Ellon & District Art Group

The winter term has flown by in a flurry of gales, icy blasts and downpours, and the Easter break has arrived along with British Summer Time, though, not yet summer temperatures. The group held its AGM on the last session, along with a Macmillan Coffee Morning where we raised £248.

The first meeting after the break will be on April 16th when some members will be engaged in a Soft Pastels Workshop.

There is nothing more lovely than a walk through bluebell woodlands in Springtime. Sunlight filtering through trees onto masses of hazy purple-blue flowers remains a lasting inspiration for artists. In this watercolour, I have attempted to capture something of the atmosphere of a dappled bluebell woodland.

Torrential rain, gales, snow, frost and ice, total lack of sunshine for days on end; we have had the lot already this year. Notwithstanding that this has, unfortunately kept a few of us away from our Thursday art sessions, it has been an inspiration for some atmospheric landscapes.

This is a winter scene from the rear of the house we lived in for 35 years at the very south west of Ellon. I have painted several scenes around there.

Sessions restarted this Thursday, and it was good to get together again after an extended Christmas break. The bright winter sunshine and snowy landscape of the last few weeks will, hopefully, have inspired us all to new artistic endeavours.

I have painted lots of trees in the past, mainly winter scenes, and wondered what it would be like to try looking up through the trees, especially if you can see birds circling overhead, and this is the result. I am sure more will come, including night scenes with a hazy moon overhead, but probably no birds; I am no good at owls!

This bright and beautiful kingfisher adorned the cover of our 2025 Calendar so missed out being featured in the monthly Calendar posts. He brings a splash of colour to a new year that, so far, has been nothing but extreme winter. When the blizzards subside and conditions allow, we will resume our Thursday morning sessions. The first one, planned for January 8th, has been cancelled; we hope to be able to meet on the 15th. Loads of inspiring winter landscapes out there at the moment if we can brave the temperatures.

I was always very impressed with the Christmas lights in Tarves. The scenic old square with illuminated trees was much better than most other small towns in the area. It still looks “Old Worldly”. I tried to include the shop and old phone box and added in the man and his dog as I often add a person or animal into a landscape. I intended the colour scheme to be an early morning scene, but the moon was cropped due the shape required for the calendar.

Christmas Break

The final meeting of the year will be on December 11th. This session will be shorter than normal as we will be decamping to the Golf Club at mid-day for Christmas Lunch.

Sadly, some members will be leaving at the end of the year. One has been a member for many years, others, just a few, but all have contributed greatly to the success of the group, both artistically, socially and organisationally, and we thank them for this. The first session next year is on January 8th when we are looking forward to welcoming some new members.

This painting is a tribute to the work of Canadian artist, Tom Thompson (1887 – 1917) who inspired the famous “Group of Seven” artists from Ontario. His depictions of forests, mountains and lakes show the beauty and remoteness of the Algonquin landscape and the wilderness beyond. The style of this painting resembles Cubism, where trees in bright autumn colours are painted in simple dabs, almost like stained glass. Thompson was a loner and spent many months living in lakeside cabins, fishing from his canoe, painting in solitude while developing his own, unique style. I hope my painting does it justice

This year we have returned to our pre-Covid venue at the Kirk Centre in Ellon for the exhibition. In addition to the groups own art work, several other local crafts people had their work for sale:- pottery, woodcraft, candles, jewellery and painting.

Visitors all seemed appreciative of what was on show, and the participants thoroughly enjoyed the two day event. A poll for the “Peoples Choice” revealed member, Brian Cranthern as a clear favourite for his imaginative paintings.

I was inspired by Yellowstone National Park for this painting. Done in acrylic, I wanted to show the diversity and size of the environment