What's On 2023

Coffee and sketch at the Cosy Club - on the second and fourth Sunday of the month, from 10.00 till 12.30

2023 Monthly Meetings

The 2024 programme will be here soon!

Next meeting:
Wednesday January 3rd, 7pm - zoom
Members' talk

2023 slideshow - here's a reminder of all our activities this year

Coffee and sketch at the Cosy Club - on the second and fourth Sunday of the month, from 10.00 till 12.30

Wednesday January 4th, 7pm - ZOOM
Artist talk by Sarah Wimperis

Zoom details on the members' page and in the reminder email sent this week. Any problems please email [email protected]

Sketchy Sketchbook Shenanigans

"I am a professional artist and within my practice is a lifelong love of sketchbooks. I use them for ideas as well as producing finished sketchbook artworks for sale. I will show you all my sketchbook personalities, discuss my methods, materials and how I work. Hopefully we can have a great exchange of ideas of everything “Sketchy”

My website :www.sarahwimperis.co.uk

Wednesday February 1st, 7pm - ZOOM
Lindsay Olson

Sounds in The Sea: The Art and Science of Ocean Acoustics

We are visual creatures. But underwater, visibility falls off dramatically and the kinds of visual observations that biologists use to study terrestrial ecosystems are not practical. Studying what is happening under the ocean requires a different approach. Ocean Acoustics uses sound to listen in to what’s happening and collect data that illuminates life in the ocean. This project makes visible the invisible world of sound in the sea. I created densely embroidered silk panels that help describe what researchers are discovering. The artwork illustrates the largest daily migration of zooplankton, the sound enhancing SOFAR channel, phytoplankton and the dramatic vocalizations of marine life gathered by hydrophones. I drew inspiration from the work of the Swiss embroidery artist Lissy Funk. In this talk I will also describe the challenges and rewards of a scientific voyage off the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Lindsay Olson Biography
Lindsay’s artistic practice grows out of an intense curiosity about the ways our society is supported by science and technology. She has worked as Fermi National Accelerator’s first artist in residence, with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, the Field Museum, The Center for Acoustics Research and Education and other labs. This project grew out of a three-week research cruise with scientists using acoustics to study the ocean soundscape. Lindsay taught in the Fashion Studies Department at Columbia College Chicago for over 20 years. When not visiting a lab or working in the studio, she can be found canoeing with her husband on one of Chicago’s many area waterways. She is currently working as the first artist in residence for The Wetlands Initiative.

Website : https://www.lindsayolsonart.com/

Wednesday March 1st, 7pm - Leicester High School for Girls,
454 London Rd, Leicester LE2 2PP

Deborah Bird
Watercolour demo - a woodland scene

Over the past 2 years Deborah has worked to develop the application of watercolour paint using just large brushes and palette knives, with finishing touches in oil pastel. She will be demonstrating this technique to us, using it to create a woodland scene.

www.leicestersocietyofartists.co.uk/lsa-artists/Deborah-Bird.php

https://www.deborahbirdart.co.uk/

https://www.deborahbirdart.co.uk/etsy-shop

"I am particularly interested in the unusual and accidental qualities of watercolour and abstract composition.

Inspiration comes directly from the landscape. The impact of our changing climate is another ongoing research portfolio.

My current work explores themes of transition, using the medium of flowing wet watercolour and photography. My approach to watercolour painting is experimental, pushing the medium to its limits, celebrating the translucency, watermarks and granulation effects.

The seasonal shifts, changing features of the landscape and transient visitors provide inspiration for my work especially the 'stripped back' qualities of winter. Another ongoing theme is pattern and sequence in nature. I use many mediums as part of my process including pen and ink studies and paper sculpture.

My recent work involves the integration of intricate paper sculptures into ice. Photographs are the end product of a process which evolves through location based research and sketching, colour studies and mixed media experiments in the studio, paper sculpture work, paper and ice integration and documentation of this final product through all of the stages of thaw and disintegration."

Wednesday March 29th, 7pm - Leicester High School for Girls,
454 London Rd, Leicester LE2 2PP

Peter Clayton
Critique

Members only.

Full members are invited to bring along a piece of recent work to be critiqued by Peter - this can be work in progress or a completed piece.

Associate Members and Students are very welcome to attend but must contact the Committee first if interested in bringing work along.

