To access the new website click on the following link:
http://www.rayleighartgroup.co.uk
RAG HAS A NEW WEBSITE FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW.
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New Website
We now have a new website, it looks the same as this but has a new address which is:
http://www.rayleighartgroup.co.uk.
This current site will be closing soon so to keep up to date with all new posts, go to the new site and add your email address in the ‘follow’ box.
Please do not leave a reply in the box below this post.
Thank you
Colin
Demonstration by Paul Vousden
This Wednesday (26th) we have a demonstration by Paul Vousden, he will be painting a cafe scene in acrylic.”Paul trained as a sculptor and silversmith at Colchester School of Art and Birmingham Polytechnic, when he twice received the Johnson Matthey award for design. In 2011 Paul concentrated on drawing and painting in Acrylic, particularly figurative work and cityscapes, and has developed a distinctive style abstracting form through colour and light suggestive of his sculptural background.
Paul paints regularly from life models and his distinctive style led to successful solo exhibitions in 2012 and 2013, entitled ‘Life and Landscape’ and ‘Life in a Red Chair’. Paul is a member and exhibitor at the Society of East Anglian Watercolourists’ winning the Rosemary Brushes Prize at the SEAW 2013 closed exhibition and in 2013 was elected to membership of Suffolk Art Society.Paul’s work based on studies of Cafe culture from trips to Southern France and Italy featured in a solo Exhibition at the Aubrey Gallery in 2016.
Paul was (until October 2017) Artist in Residence at Quay Place, Ipswich.
If you would like to see some of his work, click on the link which will take you to his website:http://www.paulvousdenart.co.uk/
The demo’ will take place at the Cedar Centre, Castle Road, Rayleigh, 7 pm for a 7.30 pm start.
Guests are welcome for a small charge of £4, look forward to seeing you there.
John Newton
Today we all said our farewells to our dear friend John Newton. Although John , Cathy’s husband, was not a member of our art group, he was always there to be our quiz-master at our functions when required, especially at our fish and chip suppers. John also, until recently, ran this website for us making sure we could all keep up to date with forthcoming events and reports of our demonstrations and exhibitions.
John we really will miss you.
John Newton 1946 – 2018
LOVING VINCENT FILM
Tonight at the work shop we shall be showing the film ‘Loving Vincent’. For those of you who have not seen or heard of this film, it is a rather special animation.
The film was made by using over 100 artists to paint more than 65,000 (yes that is correct) oil paintings and it tells the story of how Vincent’s postman asked his son to deliver a letter that he found two years after Vincent’s death, to Theo, Vincent’s brother).
A lot is fictional, however, the film is amazing and well worth viewing, so look forward to seeing you at the Cedar Centre this evening. 7 pm for a 7.30 pm start.
I have to add that there will be no charge for tonight as it is a commercial film, so unfortunately it is for members and their spouses or their very close friends only.
David Hyde Demonstration 11 July 2018
Well, despite the football, we had good attendance at David’s demonstration last night which we all enjoyed.
David’s subject this time was a barn owl in acrylic, he had prepared his painting beforehand by drawing the owl and painting in the background. The board he used was MDF that had been prepared by painting several layers of white acrylic gesso, sanding in between each coat with a fine sand paper to give a smooth surface on which to paint.
He started to build up the painting by using thin layers of acrylic paint, he explained that, for his style of painting, if used too thick, the paint would leave brush marks and hide the under drawing, if too thin and watery, the acrylic would eventually breakdown the acylic polymer and flake. He mixed his paint so that it was a thin creamy consistency so that each layer was quite transparent.
After putting in certain dark shadows under some of the feathers he began to block in the owl body and the log it was standing on with a dark but transparent undertone to give form to the picture. Next he added progressive thin layers to finally give life to the owl, although he said normally it would take him several hours to do justice to the painting so he had to make a few shortcuts to finish in time. However, shortcuts or not, I’m sure you will agree, the finished article is a really beautiful picture.
