Easter Break

Monday 14 April 2014

 

Hello once again, and thanks for reading.

This week we have had no society meeting over at Goole due to our premises - namely the town's College - being closed for a 2 week Easter break. Unfortunately, as it is a local authority building we have no real say, so I'm afraid we have nothing much to post about from over there then.

What I can tell you all about, and I know some will say it's a very loose link at best, is that one of us - namely my fellow art colleague Phil, has finished one of his works. Phil works mainly in acrylics, but has also been known in his younger days (well, he is older than me), to have produced some genuinely good oils. He usually likes to work on his own interpretations, which are purely for his own pleasure, of some of his favourite artists, primarily amongst them being the Dutch Master Vermeer. In fact, such is his regularity that if we don't see him hiding behind a surface with a Vermeer on one side, and a tube of Yellow Ochre next to him on the table, then we assume he his ill.

One thing I did want to establish and add to on a regular basis was the work we all undertake individually, albeit primarily worked at on a Monday evening, but also when we work at home. I, along with Iulian, do try and capture them in photographs taken each Monday over however long it takes to complete, of some of our member's WIP's. Below is one of them which you may remember seeing earlier.

Phil's Mexican Bandit Zapata.

Although Phil likes his Vermeer's, he also has the ability from time to time, to go out on a limb and surprise us all by the choice of his next subject. I think it's fair to say that this was one of them! Having said that, he has worked for some weeks on this one and put an awful lot of time and attention into it, both at our Goole Monday nights and at our Tuesday evening's at Margaret's, which is where this was finally completed last week. He is not known for rushing things at all, something of a perfectionist is our Phil, and I think he has done himself proud once again with this. Goodness knows what his next choice will be as I think he has recently done a Matisse and a Gauguin, but whatever it is, I'm sure he will be more than capable of taking it in his stride.

Phil proudly displays his newly finished work.

As for myself, well I've been working rather slowly over the last couple of months (on and off as my wife and I have been having some building work done at home which takes up quite a lot of time and creates just as much disturbance and upheaval) on what I hope will be a nice gift for an American friend of mine. I can't say too much just yet in case he, or one of his family members who are much more computer active than he is, comes across my 'master plan' and it spoils things. Please rest assured though that when it's time - you will all get a look. There are a couple of other sketches that I have been having a go at, and one in particular I like the look of and hope to paint it in watercolours in due course. The fully completed thing is of two giraffe's by a water hole in Kenya, but actually I have combined two separate photographs taken at the local wildlife park and put together to create something that we actually experienced when on holiday in that country. My main work at the moment though has to be to complete the acrylics I started and have a deadline for - they have to be finished in about a month's time. After that I will get back to spending as much time as I can on my watercolours.

Apoligies for the shortness of the post, but I do hope to have more for next time. Thanks for reading.

G.A.S.