NIGEL DOWNING WORKSHOP - OCTOBER 2025

On Wednesday the 1st of October 2025, the members of Chilcompton Art Club attended a workshop given by Nigel Downing, the former Head of Art at Churchill Academy in Somerset.

The subject of the workshop was to paint a woodland scene in acrylics, a scene that was based on photographs supplied by Nigel. The morning session started with getting used to mark making with oil pastels on paper, the method being to create a picture that gradually appears by firstly making areas of light coloured marks that then get overlaid with darker colours, and the final result gradually appears on the page. The afternoon session focused on producing a finished picture, based on the oil pastel one, but using acrylic paints as the medium.

Nigel took time to explain the process he was teaching, often by painting with his canvas held upside down under his chin! Overall, he introduced into a different way of producing a painting than that which we might usually follow. The two session flowed fluently due to Nigel's knowledgeable, friendly, and enthusiastic down to earth approach coupled with sense of humour. Individuals were given one to one helpful guidance, not only about the layering technique, but also colour mixing techniques generally. So in summary it was a really enjoyable two sessions by an excellent teacher with great creative knowledge and energy.

ABORIGINAL ART WORKSHOP 5th MARCH 2025

Aboriginal Art was the topic today for a practical workshop given by club member Lindsay Brewster. The aim was to create your own original piece by exploring and using the symbols and images as defined by the Aboriginal peoples of Australia e.g. a human footprint, a kangaroo, a fish, snake or lizard and work outwards in any direction, using a few colours that work well together It appears there are very few straight lines in Aboriginal art – curves seem to be a recurring theme, as in Nature itself. While participants were painting, Lindsay read a few a few interesting articles giving information on the background to this form of art. Click on any image to see gallery.

 White on Black Workshop - 17th July 2024

On Wednesday the 17th, members were invited to have a go at producing pictures using chalk on black paper. Under the tutalage of club member Lindsay Brewster, participants used various sources of reference photos and some also from Lindsay's previous work. The engrossing 2 hour workshop produced the examples shown below.

WATERCOLOUR DEMO / WORKSHOP - JUNE 2024

Today Chairman Peter Hinge gave a demo/workshop presentation all about the medium of watercolours. Members were taken through explanations about types of papers, paints and brushes before then embarking on a walkthrough of basic techniques for painting skies, water, plants and rocks via the creation of a scene.

SANDRA BURNHAM - ACRYLICS DEMONSTRATION - 19-04-2023

At Wednesday's club session (19-04-2023), club member Sandra Burnham gave an excellent demonstration outlining her current methods for using acrylics inks and collage in order to produce some stunning paintings. The method involves drizzling lines of coloured inks across the canvas and then spray them with a fine water mist to allow the inks to flow and spread, she then teases out sections using a small brush to produce branch like effects, as well as using paper towels to lift darker areas. In the second part of her demonstration she explained how to use collage effects by using patterned materials to represent leaves and foliage, with added refinements using actual plants as stamps in order to imprint their structure onto the canvas. Examples of Sandra's fininshed works are shown below.
(CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO SEE LARGER VERSION ON YOUR DEVICE)

DANIEL CHUTER MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOP - 29TH MARCH 2023

Members of the art club attended a mixed media workshop, held at the Downside Abbey Visitor Centre. Tutor, Daniel Chuter, demonstrated, and explained, all about his impressionistic method of painting landscape scenes. The members were given a landscape photo to work from, and then followed Daniel's instructions. His method uses several types of medium, from acrylic paint to wax crayons, and over the space of three hours the members left with an almost completed final painting, with perhaps a little more work to be done at home later.

A TYPICAL DANIEL CHUTER LANDSCAPE	THE PHOTO THAT MEMBERS WORKED FROM
MEMBERS AT THE WORKSHOP	A COMPLETED MEMBER'S PAINTING

PRESENTING PICTURES - PETER HINGE - NOV. 2022

Club artist Peter Hinge gave a very informative and detailed demonstration all about how best to present your pictures for exhibitions and sales. Subjects covered were, cutting mount boards, choosing suitable colours to present the picture better, and the composition and makeup of the many different types of frames and how to hang them.