April 2018

CHAIRMAN: Sue Smith chair@wokinghamartsociety.org.uk

SECRETARY: Madeline Hawes Tel: 01189 783898

TREASURER: Sylvia Lynam Tel: 01189 018291 (treasure@wokinghamartsociety.org.uk).

http://wokinghamartsociety.org.uk/4_Archive/NEWSLETTERS/

W o k i n g h a m A r t S o c i e t y

Newsletter Editor: Rod Jones

CHAIRMAN: Sue Smith chair@wokinghamartsociety.org.uk

SECRETARY: Madeline Hawes Tel: 01189 783898

TREASURER: Sylvia Lynam Tel: 01189 018291 (treasure@wokinghamartsociety.org.uk).

June 2020

Lockdown Edition

Locked Down but not out (well, only for an hour at a time) How are you dealing with Lockdown? Are you climbing the walls? Are you Zooming

all your relatives and interest groups? Are you totally overwhelmed by the scope

and variety of art-based activities on TV and the internet? Are you learning a new

skill? Are you looking for ideas?

As a lifelong subscriber to Private Eye, I was taken by a cartoon in a recent issue

where a concerned neighbour asks an old lady on a Captain Tom-type wheeled

walking frame “Are you short of anything?” Her reply: “Time”.

(It’s interesting that Captain Tom skipped the normal army promotion from

Captain to Major and was promoted straight to Colonel.

I can’t help thinking that the behind-the-scenes discussion of this double

promotion will have included the words “David Bowie”.*)

There have been some pluses about the current situation, mainly arising from the

reduction of traffic, litter and air pollution and the fineness of the weather. After

almost two months of pre-lockdown torrential rain, the sun has hardly ever been

absent and those who have been getting a daily walk will have been rewarded by

the richness of the birdsong. On Springwatch, it was noticed that waterbirds

whose nests are routinely washed away by the wakes of cabin cruisers have really

thrived this year - it is to be hoped that they don’t nest in the same places next

year when the rivers and canals are busy once again!

*Remember David Bowie’s 1969 hit “Space Oddity”? https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=9_M3uw29U1U - 1969!! I was nobbut a lad!

Mill Pond bluebells

(Earlier in the Lockdown)

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Living in Bracknell, I am particularly lucky to have the Mill Pond just five minutes

walk away across a field and I have been able to piece together a daily 4 mile walk

which is mainly past water, across fields and through woodland.

One strange and somewhat scary occurrence last week was when I encountered a

grey squirrel which, instead of running round to the back of the nearest tree and

shooting to the top, remained on the path in front of me. With my camera at the

ready, I approached it. “Hello” I said gently as one might to a dog. To my surprise

the squirrel came towards me as if it had mistaken me for a tree.

Almost automatically, I backed away and moved slightly to one side. The squirrel

followed. I turned in the opposite direction and increased my pace. The squirrel

continued to follow. I changed direction again and so did the squirrel. I thought of

stopping to take its picture as I had originally intended but the thought of it leaping

up me with its sharp claws was a strong deterrent.

I picked up my pace a little more and was surprisingly relieved when social

distancing kicked in and it gradually fell back.

I saw it again this morning in the same place but this time gave it a wide berth.

How do I know it was the same? In common with one or two other grey squirrels

that I have seen in South Hill Park, it appeared to have some reddish colouring in its

fur which is rather distinctive. I don’t know whether this is just a freak of colouring

or whether there has been interbreeding between greys and reds.

One of the minus points of the lockdown has been that, like most retired people that

I know, my car has spent very little time on the road and eventually the inevitable

occurred and it wouldn't start. After a home start and the fitting of a new battery, it

is now OK and I make a point of going the long way round after shopping trips just

to try and keep the battery topped up.

Among the things that have really thrived is the white van. Jeff Bezos, the boss of

Amazon, must be one of the greatest beneficiaries of the current situation. On one

walk last week I saw a white van stop at three separate houses within the 4 minutes

that I was passing.

Wokingham Art Society Newsletter

One up to Art? There is always a debate about whether photography

is “better” than art.

Here is a perfect example of the chance for an artist

to score over an unlucky photographer.

The lighting is perfect, the pose is almost perfect but,

although a dedicated user of Photo Shop could

remove the railing, an artist can use all the

perfection caught in this photograph, omitting the

railing and adding a little more leg. The slight

softness of the focus can also be corrected.

Why not just photograph the heron without the

railing?

No surprise there: it flew away when I moved!

