Whitley WI Art Group (WI members only)
Our Art Group usually meet on the last Monday of the month 1.30 – 3.30 pm in Whitley Village Hall – please look on the calendar to check details – we don’t meet every month and sometimes vary the date. Art Group members are kept informed by email.
Susan Lynch and Jean Waite lead the group. We welcome everyone – experienced artists or beginners, and it is great to learn from one another. We have a different theme each month, though members are welcome to come along and carry on with their own piece of work. If anyone wants to come along and give our group a try, we can always provide them with paints, paper etc for them to have a go.
We usually start with members showing us any piece of art that they have been working on followed by a short discussion around the theme, sharing our ideas on different ideas and approaches. We then get on with our own piece of work, though there is usually a small group for beginners to work on something together, sometimes led by one of our more experience members or sometimes with some tutorials to follow.
Our Next Meeting
We won’t be meeting in April and our next meeting will be earlier in the month – Monday, May 12th at 1.30pm. Our theme will be insects, led by Chris S. Look out the Bees, Butterflies and other glorious insects – one of the categories in our photographic competition.
Our recent meetings
March 2024
Art Group had a theme of Spring and some members brought along flowers and foliage to inspire us. Susan prepared the session and she led members in creating a ‘Watercolour Spring Meadow’ , showing them how to use masking fluid to create shapes in the foreground before painting in the background. Other members worked on their own projects inspired by photographs or flowers they had brought along – Jean brought along some pansies given to us at the WI Christmas party – now flowering beautifully.
Ann C started a landscape based on Monet’s garden in a previous session and spend much time at home completing it. She brought it along to share with us. Such talent!
February 2024
Art Group’s theme this month was ‘Mixing colours’, led by Joan. She gave us a great overview of colours for different seasons and preparing the background of our pictures. She also brought along lots of pictures as ideas for our paintings. We then spent the session on our own piece of work, creating some mlore lovely landscapes. Thanks to Joan for all the preparation work, an enjoyable and informative session.
January 2024
In January we looked at landscape painting – it was planned as a follow on to our January speaker for the Main Meeting which had to be cancelled.
Jean brought along some ideas from computer tutorials, along with a couple of original landscape pictures – one very precise, one quite abstract. We had a go at developing our own skills, very much a learning curve for some of us. Here are some different interpretations of the same picture, and one beginner just practising painting a tree.
Notes on different landscape tutorials have been circulated to group members.
November 2024
Our Art Group met with a theme of Christmas, and Chris had a lovely display of cards, labels and Christmas foliage to inspire us. Pat G built on the skills learnt in our last session and produced a beautiful holly picture. Labels proved popular and some of us went home with a selection to take home and others painted Christmas pictures – a partridge, and a very Chrismassy pair of wellingtons.
A really enjoyable and sociable session, accompanied by Chris’s home made mince pies to put us in the Chrismas mood.
October 2024
Ten of our Art Group members met with a theme of ‘Autumn’. Karen led the session, and gave us lots of tips of how to use watercolour to build up the layer of colours, starting with lighter colours and then bringing in some of the lovely hues of autumn colour.
We were inspired by a lovely range of Autumn leaves, flowers and berries brought along by members. The room was almost silent as we all ‘had a go’ and everyone learnt something from the session.
September 2024 – Art Exhibition and Holidays
We started with a discussion about our excellent input to the CFWI Exhibition, and congratulations to Chris Spittle on her success in winning the ‘President’s Choice’ award. You can see our paintings below, but there are lots more to see if you visit the Cheshire website, by clicking this blue link. Six of our group visited the exhibition and really enjoyed themselves, impressed with the quality and variety of the Artwork. We also welcomed back Karen, who started this group before travelling abroad for the last couple of years. We look forward to her involvement in future meetings.
Jean had brought back some ideas from Galleries that she had visited on her holiday in Devon – some quirky ‘splash-art’ and ferns. She also brought a seaside scene (with instructions) from a tutorial that she had followed on the internet.
Lots of fun, with some ideas to follow up at home. We look forward to 2 events in October – the Comberbach Art Exhibition and ‘Autumn Leaves’ which Karen will lead.
Some work in progress
Wednesday 24th July
We decided to meet up at Walton Gardens to do some painting and met at the picturesque lily pond. The pictures and more information are currently on the Home page for you to see.
Monday 29th April 2024 – Living in Cheshire
CFWI are planning an exhibition in WI House, Chester in September. A group of us met to discuss possible topics for this and Joan was full of ideas which she shared with us. Some of us made a start, using some of these themes. from Joan
Monday 29th January 2024 – Winter Scenes
A smaller group than usual, but we had a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon painting Winter Scenes.
Some members had brought along some winter scenes and Jean brought along some ideas from the internet. She had found some ‘winter tutorials for beginners’ on the internet and showed members how to access these, and then play, stop, start, and replay the demonstrations. She also did some instructions for those who don’t do computers!
We used ‘wet on wet’ techniques to paint a background before adding trees
Topics covered in 2023
Jan – A magical place
Feb – Daffodils and Welsh theme
Mar – Camelias, led by Chris
September – Painting using the Grid method, led by Ann C
October /November – Christmas Cards led by Chris S
Topics that we covered in 2022
Jan – Flowers
Feb – Trees and landscapes
Mar – Water
April – Jubilee Cards for Village celebration
May – more jubilee work, and introduction to Drawing/sketching
June – Drawing/shading
September show – Display of art done by our members
October – Autumn
November – Christmas cards
December – No meeting