Wednesday May 3rd, 7pm - Leicester High School for Girls,
454 London Rd, Leicester LE2 2PP

Sarah Ross Thompson
Collagraphy demo

Sarah Ross-Thompson is a Fine Art printmaker who specialises in the technique of Collagraphy. She creates her original prints using collage printing plates which she constructs out of collage items such as string, textured wallpapers, lichen and porridge oats. These items are affixed to a mountboard base which she also peels and inscribes for finer detail.

Her talk will cover the basics of this technique, the simplicity of starting out in this medium and a demonstration of the inking process. She will be bring samples of both her work and printing plates.

https://rossthompsonprints.com/

Born in London in 1965, Sarah grew up in Norfolk before studying English and Classics in London. On moving to Dorset in the early 1990’s she attended Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design, graduating with a distinction in 1997. Her work was selected for the National Print Exhibition held at the Mall Galleries in 1998 and she was offered her first solo show in London the following year as part of the City of London Festival of Arts.

In 2013, Sarah moved from Dorset where she had spent 20 years to Lochgoilhead on the West Coast of Scotland and set up a studio and gallery space where she worked and exhibited until December 2022.. In a spontaneous moment she and her husband decided to head on a new adventure and now find themselves in the delightful harbour village of Portpatrick in Dumfries and Galloway

Her work has been featured in various magazines such as Evolver, Dorset Magazine and Horizons and in 2014 several of her tree-based prints were featured in Green Art: Trees, leaves and Roots, an art book published in America. In 2015 she was featured in the French Magazine, Practiques des Arts as well as having her work selected for the Winter Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy.

Recent travels to Mexico and Australia to visit fellow printmakers have resulted in a collaborative exhibition with a Mexican lino artist in 2018 and a series of workshops throughout the NSW and Victoria area in 2019.
In 2018 she was approached by the publishers, Little Brown to provide the artwork for the front cover of Between Stone and Sky by Whitney Brown and in 2020 she designed the cover for Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape by Patrick Laurie, shortilisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature writing. In 2022 she created another cover for Alistair Moffat with another design being launched in the Spring of 2023.

Sarah is currently working on a collaborative book project with her youngest son which explores new themes including many intricate cityscapes and some still lifes. She also participates in annual exhibitions such as The Great Print at the Rheged Centre in Cumbria and is represented by a number of UK galleries .

Silvery Moon

Wednesday June 7th, 7pm - Wigston Academy

Please note new venue for this meeting!
Site A hall, Wigston Academy, Station Road, Wigston LE18 2DT

Site map here

Please note: There are two entrances to the site and either can be used. The main car park is only about 50m from the hall entrance, and there is parking very close to the hall entrance for those who need easier access.

Access to the Site A Hall is not through the main entrance to the academy. There is a separate entrance to the building which is to the left as you are looking at the main building from the car park.

Summer social and sketching evening - bring your sketchbooks!

We are excited to announce that Patsy Gamble, Saxophonist and Artist will be performing for members to sketch, and will show her sketchbooks.

Patsy has performed and recorded extensively in UK, Europe and the Middle East, with many different artists including Mick Jagger, Steve Winwood, Paul Weller and Suggs. She is also an ex graphic artist who has sketched in many parts of the world.

This year is Leicester Sketch Club’s 125th Anniversary. As part of our celebrations we are doing something a little different for our annual Summer Social and Sketching evening. We are fortunate to have professional saxophonist, Patsy Gamble, to play for us while we sketch/paint her and her instruments.

Patsy Gamble is a much in demand session saxophonist, vocalist, composer, performer and British Blues Award finalist in 2011 and 2012. Patsy plays soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones and has performed and recorded all over the UK, Europe and the Middle East with many different artists including Steve Winwood, Mick Jagger, Paul Weller & Suggs, Mick Taylor, Mike D'Abo, Chris Farlowe, Ruby Turner, Muddy Manninen (Wishbone Ash), and supported artists such as John Mayall, Peter Green, The Gypsy Kings, Gloria Gaynor and Sister Sledge. Patsy performs freelance and with her own bands: The Patsy Gamble Band and Hipkiss (feat. Muddy Manninen). Patsy is also a composer and songwriter and has written a number of classical and multimedia pieces, including ‘In Remembrance’, further details of which can be found on her website.

