Xmas Meal 2008

Thank you to Dave W. for being kind enough to photograph the evening and forward the pics to me so that I may share them with you. Here's a small selection.

Happy Xmas Everyone & See you in the New Year

We Won!

Remember back to the very first post on this blog? The evening where I ran a workshop on Christmas tree decorations. We all worked extremely hard and produced 100 decorations? Well guess what? WE WON!!!

Actually it wasn't until last Wednesday that we were made aware that there was even an award or competition. On Saturday, the Mayor of Stockport judged the many trees that had been decorated at the church and after much deliberation awarded the prize to us. And having now seen the entries, I have to say we were up against some fantastic entries. I personally loved the whittled tree by the scouts for its abstract design and the elegance of the silk 'n' threads tree which I would happily have sitting in my home.

So well done everyone for all your hard work and fantastic decorations :) Yayyyyy!!!!

Programme for January-March 2009

Click on the image to see the events for next year up to & including March. If there are any unexpected changes to this programme, we will announce them on here. Another good reason to keep checking this blog people :)

Charcoal Drawing

On an icy cold night with snow predicted, we weren't expecting a big turnout. How wrong we were I'm pleased to say as just over twenty of us turned out for Bill's evening on charcoal drawing. Once we were warmed up, we huddled around to look at the beautiful charcoal pictures Bill had brought along to show. We then set about taking mucky black sticks of charcoal in hand and having a go ourselves with some fantastic results. There were plenty of trips to the kitchen to wash blackened hands this evening :)

In other news - there was some excitement regards the Christmas Tree - renewed pride as Norma showed us all why she is not to be messed around with.

And finally, David is asking for volunteers from the membership to lead future evenings in the Spring Programme next year. Don't be shy and go have a word when you next see him.

That's the last meeting of the year. Next week is the Christmas Meal. Hope everyone who is going has a fantastic time. The Art Group returns in the New Year on January 7th with a DVD tuition to ease us back in with the theme "People Aren't Scary" (except, as previously mentioned, if you manage to cross swords with a certain chairwoman :) )

Special Prize Giveaway for Xmas

To celebrate the start up of our blog and as a small way to say Happy Christmas to the members of the Mellor Art Society, we are offering a prize to one lucky winner. What can you win I hear you ask? Well what else could we offer the artist who has everything! A £20 gift voucher from Hobbycraft, that's what!!!

All you have to do to be in with a chance to win is

A) Be a member of the Mellor Art Society &

B) Leave a comment on this post telling us what meeting you particularly enjoyed this year, before 11.59pm (UK Time) 31st December 2008.

I will go to randomiser to pick a number out and whoever's comment correlates will be the winner. I will announce who has won the voucher on this blog on Friday 2nd January 2009.

BTW You can leave as many comments as you wish :)

Good Luck

Paul

Pastel Demo Night

Last night we were enthralled by the delightful Ann Benson, who came along to demonstrate how she works with pastels. In only a couple of hours (which included a short tea break), Ann had transformed a blank page into a beautiful snowy landscape. There was no sign of a photograph or image to copy. She seemed to work straight from her her imagination. Along the way, she talked us through how she works, how she selects colours and materials and like the rest of us, the gaffs which happen. All of us were in awe of the beautiful finished picture but Ann, the perfectionist that she is, felt it was merely something she'd throw away for being of inferior quality. Fear not Ann, most of us would give a right arm to achieve the beautiful landscape you produced last night. Thank you to everyone who turned up. We had a fantastic turnout of over forty people.

Okay for all you Mellor and Marple artists out there reading our blog, now's the time to practice leaving a comment because I've got a something special to post next week.

Wet on Wet

There was a treat in store for watercolour enthusiasts last night. One of our regular attendees, Maggie, held a fantastic class demonstrating wet on wet techniques. As you can see, we began the evening by huddling around while Maggie walked us through the steps before returning to our seats and having a go ourselves. So absorbed in it, the group when told brew was up, grabbed a cup quickly and returned to their painting instantly.

Then there were those of us at the back of the class (ahem, like me) who managed to get very little done :) but hey, painting is only part of the reason we gather. Meeting up with friends and having a good old natter is just as much a part of the evening. And next week, we can look forward to a demonstration of pastels.

Winter Theme with Glossop Art group

Last night we had another lively get together with the delightful members of Glossop Art Group. We do this on a twice a year basis. We go to them and then they come to us and last night it was our turn to host. The idea is that a theme is agreed upon and then we all meet up with our art depicting this theme. Kind of like a Show & Tell. This time around our theme was Winter which brought out some fantastic and varied ideas. As usual, there was a variety of mediums and styles on show. There were watercolours, pastels, pencil sketches, acrylics, mixed media, glass and for the first time a mouse mat and cup. And it won't surprise anyone who regularly attends these events to find that some pieces were being finished just as they were leaving the house to get there. After Norma held all the works up for all to see, one by one and those responsible gave us a quick insight into their inspiration, we broke to enjoy a wonderful buffet.

Many thanks go out to all who turned up to make it such a buzz of an event. Also to all the members who generously donated food and helped out in the kitchen. I'd also like to thank those who brought in more Christmas tree decorations. I think at last count, we have around 100 in all.

If you're reading this, we'd love to know you've visited online, so please do leave a comment and say hi :)

Xmas Tree Decoration Night

A departure from more traditional painting tonight. We all met up to get our hands messy and cover ourselves head to toe in glitter, glue and paint. Yes, tonight, we made Christmas tree decorations. Why? We've agreed to display a tree at this year's Winter Wonderland where local groups decorate a tree with a theme. Our's is green, as in recycled decorations. The evening was lead by Paul Browning, who's handiwork with mixed media collage and crafts gave him the knowhow to come up with the ideas. So, laden with jigsaw pieces, plastic bags, yoghurt bottles and old road maps, we set about converting throwaway materials into dazzling decs. It was a hectic busy evening and around 70 decorations were completed. Although not pictured here, Dave was in charge of the most important decoration, our Art Angel. If you want to see the finished furnished tree, keep an eye out on this blog for further details. It'll be on view around the 4th-5th December.

Next week we meet up with our friends from Glossop Art Group and I'll be back to post how the evening went, so remember to check in again :). Please feel free to leave a comment and let us know you're out there lurking.

Welcome

Just a short introductory post to say yes we finally have a blog. I will be attempting to update on a regular basis about members, artwork, events, news and all things to do with Mellor Art Society.

Please do leave lots of comments, it's nice to know you're out there. Bettere yet, why not come along and see us. We meet every Wednesday at St Martins Church 7.30pm-9.30pm

For more details, contact us on the following email:

MellorArtSociety@hotmail.co.uk

Cheers

Paul