Alison Berret lives on the outskirts of Eynsham.

Here she can enjoy the wide open space of the surrounding countryside and the dramatic skies. But her first love is the sea. She is now trying to combine these two passions into her work.

She described how through a detailed process of sketching using charcoal and pastel she creates a portfolio from which an oil or acrylic painting will eventually emerge.

Alison brought along numerous examples of sketches in sketch pads, both large and very small, and on sheets of a variety of papers including Amazon brown wrapping paper.

We were invited to try out some of the pastel and water techniques she uses. We also took part in an impromptu discussion on the future of our countryside.

It all made for a very informative and enjoyable evening.

Life Drawing : August 25th 2022.

Our model may look a bit bored here but actually we all thoroughly enjoyed the evening. The resounding comment at the close was

More Life-drawing please!

Jill Colchester

30th June Barely There

Jill described her gradual development from very conventional figure drawing to the kind of exciting very much reduced work she produces today. She even drew a very quick portrait of Laraine looking demure. (this back view is not Laraine).

Jane Giffith : Jewellery Making April 28th.

Jane shared her enthusiasm for jewellery making with us by describing the thinking behind the various pieces she had brought along. She also demonstrated the techniques she uses in creating necklaces in silver, precious stones as well as china and sea-glass collected from beaches in Cornwall.

She is a member of Chipping Norton Arts as well as Church Lane Gallery.
She will be exhibiting at The Square, King’s Sutton from May 22nd to May 29th during Arts Week

Moving the EAG venue to the Pavilion has certainly improved the quality of presentations. There is plenty of room for camera work and due to Chris Matthews’ excellent technical skills the demonstrations can be filmed and projected live onto a large screen. So no more jostling to get to the front row to see what is going on.

An exercise of landscape in watercolour was presented by local artist Rod Craig. The event was well attended as Rod has previously undertaken similar demonstrations locally, and is well known to many in the EAG.

Since the beginning of the first Covid Lockdown Rod has been working regularly in and around Blenheim Palace, and this demonstration consisted of the creation of a new work based on one of his photographs of a scene taken within the Blenheim Estate comprising of a foreground of low scrub and teasels, a distant view of a line of trees in the mist, framed by a full height tree on the left hand side.

Rod commented on the value of working with a limited palette and in this case he had prepared a single muted blue and a bright lemon yellow as the basis of the work. Rod’s skill lies in his ability to work in a fluid, open style which plays to the strength of watercolour and allows the painting to emerge seemingly by itself whilst his experience of the medium enables him to steer the emergence in a way that achieves harmony and balance of composition and colour. So the chosen blue and yellow were mixed to produce a variety of shades of green to structure the painting, whilst careful use of burnt sienna highlights and deep, dark splashes of foreground teasels created the highlights.

 Rod’s time and effort was much appreciated by all in attendance.  His style and output have brought him success and recognition locally; he frequently displays his work in local galleries and is due to host an exhibition of recent work at the

Kingfisher Gallery in Chipping Norton between 5 March and 20 March.