Handmade Notebooks with Janina Maher

As always Janina delivered a well-prepared and interesting workshop that involved some art and some craft. Everyone was able to make one beautiful notebook and take home the materials to make a second. The fun was seeing how each notebook was unique in the cover design and it was certainly a disappointment that not more people booked such an excellent workshop.

As always Janina’s explanations were clear and well supported by her live demonstrations. An interesting and challenging workshop with an introduction covering the technique of drawing vanishing points and perspective lines followed by a practice drawing. Leading on from this, Janina demonstrated how to transfer an image from a photo onto watercolour paper and finally how to use a variety of watercolour techniques to embellish our work and bring it alive. Always a supportive and encouraging tutor, Janina delivered an interesting and challenging workshop that kept everyone busy.

Members of the guild gathered eagerly for yet another captivating workshop, where the nuances of light and space were unravelled through the intimate exploration of interiors and windows in painting. Guided by the seasoned expertise of tutor Gary Spencer, participants embarked on a transformative journey, navigating the intricate dance of shadow and illumination within the confines of canvas. With each brushstroke, they sought to capture the ethereal essence of sunlight cascading through panes, breathing life into otherwise static compositions. Under Spencer's mentorship, the workshop burgeoned with inspiration, fostering an environment where creativity flourished boundlessly. A truly great day!

Artist, Cat Croxford coached the guild members on the art of acrylic expressive portrait painting. This was an exhilarating journey, guided by an exceptional tutor whose expertise illuminated every stroke. Cat’s vast experience and clear instruction mixed with infectious enthusiasm, made this workshop easy to follow, accessible and enjoyable. Learning as a group to transform canvases into vibrant reflections of individual personalities. A truly enjoyable and fun workshop!

Wonderful workshop.
Sharmina introduced the group to Islamic art by showing us her beautiful and intricate work. She spoke of the repetitive nature of the designs and the care and accuracy needed to transfer these to paper, before demonstrating how the grids for the designs were drawn. The emphasis was on the accuracy, clear lines and care of execution.

Because of time restraints, Sharmina had prepared a template and design for us to trace and transfer before painting with gouache in colours of our choosing. Finally we embellished our work with real gold which brought our designs to life. During the day the group learnt so much about Islamic art and new techniques. We learnt how gold leaf was ground by Sharmina and went through numerous stages before being ready to use and that gold dust was turned into a paintable form by dropping water with a few grains of dissolved gelatine added, to the prepared gold in an oyster shell!!

It was difficult to end the workshop, many wanted to continue, but finally all left with wonderful work and wanting to do more. The undoubted success of this enjoyable workshop was all thanks to the kind and patient teaching of Sharmina.

A truly delightful way to spend time with a lovely group of people and a wonderful tutor! HACG will definitely be asking Sharmina for a repeat.

On a cold but gloriously sunny January day our group met in the warm surrounding of Dunsden Village Hall to learn some basic Needle Felting techniques. Our tutor Linda Cookson’s enthusiastic love of this craft and clear instructions soon had us madly stabbing away at the wool she provided and it wasn’t too long before weird and wonderful toadstools started appearing. All agreed that the workshop had been good fun and were delighted when Linda added the finishing touch to our toadstools by producing small LED candles to fit inside . A truly enjoyable workshop!

Our first workshop of 2024 saw us working with Liz Chaderton on the topic of journaling - a new and challenging concept for many of us.
Liz is a fantastically engaging and enthusiastic teacher and we were all soon writing down our thoughts, ripping up & sticking down a huge variety of materials, painting & stencilling to produce an incredibly diverse range of work.

Our final painting workshop of 2023 used Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night to inspire a variety of interpretations.

Our final workshop before the summer break saw us painting in the Impressionist style.

Our tutor Paul Oakley gave an interesting presentation on the history of Impressionism analysing what made these paintings so revolutionary and delving into the brushwork and colour combinations used so effectively by artists like Monet, Cézanne & Mary Cassat…..then it was our turn!

We used a photograph of the Canal du Midi and Paul guided us through our colour mixes and brushstrokes- the level of concentration was massive – probably the quietest workshop we’ve had all year as everyone immersed themselves in the demands of producing our own personal responses!

A wonderful day with Liz Baldin painting Still Life with Fruit using mainly acrylics.