one
Mirror Mirror
Throughout history the self portrait has played an important role in many artists’ work. If you haven’t yet been tempted during lockdown to use yourself as model, now is the perfect opportunity! Drawing or painting the face is just a matter of exploring basic forms – have some fun and see what you can create.
The objective of this exercise is to enjoy exploring the fascinating genre of the self portrait !
Surrealism
Gold, Silver, Brass and Glass
This week’s challenge is definitely a challenge.
Paint or draw a still life with a focus on reflective metallic or glass surfaces.
“Celebrate the art of the bird”
“Observing the life of birds in my garden over the past 6 months during lockdown has been a source of joy. Birds enrich our lives with their beauty, their songs, their critical role in the web of life.
Tragically, we know that tens of thousands of birds were killed in the bushfires which ravaged our country last summer and the habitat of many more is under constant threat, with numerous species pushed to the brink of extinction”
Bron Elmore
Spring has Sprung
Mask up and produce a masterpiece.
Splash some colour around and be creative.
Interiorscapes
Let’s turn our artistic gaze to our domestic setting, like many artists before us, and draw inspiration from the interior landscapes of our homes. Whether it’s a study of a pile of dishes in the kitchen sink, a table set for high tea, the contrast of light streaming through a curtain onto a timber floor, a brightly coloured rug draped across a sofa, or simply the view from a kitchen table through to a room beyond – all of our domestic settings have rich artistic potential.
Could It Be Simpler
Minimalism is a style in art, design that uses the smallest range of materials and colours possible, and only very simple shapes or forms.
Wet, Wet, Wet
Dive in – This exercise doesn’t have to be a watercolour to qualify.
Junior Challenge – Kidzart Exhibition
An activity for all children – your children, grand children, friend’s children or you when you were a child – all children
- Participants up to 16 years of age
- Subject – My Favourite Animal
- Draw, paint or model your pet or another animal
Year 2021
Elusive Transparencies – Capture a dreamlike painting
Following his break with the Parisian avant-garde in 1924, Francis Picabia (1897-1953) moved to the French Riviera in southern France, soon thereafter beginning to work on his radical Transparencies paintings.
Gallery Wall II
Streetscapes
OP ART
Optic art or op art was a major development in painting in the 1960s. Three of the leading artists were Bridget Riley, Victor Vasarely and Jesus Rafael Soto. Artists used colours, lines, shapes (especially geometric shapes) and patterns to create illusions of blurring and movement. The effects on the viewer ranged from subtle to disturbing and even disorientation.
Red
“Colour is never unimportant,” according to artist Donald Judd.
Louise Bourgeois said that “Colour is stronger than language. It’s a subliminal communication.”
Red is a primary colour.
Cars, Trucks, Trains and Trams
Seascapes
The seascape can be a challenging subject to paint. Water has translucent and reflective qualities which can be a real pain to deal with.
Clouds
Sky and clouds can have a dramatic effect on the mood of a landscape painting and can also aid with the perspective and depth. Clouds can either be a subtle addition or a major part of a finished painting.
Details
We picked out a detail from your painting to hang in our online gallery.
Quadrupeds
An environment in which music and art take place jointly affects our creative process. Environmental factors like colors, brightness or darkness, smell, and sounds trigger varying emotions and feelings within us.
