Tuesday's meeting was amazing. It ended with us all leaving with at least two quite proffessional looking watercolour pictures, and more than one member said that we had been taught more in two hours than in all their years at school.
The meeting began with its regular format. Members arrived, signed in, collected their badges, dropped off the tins and packets for the Horsham Matters food bank collection box, and settled at one of the tables. We all instantly got chatting with old friends and the four ladies on their first visit to our WI. Our President Sandra gave out notices and reminders including the upcoming coffee dates and our fundraising afternoon tea which will be taking place in May, and then the art lesson began.
Miranda (one of our very own Bombshells) was our teacher for the night. She had been so busy! There was everything that we needed set out and ready. Paper and pencils, various paint brushes for different techniques, watercolour paints and water pots, pipettes, clipboards, and even copies of the colour-wheel to help us make colour choices.
Most of us being complete novices in the art of watercolour painting, Miranda had to begin with teaching us a few useful techniques, starting with colour washing 'wet on wet'. We began by wetting the cotton paper with clean water and then watching as the applied colours spread and moved in the dampness. It was amazing to see how our paint marks merged and evolved, and we were able to play about with the paints and water for a while, experimenting with colour blobs and lines, and seeing how they all reacted together.
A new piece of paper, and another technique. This time, 'dry on wet'. Miranda asked us to very lightly draw ovals or pear drop shapes, wet them, and edge them with colour, watching how the colour bled across the damp paper. These were the beginnings of our whimsical cats or chickens.
Patience was the watchword, because the detail can't be added until the paper has dried. So whilst the cats and chickens were drying we went on to our final creation, a botanical picture this time showing sprigs of lavender and bumble bees. More techniques, 'dry on dry', as we built up the layers of colour for the flowers, bumblebees with gossamer wings and learnt how to apply texture with delicate paint splatter. Most would agree that at least one of their creations would be worthy of framing, so a very good result!
You can see how proud we all were with our works of art from the picture above and there are more pictures in the gallery below showing our progress.
Next meeting, Tuesday May 28th is all about Bee Keeping with visiting speaker Elizabeth Ready. If you are not a member your first meeting is free so please drop us an email if you'd like to come along and we'll make sure you are well looked after!
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