Patsy will be performing pieces in a variety of genres for us while we sketch. She is also an artist and will bring some of her sketch books for members to look at when we have refreshments and share our work.

For more information please visit www.patsygamble.co.uk

Wednesday July 5th, 7pm - Leicester High School for Girls,
454 London Rd, Leicester LE2 2PP

Members' demo day

Looking at ways of using digital drawing apps such as Sketchbook and Procreate

AUGUST
NO MEETING

THURSDAY September 7th, 7pm - Leicester High School for Girls, 454 London Rd, Leicester LE2 2PP

Scott Bridgwood
Artist talk

Scott will be talking to us about his work, murals and teaching art over 25 years, both in the UK and Italy.

Scott Bridgwood is a figurative painter, based in Leicester. He graduated from Chelsea Art College in Fine Art Painting in 1991.
After exhibiting around London, at a range of venues including The ICA and Westminster Gallery, he moved to Rome, where he learnt to cook spaghetti carbonara and drive on the wrong side of the road. He painted and taught at the BCI (British Cultural Institute) for 8 years and is responsible for many of the murals and signs around the Italian capital. Over the last 3 years, he has exhibited and sold widely across the Midlands and won various prizes, including the prestigious Windsor and Newton, Patchings and Windows On, amongst others. He was recently featured in a national magazine, ‘The Artist’. He currently teaches life drawing at Leicester University and The Ten2 Gallery, Hinckley.He is also soon to be the Artist in Residence at UHL (University Hospitals Leicester-the first since 1946) For more information see @bridgwoodscott on Instagram

Wednesday October 4th, 7pm - Leicester High School for Girls, 454 London Rd, Leicester LE2 2PP

NEW GUEST!
Maxine Dodd
Title: 'Drawing Fast with Maxine Dodd'.

Maxine will start by demonstrating her techniques for capturing movement from sporting events, using video extracts.

After the break we will have a practical session, so please bring along your own choice of drawing materials and a supply of inexpensive paper, as there will be much frantic scribbling!

Maxine Dodd is a watercolour and mixed media artist working in Leicestershire in the UK. Maxine’s recognisable and distinctive style captures the feeling of excitement around sport, especially cycling and the Tour de France, for which she is best known.

Her paintings are collected by art lovers and sports fans alike, here in the United Kingdom and overseas in France, Mallorca, Canada and the USA

Using pen and ink with watercolour on paper, along with gouache, pastels, sometimes acrylic and oils, Maxine captures the world around her to create art of movement and expression.

‘Sport has been a favourite subject since 2012 when I made drawings of the Tour de France and London Olympics. Also, landscape and our life at home. My pictures are all about the enjoyment I find in these subjects which I hope you share too – The energy, colour and experience are so exciting – you may well have seen and enjoyed the same events I have’.

Olivier Leger - POSTPONED till next July
ATLAS project

Unfortunately Olivier won't be able to make our October meeting but we will be rearranging his talk for next July when he will be having an exhibition at the LCB depot.

Take a closer look at:
www.olivierleger.com
Instagram @olivierleger
Facebook @olivierlegerart

Wednesday November 1st, 7pm - Leicester High School for Girls, 454 London Rd, Leicester LE2 2PP

Heather Harley - critique

Members only, full members are invited to bring along a piece of recent work to be critiqued by Maxine - this can be work in progress or a completed piece.

Associate Members and Students are very welcome to attend but must contact the Committee first if interested in bringing work along.

Heather Harley is a mixed media artist and teaches on the Art and Design Foundation course at DMU.

“My practice is very varied I use drawing and mixed media to explore a range of subjects from objects and human form to abstract. My love of drawing is almost always the starting point for my work but surface, colour and mark making are also important elements in my work. I use the sewing machine as a drawing tool and I love the way the stitches both pierce the work and join the layers.”

Heather Harley (Heather Wharam) obtained a BA (Hons) in Fashion and Textiles at St Martin’s School of Art and worked in Fashion for several years in London. She moved to Leicestershire and completed a PGCE in Art and Design Education. She taught GCSE and A Level in art and textiles and now teaches part-time at De Montfort University.

She has a MA in Fine Art Nottingham Trent University and has developed her own art practice and runs workshops.

Wednesday December 6th, 7pm - Leicester High School for Girls, 454 London Rd, Leicester LE2 2PP

AGM and social evening