Hi folks

In week 3 the Beginners Watercolour Course 2 combined colour mixing and layering of different tones to create these paintings of pencils.  The Beginners Drawing Course Level 2 took on the “Pinecone challenge”.  If you can draw this you can draw anything!  Well done everyone!  The Beginners Drawing from Nature Course used oil pastels to create wonderful Autumn leaves and the Beginners Drawing Course Level 1 worked on scale and looked at how to enlarge shapes using a viewfinder (whilst also getting messy with charcoal and pastel).  Lots of challenges for everyone this week but you are doing fantastic – keep it up!

See you soon

Wendy

Hi everyone

This week the Beginners Watercolour Course 2 focused purely on tone and layering to create depth in their paintings.  The Beginners Drawing Course Level 2 did some fine tuning on their shading techniques.  The Beginners Drawing from Nature Course got to be the messy group this week by using soft pastels for these fantastic flower drawings.  Yes, we all got covered in pastel but it was worth it for these results.  The Beginners Drawing Course Level 1 moved onto manmade forms this time.  A bit trickier than natural forms and much less room for error but great work, particularly on your proportion.

I’m really pleased with all the work you’re doing and I hope you are too.

More next week!

Wendy

Welcome back everyone!  And welcome to all our new students too!

Hope you’ve all had a good summer.  You were certainly all ready to get stuck into some arty stuff this week.  It’s great to see you all so enthusiastic and eager to learn and hopefully the first lesson wasn’t as scary as you thought it might be.

We kicked off the new term with the Beginners Watercolour Course 2 who practised colour mixing and a few techniques to help them throughout the course.  The Beginners Drawing Course Level 2 explored tone and how it can be used to transform flat shapes into 3D objects.  The Beginners Drawing from Nature Course did some enlarged watercolour paintings of pebbles and the Beginners Drawing Course Level 1 used basic shapes and shading to build up drawings of natural forms.  Fantastic work everyone!  A really good start to the new term and I’m looking forward to seeing what you can create over the next few weeks.  Remember if you want to comment on anything on this website, anything you’ve done in class or anything else to do with Leeds Art Group then simply click on “Leave a comment”.

See you all next week.

Wendy

Hi everyone

Even after the exhibition is over there is still work to be done and we were back in class again for the final week of lessons this term.

The Beginners Portraiture Course Level 2 used ink blocks to create these vibrant and colourful portraits.  The Beginners Drawing Course Level 1 faced the ultimate challenge – self-portraits with some great results.

Thank you to everyone for all their hard work and enthusiasm this term.  You’ve been great classes to teach and I hope to see you all when the new term starts in September.  The following courses will be running next term:

Beginners Watercolour Course 2

Beginners Drawing Course Level 1

Beginners Drawing Course Level 2

Beginners Drawing from Nature Course

For full course details please visit the “Courses for 2018” page and if you have any questions or would like to book a place then please contact me on tel:  07788 871286 or email:  leedsartgroup@yahoo.co.uk or get in touch via the “Contact” page.

Enjoy the rest of the Summer and I’ll see you in the Autumn.

Cheerio!

Wendy

Hi folks

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who attended/helped out at the exhibition last week.  There couldn’t have been an exhibition without you and I hope you all enjoyed seeing everyone’s work all together.  I hope this will give you the confidence to exhibit your work in future.  We had a few sales of work and many people commented on the high standard of work displayed.  So give yourselves a well earned pat on the back.  The all important results of the public vote are as follows:-

1st place:  “Sundown Silhouette” – Jean Higginson

2nd place  “Early Risers” – Jean Higginson”

Joint 3rd place:

“Secured” – Carol Haigh

“Watchful” – Carol Haigh

“Iguana” – Soo Matthews

“Venice” – Philip Verhees

“Frida Kahlo” – Stephen Clifford

Well done to everyone who took part and if you missed out this time, I hope you’ll consider exhibiting next time.  Here are a few photos of the exhibition (special thanks to baby Emma for posing with her portrait).

Hi everyone

It’s finally here!  The Leeds Art Group Exhibition is this week and everyone is welcome to come along.

The opening times are Friday 27th and Saturday 28th July between 10am and 4pm (both days).  Entry will be free and there will be a number of stalls selling refreshments, cards, books, bric-a-brac/gifts etc.  There will also be original artwork for sale.

