Have You Ever Felt Like Starting Your Own art Group?

Some 20-25 years ago, I took a short nightschool class in painting. Afterwards I wanted to continue in a less formalised group but found that local groups did not cater for what I required. A few other students from the class felt the same way and so we decided to start our own group. A momentous decision since none of us had any experience of thjis sort of thing.

This was to be called The Knowle Art Group, read our web page to find out about us

I have been involved in running that group for most of this time, and in fact also joined a second group for a few years where I was involved with committee work and so had my share of experiences from there. This was a learning experience, I had never done anything like this before but it has worked out very well and that first group has become a successful, not-for-profit undertaking. It has gone up and down in numbers ( 6 to 40 at various times) but has proved an ability to last the course. Only last month a similar, small art group requested to amalgamate with us as they could no longer finance themselves due to a fall off in numbers. This has improved our own situation and so we were glad to agree for them to join us.

How do you start such a group, and how do you manage it? With this experience I thought I could answer the main questions and so have written an article on Squidoo to explain how we did it and also how you could too. Read: How To Start And Run You Own Art Group. This covers deciding on the aims, the venue, financing, administration and building the membership.

I did it, you can too

Some of the members concentrating on their latest art work.

For us one of the biggest benefits is the ability to hire professional demonstrators three or four times a year to help with development of our skills. This supplements the support and encouragement we provide for each other. But there is nothing like hanging your art in an exhibition for the world to see and admire and maybe even buy the odd piece of art. In order to make it easier (and less expensive) to hold exhibitions the group designed and created  our own exhibition boards. I have also written a Squidoo article explaining how and why these have proved very useful and giving details if you find that you would like to make some for yourselves. Read: An Inexpensive Display Board For A Leisure Painter's Group.

 

The boards in use at an exhibtion:

 

 

Hope these articles help you to start your own group successfully.

How to use the colour wheel - for artists

Well as it is the holiday period I have not managed to get any painting done, but I thought that I would remind you of a squidoo lens, How to use the colour wheel for beginners. Use it for a little revision, to bring some sparkle into your paintings.

And on the subject of revision - do you paint abstract art? It is a great practice genre for ensuring that you fully understand and make use of composition, including the use of colour. Try this simple introduction if you need any help to get started.

I have also created two squidoo lenses on a technique or methodology which you can use to practice abstract painting. Let yourself go - its great for relaxation anad surprisingly it really does help to loosen up your art work. Try:

• Learn to paint abstract art
• A step-by-step method for abstract art

I do stress that they are not intended to create masterpieces (and I have deliberately used poor paintings as examples) ; rather it is a method for helping to free up the way a painter used to realistic representation creates art. It is purely for practice.

Of course, it could be used for finished work but then the artist could probably have done it anyway.

Hopefully more new work next time.

Pastel Painting -Spring

This painting is in my normal style for pastel paintings but the subject is not one which I am really happy with. The background and water are fine but the bank on the LHS contains many individual flowers. I have not drawn/painted them in any botanical detail but still I was not in my comfort zone.

I have attempted to vary the size and tone to create some recession but not sure wether I am happy with the outcome, also it is far too divided into the four zones; forest on the far bank, sky, water and the yellow flowers on the near bank. I have used colour, sparingly, to try and bring some sort of overall belonging to these four zones. I am not however sure that the compostion works. Still, I am always happy to post my failures as well as my imagined successes. Let me know what you think.