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Specsavers has announced that it will be opening for eye tests on June 1st.-

So, no more need to drive to Barnard Castle to test your eyes!

Wokingham Art Society Newsletter

Toilet paper hoarder on a roll

This prominent citizen of Arles is having

problems with the new facemasks:

Are you making the most of your Zoom opportunities? If there is one post-Covid success story, it has got to be Zoom. When I last looked,

a single share would cost you $242.

If you watch “Have I Got News for You?” you will see an example of the variety of

Zoom backdrops people have adopted. Choices range from a shelf full of learned

tomes to a curtain and so on. Well, you may guess where this is going….

In your next Zoom session, get a good selection of your best paintings on the wall

behind you. A more ambitious venture would be to paint a trompe l’oeil panel

depicting your orangery or your stables - the only limit is your imagination (and

your painting skills.)

A good start may be to watch Philip Mould’s series mentioned on page 6 of this

Newsletter and get some inspiration from that )

Alternatively photograph a selection of vignettes to blow up and put in the back-

ground during your next Zoom session.

I have included a few personal samples overleaf:

Thanks to Maddy Hawes for spotting these two gems.

The Monday Painting Club at the Cornerstone

We have received a note from Barbara Thompson who with her husband Barrie runs the Monday Painting sessions at the Cornerstone.

She has learned that the Cornerstone will be opening in June....”sometime”.

However, owing to the fact that the Cornerstone sessions always finish before the end of July, she thinks that it will probably be better to start again in September.

Something to look forward to!

BTW the BBC News

Page has an Item

headed “Where Should I

Wear My Face Mask”

Er.. “ On your Bottom?”

This sort of reminds me

of the Christmas

Cracker joke:

Which side of the turkey

has the most feathers?

The outside.

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My personal selection of Zoom Backgrounds:

Wokingham Art Society Newsletter

What do you mean “Time to declutter?”

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Wokingham Art Society Newsletter

Filippo Lorenzin and Marianne Bonetti’s Lockdown Gerbil Art Gallery

Filippo Lorenzin, a V&A Museum Curator

and his artist partner Marianne Bonetti

produced their museum for gerbils

Pandoro and Tiramisu in about 4 hours

on their 14th day of lockdown.

The gerbils don’t care much for

Marianne’s paintings but, despite the

“Please Don’t Chew” notice, they love

the crunchiness of the furniture...

The last edition of the Newsletter included a link to the Getty Museum’s quest

for people to act out great masterpieces such as the Arnolfini Wedding

(featuring Vladimir Putin)

I revisited it today to remind myself what it was all about and was considerably

cheered to find that it has been added to since the last Newsletter.

Here’s the link in case you had forgotten:

https://www.sadanduseless.com/recreated-art/

Following my article about drawing on eggs in the last Newsletter, I thought I

would produce famous paintings on wooden eggs. I made a short list of Girl with

a Pearl Earring, The Scream, Mona Lisa and The Laughing Cavalier.

So far I have only attempted “The Scream”, using

UniPosca pens on a wooden egg with two layers of

gesso as a ground.

These pens seemed to have a lot of promise for the

job in hand but I found the fact that several of them

are metallic prevented me producing the full agony of

Munch’s masterpiece and, most frustatingly, there are

no proper yellows. I’ll try it again using acrylics and

save the UniPoscas for Klimt’s Kiss...

Pastiche Corner:

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Philip Mould - “Art in Isolation” a series of 20 online shows where Philip

Mould of “Fake or Fortune” fame shows us round his cottage and his

collection of art. (Thanks to Elaine Izod and Maddy Hawes for this recommendation - I haven’t actually

watched it all - I’ve got a Newsletter to get out!... I did see the first few minutes of the first

show and couldn’t help being puzzled by the way he delivered the first 5 minutes to camera

with a very large dog in his arms...)

It is strongly recommended that you start with episode 1 and work your way forward

from there

To do this go to:

https://philipmould.com/news/40-art-in-isolation-all-episodes-series-catch-up/

Wokingham Art Society Newsletter

What’s on TV and YouTube As art lovers, we are spoiled for choice with a tremendous choice of things that

we can do and watch depending on our computer literacy and, believe it or not,

time.

