51st Brentwood Art Society Annual Exhbition

The Society's Annual Exhibibition will be helld in the Becket Gallery, at Brentwood Library from 28th November to 28th December 2009. A Preview Evening will be held on Friday 27th November. There will be sixty five exhibits representing twenty five of the Society's members and they include abstract, as well as figurative subjects in water colour, oil, acrylic, block print and other media.

The subject of the painting here, which David Smith will be exhibiting, will be recognised by all those familiar with Brentwood. It illustrates what was until rcently the home of Cooper's furniture store and which now houses a range of small retailers. This detailed work is in itself a record of the changing face of the town.

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Chairman's Message

Please encourage friends and family to come along to our Preview and share a galss of wine with us. The Mayor of Brentwood will open the exhibition, which promises to be an exciting one this year. We look forward to seeing you there.

Anna

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Whitstable Painting Trip

In September this year, the Art Society marked its return after the Summer break with a weekend painting trip to Whitstable. Gillian Robinson was the tutor and as usual, provided an interesting focus for the group before they set off for the seafront, the harbour and neighbouring areas.

We were fortunate to have as our base a room in Whitstable's modern Arts Centre, a wonderful building inspired by sailing vessels and located right on the seafront. On the lower floor is a large gallery and during our visit the exhibiting artist was stood at an easel demonstrating his work. There is also a cafe in the building, so everything we needed if the weather was not kind to us but as the sun shone throughout our trip everyone was able to work outside on both days.

Whitstable has a lot to offer, apart from its busy harbour lined with stalls selling a vareity of fresh seafood. There are boutiques, restaurants, bars and plenty of reasonably priced areas to park. A good deal of Whitstable's charm lies in the understated, slightly shabby appearance of its many wooden buildings. Despite the hotels, guesthouses and other tourist attractions, the place feels like a working town that has not allowed itself to become too tourist oriented.

Whatever the particular interest of the artist, be it seascape, landscape, still life, architecture or people, our surroundings supplied them all in abundance. Gillian even brought along some natural form items that could be used as foreground images to the wonderful choice of backdrops.

The first of our evenings was spent at the Rose In Bloom pub, which overlooks the sea and served really tasty food. Our meal on the second evening was at the Chestfield Barn, an attractive thatched building with a galleried retaurant.

Strangely Familiar

This was the theme chosen by Anna Hughes, Julie Sanger Gowers and Susanne Taylor for their recent exhibition at The Upstairs Gallery Space in The Nellie Dean public house, Soho.

The theme inspired work that showed how familiar objects and settings can be used as starting points for inventive and imaginative processes. Compositions were often simple, sometimes complex, but always lively and pleasing to the eye.

All three artists are based in Essex and have exhibited together on previous occasions. Their different approaches to media and subject matter, a similar lyrical and graceful treatment of their chosen areas, and a shared interest in ordinary items or situations ensured a display that was both diverse and cohesive. Anna Hughes’ relief prints are inspired by still life, her garden, the woods beyond, and images collected while travelling. Julie Sanger Gowers combines traditional techniques with electronic media. In her paintings and collages objects are juxtaposed to achieve new and unusual relationships between space and subject. Susanne Taylor’s images are based upon direct observation and present a personal vision of light, colour and form through watercolour, acrylic and print.

The Preview Evening, held in November, was attended by the friends and family members of all three exhibitors and The Nellie Dean was an ideal venue for such an occasion. Thanks go to Kim Beeching, for her help in organising the exhibition and to all those who joined in celebrating the work of these artists.

 

Anna Hughes	Julie Sanger Gowers	Susanne Taylor

The Four Seasons (my latest pieces of coursework)

Doing some homework

New Approaches to Mixed Media

Images from the course:

New Approaches to Mixed Media

This six week course, run by Julie Gowers, completed the Society's studio programme for the year. The aim of these sessions was to demonstrate how new technologies, such as digital cameras, scanners, printers, certain computer software and other devices can extend creative options when used in combination with more traditional media and processes. Members began by producing starting points using a variety of conventional materials and methods, which they then developed further using electronic processes, such as scanning or taking a digital photograph of what they had created. Some of the results were then manipulated using the digital imaging software, PhotoShop.

Two sessions were carried out in a room equipped with computers and not only were some basic PhotoShop tools and commands practised but members were also shown how to research images on the Internet and access the Society's own website. Apart from discovering how to combine and build upon artwork produced in either physical or electronic media, those who attended the ICT sessions also experienced how digital tools can be used independently to produce artwork with its own particular characteristics.

Most of the activities however, were intended to focus upon the equivalents that can be identified in each area, so tasks involved collage, the creation of semi-transparent layers and a wide variety of techniques and effects.

Over the weeks, those who attended the sessions became more willing to experiiment with the electronic devices and increasingly comfortable in using them. The different activities were succesfully blended with more familiar art and design methods and some very exciting and original pieces were achieved.

Artists always seem prepared to try something new and then use what has been experienced to realise a personal outcome. It was a great pleasure to see what had been produced at the final session and the many different ways each person, irrespective of their past experience with ICT, had applied what they had learnt. Here are a few examples.


Coloured rectangles were photographed using a slow time setting and the camera moved during the exposure. The image was then manipulated in PhotoShop and used later in combination with other images which had been created using both electronic and traditional media.


Gradients were created in PhotoShop and used as backgrounds for other superimposed images.











Collages and drawings created from traditional media were combined with digital images.











Photographs, were combined with both traditional and electroonic images using a copier. The images were superimposed to build, layer upon layer, complex pictures.









These examples show how a starting point, a collage or other conventionally produced image can be extended using electronic tools, such as digital imaging software, a digital camera, copier and printer .

Anna began with a collage from magazine strips, photographed it and transformed the image in PhotoShop. She applied further tools and commands to produce a result that could resource a block print.



Irene photographed one of her watercolours of lilies, modified it in PhotoShop and then placed it on a gradient background. She selected an area from the image and enlarged it onto watercolour paper. She used the digital image to inspire her use of colour and effects, coming full circle through her use of different tools and media. She has shown how both pysical and electroinc media can successfully interact.