Saturday Life Workshops

Hertford Art Society runs 9 life workshops per year on the last Saturday of each month. These are essentially run for Members but we do welcome a few enthusiastic visitors at a slightly increased fee of £13.50 per session. The sessions last all day from 10.00am – 4.00pm with a 1hr break at lunchtime and are untutored. We normally have 2 models unless the numbers are small and then it is only one. During the morning we have a variety of quick poses followed by setting up one model at around 11.30am for the rest of the session – this gives artists the opportunity to work for the remainder of the day on one painting (or sculpture) if they wish. When there are two models, there will be an additional fixed pose from the second model for the afternoon. Artists work with a variety of mediums and are a very enthusiastic and imaginative group, bouncing ideas off each other.

Dates for the coming season:

2010 – 25th September, 30th October and 27th November

2011 – 29th January, 26th February, 26th March, 28th May, 25th June and 30th July

Enquiries to: workshops@hertfordartsociety.co.uk

SUMMER PROGRAMME

Every summer following the indoor Winter Programme and the Open Exhibition, Hertford Art Society Members enjoy painting and sketching out of doors on Tuesday evenings at various venues in the Hertford Area.

Any local artists from the villages or areas to be visited are welcome to come along for the outdoor painting sessions etc. Parish dignitaries or councillors are also invited to join Members socially later.

Summer Programme (pdf) - click here for more details.

Painting in the grounds of Hertford Castle

WORKSHOPS

Untutored workshops in Life drawing and painting are run monthly for nine Saturdays during the year often with two models. Various alternative one or two day weekend workshops are sometimes arranged with guest tutors. All these are open to Members and visiting artists.

Email Workshops@hertfordartsociety.co.uk

Life classs

Highlights of 2009-2010 Winter Programme

On one of the last evenings of our Winter Programme we enjoyed an illustrated talk and demonstration by Rodney Munday, a sculptor who lives and works in Hertfordshire and the Pyrenees in France. He showed slides of his work and the environments in which he works, in both England and France. He produces sculptures in bronze, bronze resin and stone resin on many representational subjects. This was followed by a demonstration during which he chatted and answered questions about his methods and productions of sculptures.

It was very enlighting on many fronts, starting with his technique of building a maquette in clay, to the processes involved in producing a large sculpture. The demonstration was of an idea for a figure of Noah cursing his sons, based on a poem which he had written and read to us before he started. By applying small amounts of clay onto an armature, miraculously a figure appeared before our eyes. When satisfied, he would enlarge the model to the size required ready for casting. He also explained the complications of casting his sculptures, many of which he undertakes himself. In all it was a fascinating and instructive evening.

Printmaking Workshop with Brian Maunders

Over forty artists braved the winter weather and attended Brian Maunders’ Print- making Workshop at the end of January. Members had been asked to prepare a strong monochrome drawing to inspire their printmaking. After a short introduction, black ink was soon flowing on paper, card, and most members’ hands. It was soon obvious that some members had done it before but the majority hadn't. Fortunately Brian, ably assisted by Mike Goring, was able to rush around from table to table and rescue the newcomers to this black art!

Three basic techniques were tried, the first method was monoprinting where paper was laid on an inked glass sheet and then an image was drawn, with interesting results when the paper was lifted. The second used a simple drawing with brush on a plain piece of lino. The ink could be manipulated with stiff card or tools. The last technique utilised a sheet of cardboard onto which a sketch was made, this was then cut in relief with a scalpel and inked. The latter two were taken to a vintage mangle to be pressed onto paper. These were then peeled apart to show the finished result.

Brian encouraged members to use results of this workshop creatively in future projects – there were certainly many exciting and dramatic prints and the evening was great fun.

Paint it like Piper

This year's winter programme included a couple of sessions looking at John Piper and his contemporaries, Ben Nicolson and Edward Bawden.

In the first session Michael Evans, a local art historian and teacher, painter and printmaker, gave an illustrated talk on Piper's changing styles and the influence on his work of Alfred Wallis. Michael also showed us prints of both his own work and those of Edward Bawden who's student he was.

The following week members were invited to 'paint it like Piper', from characteristic still lifes and church structures. Members tucked into the challenge with a gratifyingly wide array of weapons - paints, pastels, doilies (stencilling) and collages. The photographs illustrate the results of 2 hours messing about with scissors and stuff.

WINTER PROGRAMME 2010 - 2011

The Winter Programme starts mid-September and runs through to mid-May. During this period the Art Society meets every Tuesday, at the Cowbridge Hall, Cowbridge, Hertford. The meetings start at 7.30 p.m. and finish at 9.30 p.m. Roughly half the evenings in the Winter Programme are for Members to paint or draw either from still life arrangements or a life model. The remaining evenings are taken up with talks, critiques of paintings brought along by Members, demonstrations from a professional artist or workshops. Details of our 2010/11 Winter programme will be available shortly. Sessions commence on 14th September.

VISITORS’ WINTER PROGRAMME 2010 – 2011

The Visitors’ Winter Programme is a cut-down version of the full Winter programme. It comprises all of the sessions described above for the Winter Programme other than the ‘practical’ sessions of painting, drawing and workshops. It is designed to provide an opportunity for people who are not Members of the Hertford Art Society to enjoy any talk, demonstration or critique session being held for our Members.

The Visitor evenings include a 15 minute coffee break mid-evening which gives non-members an opportunity to chat to some of the 40 - 50 Members that usually turn up. We charge visitors a fee of £2 and would be grateful if visitors could introduce themselves to the evening’s organiser at some point in the evening.

Details of the Visitors’s Programme for 2010-2011 will be available shortly.

A Summer Sketchbook 2009

Despite the mixed weather members enjoyed weekly sketching evenings around Hertford. A record from a sketch book shows some of the places we visited. Each painting evening ended with a pleasant get-together in a local pub. or a delightful social at a members home.

At St Leonards Church Hertford we were invited to see the excellent exhibition of Elspeth Kemps’ superb embroidery and Trevor Chamberlains masterly paintings.

Other Hertford scenes included the Old Barge pub on Folly Island and the two Bluecoats boys at the entrance to the old Christ Hospital School. Some members also painted the allotments alongside the River Lea. One evening we painted the bowls players at Wallfields.

There were a couple of grey damp evenings— at Watton at Stone and at Furneux Pelham where a dry seat was found in the pub garden! And at Goldings near Hertford —oh dear—wet in wet was the order of the evening and still the paint wouldn’t dry.

We had better weather for the evenings at Presdales School Ware and at Hertingfordbury. Another good evenings was at Panshanger aerodrome but it was grey again for the evening at Walkern. However a jolly good barbecue at a member’s home followed. Finally thirty-five of us finished off the summer programme with a grand meal at the Salisbury Hotel in Hertford.

From the sketchbook of Marie Goldsmith