Ellon & District Art Group

Finally, we are able to announce that Ellon and District Art Group is able to meet again in person. Hooray! Our first meeting will be on Thursday September 9th, in the Kirk Centre from 10.30 – 1.30.

We need to put in the usual Covid safety precautions, and this will all be explained at the first session. Please bring your own refreshments as we are unable to share that facility at the moment.

We hope to welcome back all our existing members, and, in addition, look forward to seeing some new faces, with new ideas and inspiration to share.

The weather was kind to us last week for our summer get together. Ten or so of us were able to make it along to Ellon Castle Gardens for a morning of socialising and a little sketching. We all thoroughly enjoyed meeting up and are anticipating that it won’t be long before we can re start the indoor sessions at the Kirk Centre.

After a few weeks of meeting up by the river in Ellon, the group is taking it’s summer break. We are planning an outing to Ellon Castle Gardens in August; hopefully the weather will oblige and we will enjoy a social gathering, with the opportunity to do some painting and sketching in these very pleasant surroundings in the centre of Ellon. By then, with a bit of luck, we be able to announce dates for returning to our weekly sessions in the Kirk Centre

Relaxation of Covid restrictions and a spot of decent weather has allowed us to return to our outdoor gatherings down by the river in Ellon. We are planning to continue these throughout June, and then take a break in July, though we hope to have a summer outing [date and venue yet to be arranged]. We are all looking forward to being able to return to our art sessions inside, but at the moment we have no date for when this might be. Although many of us have continued painting and sketching throughout the pandemic, we have all missed the camaraderie, mutual support and social aspect of the group, so here’s hoping it won’t be too long.

In our recent on line meetings we have looked at various styles and types of painting, illustrating our thoughts with examples from both renowned artists and our own efforts. We discussed the use of light and dark to emphasise and create drama and there are many examples of this in classical art, but we also had some interesting home made examples in Barrie’s Buddy Holly picture and Sheila’s of Billy Connolly. In another session, with Hilary’s guidance, we created a still life arrangement which some of us intend to paint. Finally we have looked at how the impression of movement can be created. We showed some beautiful examples, again from established artists and our own attempts. These sessions have allowed us to explore fascinating topics and learn a lot and we are considering continuing in some way when we move back to ”in the flesh” art meetings

Recent Zoom Sessions have been spent relating how we have developed our creative talents, and what and how we now enjoy painting. We had an interesting contribution from Janet who described how her work had metamorphosed from black and white photography through precise, detailed watercolour paintings to her current softer, more spontaneous style, experimenting with different colour palettes, paper and techniques along the way.

In the latest session, led by Hilary, we participated in a fascinating exercise on setting up a still life, learning by trial and error, how tiny changes in position can transform an arrangement, and how subjective a process it is. The final composition is to be a subject for everyone to have a go at, and we look forward to that challenge in the coming weeks.

Several members of the group have artistic talent in their family; Sandy’s granddaughter, Rebecca is studying art at West of Scotland University. Collieston is one of her favourite places and here is her painting of the village entitled Collieston at Low Tide.

In our latest Zoom Art Session we focused on flowers. During Lockdown some group members have been reconstructing Van Gogh’s Irises painting, each doing a section. There was a discussion about how we should piece it together, virtually or otherwise. We are looking forward to piecing the whole painting together at some point and seeing how our styles and interpretations vary.

Several people showed and talked about flower paintings; their own work or favourites by other artists. Hilary introduced us to some work by Margaret Drummond, a self taught Scottish artist who does beautiful floral paintings, often using rags or her fingers. The discussion then moved on to art suppliers; which were the best, and where we might obtain discount for group members. We also chatted about what sort of canvases we used and ways of preparing them. We learned a lot from the session, and hope we can continue coming up with informative topics, as well, of course, as just catching up socially. We are looking forward to the next session, hosted by Barrie, where we will chat about how we have developed our artistic skills.