In this week’s lessons the Beginners Portraiture Course Level 2 had life models to paint.  You all did a fantastic job, especially as you didn’t have a lot of time to spend on these paintings, well done!  The Beginners Drawing Course Level 1 did some timed drawings of a still life composition in order to work on proportion skills.

Thanks to our two life models Paige and Timea and to everyone else who stepped in at the last minute to be our volunteer models.  You are now all works of art!

Hope to see you all at the exhibition!

Wendy

Hi folks

The Leeds Art Group Exhibition is almost upon us but don’t worry, it’s not too late to submit a piece of work!  Please email me a photo of any work you would like to exhibit to leedsartgroup@yahoo.co.uk.  All Leeds Art Group members have some work that’s worth showing off.  So come on, don’t be afraid to blow your own trumpet!

The opening times are Friday 27th and Saturday 28th July between 10am and 4pm (both days).  Entry will be free and there will be a number of stalls selling refreshments, books, bric-a-brac/gifts etc.  There will also be original artwork for sale.

Meanwhile, what have we been up to this week?  Well it was time to introduce a bit of colour into the Beginners Portraiture Course Level 2 with fineliner pens and cross hatching technique.  A difficult technique to get the hang of but some fantastic results, well done everyone!  The Beginners Drawing Course Level 1 used gridlines to improve accuracy and proportion.  Great work, some real progress being made.

See you all soon.

Wendy

Hi everyone

The Beginners Drawing Course Level 1 used charcoal and white pastel this week to create these brilliant enlarged drawings of small objects on A3 paper.  Well done to everyone for having a go at this – it’s not easy!  We had some life models join us for the Beginners Portraiture Course Level 2 and had a chance to put into practice all those light and shade skills that we’ve been working on so far.  Fantastic work everyone and big thanks to our models Susan, Lynne, Alicia and Achyut for helping us out.

Don’t forget to get your artwork submissions in for the Leeds Art Group Exhibition by July 20th.  It would be great to have at least one piece of work from everyone on display.  If you would like to submit a piece of work or have any questions, please contact me at leedsartgroup@yahoo.co.uk and I will send you all the details.

Here are the exhibition opening times Friday 27th and Saturday 28th July between 10am and 4pm (both days).  Entry will be free and there will be a number of stalls selling refreshments, books, bric-a-brac/gifts etc.  There will also be original artwork for sale.

See you all soon.

Wendy

Hi folks

This week things got a bit trickier with more challenging tasks.  The Beginners Portraiture Course Level 2 looked at the areas of light and shade on faces and how you can use this to create a portrait using just black and white.  The Beginners Drawing Course Level 1 drew manmade forms, a bit more difficult than last weeks natural forms and less room for error.  Well done for tackling these exercises.  More challenges next week.

I am pleased to announce that the Leeds Art Group Exhibition will be taking place on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th July between 10am and 4pm (both days).  Entry will be free and there will be a number of stalls selling refreshments, books, bric-a-brac/gifts etc.  There will also be original artwork for sale.

It’s about time we all had a chance to show off our work so I hope all Leeds Art Group members will take part.  If you would like to submit a piece of work or have any questions, please contact me at leedsartgroup@yahoo.co.uk and I will send you all the details.

See you all soon.

Wendy

Hi everyone

A great start to a brand new term!  The Beginners Portraiture Course Level 2  jumped straight in at the deep end and attempted the much feared “self-portrait”.  You all did absolutely fantastic and I’ve struggled to narrow it down to just 2 to appear on the website.  The Beginners Drawing Course Level 1 started with natural forms to get used to using tone, proportion and composition.  Well done everyone!

As mentioned in class, St. Gemma’s Hospice are running a “Secret Art Project” and they have invited members of Leeds Art Group to take part by producing a postcard sized work of art that the hospice will then exhibit and auction.  The “Secret” bit is because it’s completely anonymous.  So no one knows whose work they are bidding on.  Past contributors have included Katherine Jenkins, Stephen Fry, Danny Dyer, Keith Lemon and Ashley Jackson.  If anyone wants one of the postcards then please ask me in class or email Michele Barker-Field at: michelebf@st-gemma.co.uk.  The closing date for entries is 31 August 2018.

Enjoy the sunshine!  See you all next week.

Wendy

P.S.  Watch this space for details of our own Leeds Art Group Exhibition at the end of July.