On TV (and YouTube)

Bob Ross

BBC 4 have been running a series of programmes featuring American artist Bob Ross at

7pm (Check your papers for exact times)

Bob, who died in 1995 from lymphoma, produced more than 30,000 paintings in his

11-year TV career, of which very few have appeared on the market. Each painting that

he demonstrated on his programme was produced three times: one rehearsal, one

broadcast and a “perfect” one

The New York Times investigated the whereabouts of the paintings and found that they

are all held in storage by Bob Ross Inc. Occasionally, an “escaped” painting comes to

light and the only way to get it authenticated is to have it examined by Annette Kowalski,

his partner and mentor. Typical prices of such paintings are around $10000.

There is a New York Times YouTube which gives us a fascinating insight into his

career and the strange marketing policy of Bob Ross Inc.

Watch it on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDs3o1uLEdU

Most people of my acquaintance have watched the first 2 Bob Ross demos

spellbound but once they realise that all they are going to see is a mountain,

some “happy” trees and possibly a lake or a waterfall, the thrill starts to pall.

Only once in his whole painting career did any of his paintings include people!

His giant palette is really good though - you always know just how he is mixing

his colours.

It seems to me that Bob Ross Inc are trying to do the same thing as De Beers

has done with diamonds. By strictly controlling the supply of paintings, they

maintain the price. The bizarre aspect of this is that Bob spent 11 years showing

everyone how to create copies!

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Wokingham Art Society Newsletter

How to photograph your paintings or drawings for

sharing or publishing.

With continuing uncertainty about your work finding its way onto an exhibition

wall, photographing your paintings could be of increasing importance.

(See page 10 for one good reason)

Here are the basics depending on the size of your work and what you have

available to photograph it.

Have you got a scanner and will your work fit on it?

This is probably the easiest option. A good scanner will give you a sharp image

with a reasonable colour rendering. If you have a graphics package such as

PhotoShop or PaintShop Pro, you can enhance it further (but not too much if the

original is going to end up on an exhibition wall!)

If your painting is too large for a domestic scanner, you have two options: to

photograph it or to have it professionally scanned. Before the lockdown, the Art

Company in Molly Millars Lane would scan pictures for around £20 each.

Phone 0118 912 1051 and ask for Andy Emptage.

Photography can be easy - it helps if you have a tripod.

If you are going to photograph your painting, take it out of the frame!

Very few people have ever successfully photographed a painting behind

glass without being reflected in it.

No special lights are required if the photograph is taken outdoors but, for

best results, a white overcast sky is best - a blue sky will give your work a

blue cast. The most important thing is to place your camera on a tripod

and use a shutter delay of 10 seconds to eliminate any blur. Amazon have

a reasonable selection of tripods for less than £25.

I have a 45-degree grassy bank which avoids the need to have the camera

directly above the painting. A large sheet of MDF with a wooden ledge to

stop the painting sliding off allows me to set up the ideal camera angle

and photograph a sequence of paintings in quick succession.

One wrinkle - be vigilant for insects alighting on your painting at the

moment of exposure! It has happened to me and you don’t see it until

after you have had big prints done!

On line tutorial by Paul Weaver on the Ken Bromley Art Supplies Web site

Bradford on Avon https://www.artsupplies.co.uk/blog/reflections-bradford-on-avon-watercolour-tutorial-by-paul-

weaver/?utm_source=Ken+Bromley+Art+Supplies+Newsletter&utm_campaign=138536b815-

EM_Art_Tutor_070520&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4fa86c4fb8-138536b815-423636637

Or just go to Ken Bromley Art Supplies.co.uk and pick it up there.

Bath and Bradford on Avon are particular favourite locales for Paul Weaver so this should

be very interesting.

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Wokingham Art Society Newsletter

Another String to my Bow

Lockdown is a golden opportunity to learn a range of new skills.

In my case I have been learning to play the cajon. (Pronounced cahone)

What’s that? It’s a wooden box similar in size to a bedside table which the player

sits on and which produces the same range of sounds as a full drum kit. It was

invented by slaves in Peru who were forbidden to possess musical instruments

and it has caught on across the world particularly for Latin American rhythms.

It not only improves coordination but also can be a really good workout - just

don’t overdo it to the point where other members of the household start to

complain!

I was so struck by its potential that I also bought a miniature version which

actually offers a wider range of sounds than the full sized one.

Here is a fine example of the full sized one being played by Peruvian player Jose

Antonio “Pichio” Ballumbrosio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs_gH_yL5h8

And here is a demonstration of the miniature cajon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6VDpAti2dE&feature=youtu.be

If you watch both of these you may notice that they each have something in

common.

Both players have dreadlocks...

