Field Trip to Bwlch Glas Mine

Last Thursday, James Cartwright showed us his fascinating photos of an unfamiliar Wales: far underground in the  lead and slate mines of Ceredigion and Gwynedd.
Then, on a surprisingly sunny Sunday, James took us to this forbidding lead mine east of Talybont and gave us an expert tour of the workings and their history (above ground). As well as sketching and taking photographs, we hunted for galena on the spoil heaps and enjoyed the spectacular views.

The ruined mine buildings brood over an adit

James Cartwright (left) shows the adit to group members and Sid 

The sun glances across a Cladonia colony on the spoil heap

Many thanks to Juliet for these brilliant photos.

... and they were never seen again.

TAG annual exhibition

On 6 Oct we held our annual exhibition of arts and crafts.
Below you can see:
(a) displays of the work we carried out on the year's themes, photographed as we set up the show the previous evening, and
(b) Juliet's photos on the day of the show.

This year's themes

HATS (for The Big Draw, 2012)

FUNGI AND NON-FLOWERING PLANTS

STILL LIFE COMPOSITION

STILL LIFE COMPOSITION 2

CHARACTER DRAWING FROM THE IMAGINATION

COLLAGE

COLLAGE 2

BIRDS IN PASTEL

TREES

TEXTURE IN ACRYLIC

WACKY GROUP DRAWING
(In dim light, to a musical background, we
each started a drawing, which was then circulated
and added to by each member.)

MORE WACKY DRAWING

At the exhibition

TAG Annual Exhibition

Our annual exhibition of arts and crafts 

will be held on

Sat, 6 October 2012, 11 am - 4 pm

in the Llanfach Hall, Taliesin.

§

Displays of work by the members on this year's themes.

Also, sale of original art work, prints, cards, wood turning, embroidery and other crafts.

§

Entrance free. Convenient parking.

Refreshments.

Textures in acrylic

On 23 August, Tracey Smith came to give us a practical tutorial on many ways of achieving texture and surface effects using acrylic paints and various other materials and media, which she had brought with her.

• dropping acrylic ink into wet acrylic
• dropping salt into wet acrylic
• dropping dust scraped from pastels into wet acrylic
• adding extender medium to improve flow
• glazing over acrylic once dry
• applying crackle medium over dry acrylic, then adding a contrasting layer of acrylic
• gluing sand or sandpaper onto the ground to provide texture
• gluing textiles onto the ground
• applying bubble wrap, cling film etc, to wet acrylic; peeling off when dry
• scumbling Treasure Gold over a textured acrylic under layer
• abrading a painted surface with sandpaper.

After a very full and rewarding evening, and enthusiasticapplause, Tracey was persuaded to return next week to help members develop their new skills into finished pieces.

Tracey demonstrates techniques

Using beach sand to create a textured ground

Close-up to show the early stages of the exercise, and some of the materials used

Congratulations, Sian and Tim

Two of our members, Sian and Tim, married recently. We send them our love and best wishes for a long and happy life together.

The happy couple.
Photo by Juliet.

Card from the Group, congratulating Sian and Tim.
Designed and executed by Sylvia.

AGM 10 May

Dear Members

We hold our AGM on Thurs 10 May. I do hope you can make it, as we need your input and opinions. Don't worry - no one will be press-ganged into doing anything they don't want to do!

I include below a draft agenda. Any comments and suggestions for improvements and additions? - Please email me.

Best wishes

Harry

Taliesin Art Group

Draft Agenda for the Annual General Meeting

to be held at Llanfach, Taliesin on 10 May 2012 at 7 pm

1. Welcome
2. Apologies
3. Minutes of the 2011 AGM
4. Matters arising, including updating Members' details.
5. Chair's report
6. Financial report (including discussion on expenditure on equipment and materials)
7. Election of officers
8. Programme of activities
   (a) Field programme
   (b) Annual exhibition
   (c) Evening activities: evaluate current programme (e.g. is it too full?), ideas for new topics
9. New membership (do we need to recruit more?) and catering for younger members.
10. Any other business
    
    
    -------------------------------

No meeting on 3 May 2012

There will be no TAG meeting on Thurs 3 May, as the Llanfach is being used as a polling station.

Don't forget to do some painting at home!

Dr Brian Davies' talk "A Blue Story"

In a fascinating and impeccable presentation, Dr Davies took us through the story of the colour blue in human affairs, ranging from woad and indigo in pre-history through Prussian blue, Egyptian blue, copper salts, cobalt blue, true and French ultramarine, and thepthalocyanines.

He touched on the chemistry and history of painting and dyeing, and his range of characters included Julius Caesar, Vermeer, Horatio Nelson and Dame Edna Everidge. Totally absorbing.

Painting birds in pastel with Karen Davies

On 1 March Karen visited us to talk about pastel techniques in general, and gave a demonstration of the first stages of painting a lapwing.

Karen works mostly on paper, white and tinted, but also showed us a striking image made on slate. She prefers to start at the top of a picture and work downwards, to avoid smudging the lower parts. To fix intermediate stages she uses hair spray, which is much cheaper than  pastel sprays. One unexpected technique was to spray cooking oil lightly over parts of the pastel to increase density of tone.

Members of the Group pastelling (and chatting)

In her demonstration she showed how to use photographic references culled from magazines, but pointed out that slavishly copying from a copyrighted image was bad form and probably illegal – one should construct ones own picture.

The early stages of Karen's demonstration picture

Note added 25 April: You can see some pictures of birds made by members by clicking on the "Galleries" tab above.