WATERCOLOUR EXHIBITION. Centurion Branch

On the 4th October we held our branch exhibition. It was very successful in that many of our members participated. It was a wonderful watercolour exhibition of a very high quality. Barbara Moore the national chairperson opened the exhibition on the Tuesday evening. Only 2 paintings were sold and they were sold on the opening night. On the 15th October we gave an open demo as our monthly meeting. The public were welcome to come in and see 5 of us painting. Alma Vorster, Liz Davies, Bronwen Schalkwyk, Esle Friemelt,Jeannette Schoonraad and Linda Fourie and Ilse Roux who served us lovely cups of tea to help us along. It was great fun seeing everyone and having the public come in and enjoy watching us.

LIFE DRAW with Alma Vorster

On September the 17th we had a full day workshop with our very dedicated and enthusiastic Alma. She was just back from the USA visiting family. Alma is a Fellow of the water colour society and has been chair person for our branch for many years and she was also National Chair person. We had a lovely model. She was very good and we all produce some great sketches. Firstly some quick one then 2 that we had half an hour each. We took a break for lunch and afterwards Alma explained what we were to do. Use some of our sketches or pieces of them or do sketches of sports people from magazines, in the positive shape and then in negative shapes. We then made a collage on board and used red tissue paper and our sketches. We could tear or cut them up . We were able to add acrylics or anything of interest that went with our theme. One person used rugby players and I used runners. People had a lot of fun but we all ran out of time. We tidied up and ended with a lovely tea. Thanks Alma we all love doing life drawings.

To Add Content to your Art Work.: by Catherine Terblanche

20th August ,
  We all met at the Centurion Auditorium at 13.30. for an interesting afternoon.
  Catherine runs her own art  studio, ImajineesArt Studio in Centurion. Catherine mainly focuses on traditional oil painting techniques. The studio also presents regular theoretical lectures by various artists and university lecturers. As part of her social concern she established ARTISTS REACHING OUT network which tries to communicate opportunities in the art world to its members.
  Cate is presently contracted to the Art History department of Unisa, where she is also doing her masters degree in Visual arts. Her own interests include conceptualisation and narratives, such as ancient mythology and fairy tales in art.
  She also talked about symbolism in paintings which I found interesting.
  It was a very illuminating lecture.

Wey into Wet: Mimi van der Merwe

Mimi is well known as an excellent teacher in many different mediums. She has held demos for the water colour society in doing prints, portraits and wet into wet. On the afternoon of the 16th July she gave us a fun afternoon in wet into wet. Many of us had never done this method before. Firstly we dipped our paper into a bath of water then laid it dripping wet onto our board. The water sucked it onto the the piece of board. Then we had to paint a still life from the things set up in front of us. As you put your paint onto to paper it starts to spread. Slowly you start to form forms and add different colours. As the paper dries the brush strokes become clearer. At the end the paper is dry and you add the final strokes and you have an interesting painting. This method of painting can be incorporated into paintings creating softness where needed. You do not need to wet your whole paper to that extent. Just wet the areas you need. As the paper is not stretched it can come loose from the board as it dries especially if it is thin paper. This class was really enjoyable and some people managed to do 2 paintings in the afternoon.

Vibrational Expression

Marilyn Patterson took us on a journey using our imagination and our forgotten dreams and into our sub conscious. We had to breath in and out calm ourselves  . We then walked in a circle and had to let a colour choose us and then a word, We went in another circle and chose  a leaf or shell or pod or something organic that called to us.
 We had to make three drawings of our "piece" at different angles. These drawings were put together to form a shape. Then we chose our colour in acrylic paint and painted our board. While this was drying we formed the "shape " from our drawing, in clay. While we were working on this we had to think of something that was one of our dreams. This was to influence your shape and the colours you were to use. We then stuck this onto the dry board.
  When the clay was dry we could paint it using our choice of colours and add decoration. If we felt lost at any time we had to  go back to the quite time and let our subconscious guide us.
  This was a full class and everyone did  really amazing work.
 The pieces were put in a circle at our feet and were discussed.Very Interesting.

Landscapes.

In may we had a whole day landscape session with Angela Eidelman. She is a very creative artist. Angela is a Fellow  of the WSSA as well as the honorary president of the WSSA
  You had to bring your watercolour paints, stretched paper and Pastels inks and sponges, sticks etc.Plus a few references of landscapes.
   Angela creates the most exciting landscapes and she was able to pass on some of her knowledge to the centurion workshop. Everyone enjoyed it and some very interesting landscapes were created.

Abstract Still Life

April the 16. We held a very successful workshop on abstract still life with Elmarie Kirsche. Elmarie is an art teacher and is a member of the watercolour society. She obtained her degree in Art from the University of Pretoria.. Art is her passion and she certainly got us all involved in doing abstract.
    We had to trace off a picture of a still life in  a black permanent marker Then we had to cut it up and make a picture. We could cut up into squares or diagonally. We then used the impression of what appeared to make into a picture we could
 paint or work with pastels, crayons or our choice of medium. It was great fun and we all learnt something from this more structured way of making an abstract.
   We had a good turnout and everyone enjoyed the afternoon.