………. I’ve ordered a bottle of hair restorer!

BTW if you couldn't help admiring Pichio’s shoes, the following link shows why he

wears them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tjW0W7kwQI

...and talking of strings, have you ever seen a Tensegrity structure?

“Tensegrity” is a term coined by American polymath

Buckminster Fuller who popularised the geodesic dome and

gave his name to a radical form of carbon known as

buckminsterfullerene. Although a further description of

Fuller and his inventions is fascinating, it is outside the

remit of this Newsletter but, if you are interested, look up

Buckminster Fuller on Wikipedia and prepare for an

interesting read.

Tensegrity structures have the intriguing property of having

no visible means of support and there are currently a large

number of YouTubes showing how to make one.

- I will get back to painting soon... This is my second attempt

-the first one was a bit of a lemon.

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Wokingham Art Society Newsletter

Restoring the non-slip rubber insert on the back of your ruler for

accurate cutting of paper or card.

Many lockdown craft activities (such as the

creation of a gerbil art gallery or a Tensegrity

structure) depend on your ruler not slipping as

you make a long cut in paper or card using a

craft knife.

On the back of most good metal rulers there is

a rubber insert to prevent the ruler slipping but,

as time passes, this becomes almost shiny and

starts to slip resulting in inaccurate cuts being

made and expensive paper (and time) being

wasted.

Here is the answer:

Wash and dry the rubber insert to remove any

buildup of grease. Apply an even coat of

Copydex to the strip and leave it to completely

dry - preferably overnight.

It will feel sticky for the first few cuts but not to

the point where this is a problem and then it

will be just right.

Top Tip:

Safe disposal of used craft knife

blades.

I used to wrap them in several layers

of cling wrap but the sharp tips still

used to poke out.

Sticking the blade to a piece of stout

card (mount board) with wide

Sellotape as shown is completely safe.

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Wokingham Art Society Newsletter

Its AGM Time Everybody!

Here is a note from Susie Smith:

AGM2020

Hello Everyone

I do hope you are all staying well with plenty of nice food, books, TV, hobbies etc to keep you happy: not to forget this wonderful opportunity to create the art that you’ve never quite found the time for.

As there will not be an exhibition this year, we will have a virtual exhibition using the Newsletter as the exhibition space.

As Newsletter space is at a premium and Rod’s computer is already bursting, members will be restricted to just one entry per person. In the next issue of the Newsletter, Rod will create a Gallery space of just 5 pages which will accommodate about 50 numbered entries. They will be exhibited anonymously and everyone will be asked to vote for their three favourites in no particular order. We will set a deadline of July 20th for submissions and, if the response exceeds 50 paintings in that period, an extra issue of the Newsletter will be produced to accommodate the overflow. The post-July 21st issue of the Newsletter will reveal the identities of the entrants and the results of the votes. Needless to say, voting for your own entry is a no-no!

It will be wonderful to see what everyone has been doing and as no sales are involved, you will have a kind of freedom that may not have been available with our usual exhibition. This opportunity will also be open to Associate Members.

So, the gallery is open as of now. Just email your entries (just 1 per person) to Rod at news@wokinghamartsociety.org.uk

Rod tells me that he has included an article on photographing your works (Page 7) and we hope that you will find this useful.

Personally, I am totally hooked on Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Week. It has transformed Sundays and keeps me happy through the week too. I love seeing what other folk have done on Instagram and Facebook. If you’re interested, look at #PAOTW, though artists are asked to send their work to #myPAOTW. They are so varied! Sadly it’s coming to an end - unless they change their minds! Here’s hoping.

I’m sure you are aware that the AGM should’ve happened this month. We have decided to defer it until we can actually meet together. However Sylvia is keen that you see the accounts before they become totally meaningless so they will be attached. Please let us know if you have any questions in relation to them. Last year’s minutes are also attached.

Other AGM business usually includes elections to the committee. We will always be happy to hear from anyone interested in giving us a helping hand. Meanwhile we are all staying ‘in post’ for now.

- Susie Sylvia’s attachments are attached to the covering email for this Newsletter as they are in PDF form which my Newsletter editing software can’t handle very well :( - Rod Jones

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Wokingham Art Society Newsletter

Contributors:

Rod Jones

Editor: Rod Jones

(news@wokinghamartsociety.org.uk )

Susie Smith

Maddy Hawes

Unexpected contributions to my Zoom backdrops:

Anne Emmet, Pat Johnson and Chris Parry.