So thank you David for a really interesting, inspirational and informative evening from which I know we all learnt a lot, we look forward to the next time you are able to visit.
Pictures and text by Colin Mossman.
David Hyde Demonstration
This coming Wednesday (11th) we have a demonstration by David Hyde. David, as many of you may know, has done a lot of work for the SAA and is a very accomplished artist. He has demonstrated for us before and you may remember he produced an amazing picture of an owl in acrylic, so if that is anything to go by, we should be in for a really good evening.
The venue, as always, The Cedar Centre, Castle Road, Rayleigh. 7pm for a 7.30 start, guests are welcome at a small entry fee of £4. See you there.
Sue Spiers Demonstration 23rd May 2018
The evening was everything we had expected it to be, Sue is a very accomplished artist and never fails to give to give an interesting and informative demonstration.
Sue had already drawn out the scene on 140lb pre stretched Not surface paper, made up from two of her own photos, of a Thames barge at Maldon. Working almost vertically on her easel, (not the ideal way to paint in watercolour), she laid on the sky wash of Winsor Blue, Ultramarine and Raw Sienna and allowed this to dry. Gradually she built up the picture, Ultramarine and Winsor blue reflecting the sky were used for the water and muted colours for the background trees and buildings. The sky which was now dry, allowed Sue to put in the sails using a mix of Light Red and Burnt Sienna
adding a darker tone for the shadow area and give the sails form. the water was given a further wash of deeper tone before she put in the details of the boats.
What made a really refreshing change in this demonstration was the fact that Sue managed to paint almost the entire picture 
whilst standing to one side so everyone could see the picture as it evolved. Sue did say that she would have to complete the finer details later in her studio and below is the finished article. Thank you Sue for a great evening and we look forward to the next time that you are able to demonstrate for us.
Sue will be exhibiting in the forthcoming Burnham and Chelmsford art trails, both on at the same time, details of the Burnham Art trail are as follows:
Report and photographs by Colin Mossman
Sue Spiers Demonstration Wednesday 23rd May
Rayleigh Art Group will be hosting a demonstration of a marine scene in watercolour by Sue Spiers this coming Wednesday 23rd May. the demonstration will be at the Cedars Centre, Castle Road, Rayleigh SS6 7QF. Starting at 7.30 pm sharp, so please arrive soon after 7.00 pm.Guests are welcome for a small charge of £4.00.
Sue lives at Bradwell-on-Sea, on the east Coast and has painted professionally for over 30 years. The seaside, boats and watery places are the subjects for her acrylics on canvas and her ‘en plein air’ watercolours. Sue exhibits with ‘Salty Dogs’ a collection of nautical artists, takes part in Burnham Art Trail and has her watercolours for sale in the ‘White Harte’ in Burnham and the Taplin Galllery in Woodbridge.
At Home
We had a really good social evening last night. After the initial announcements, we were given a talk by Phil Harrison and his wife of ‘Bookworm Alley’, very interesting to hear about the collection of Salvation Army memorabilia they collect and also the extremely important work they do in Assam with the children.
Following the talk the Jose Hook award was presented
to Stella Masters for her 
painting entitled ‘Bunny Love’ She received a certificate, SAA mug , a pewter tankard to keep for a year and a voucher donated by Jose Hook.
Second prise went to Colin Mossman for his painting entitled ‘Sunrise Hullbridge’ , he received a certificate and an SAA mug.
Third prise winner went to Geraldine Elliot for her painting ‘Kick About’ she also received a certificate and an SAA mug.
The ‘At Home’ evening is also the time that the ‘Presidents’ award is made. We had 16 paintings submitted and each attendee had one vote to choose their favourite painting. The outright winner of this vote was Christine Dobson for her painting of a parrot, she received a certificate and a carriage clock that she will keep for a year. This is the second year running that Christine has won, she is an excellent artist and it is an extremely good painting.
I must say it was a good turnout, with many new faces which is always good to see. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did and look forward to seeing you at the next event.
RAG 