Belper Art Group

Welcome

Please Note: Sorry but we are full at this time and are running a waiting list. If you wish to be added to the list please contact
Linda Hartshorn on 07393 778796
or via email at linda.hartshorn@btinternet.com.


We are a friendly, informal group who meet to enjoy, share and develop our interests in all things artistic. We welcome people of all ages and abilities to our regular meetings on Thursday evenings at Strutts Centre between seven and nine.

The photographs on this site are often taken under ambient light which may not be ideal and therefore please excuse the resulting quality.


Once a month, on the first Thursday, we have a show and tell where we bring in the art we have been working on and let everybody have a look. Personally, I find it very helpful because you get honest comments from artists you know about your piece and if you are stuck it can move you on nicely.

This month Nicki kindly brought in one of my loves some prints. Now prints are a very broad area ranging from engravings, which can be very delicate, very fine and quite difficult, to the simpler monoprint, relief and collagraph which are generally courser and more simplistic. And I have not mentioned two of the most popular Linocut and woodblock (Japanese or otherwise). The variation Nicki used is in the middle using a foil coated cardboard carton and cutting through and removing the foil.

So the picture left shows the plate, in the middle and two prints above and below. The print below is made by inking up the plate and simply printing it and the resultant print is dark. Nicki has added a lighter line to her print, in this instance I think she drew onto the final print with a white marker. However, she could have removed ink as done with a basic monoprint. Prints like the top one are produced by reducing the ink on the shiny surface by taking multiple prints or by wiping off the ink. The cuts tend to hold the ink and therefore print darker.

Personally, I often like the plates as much as I like the prints. The plates always look a little different partly because they are reversed but also because they have depth and texture.

Every two weeks or so we have a themed evening where one of our members organises perhaps a still life, a look at a particular artist's work, a technique such as acrylics, pastels, collage, etching, drawing etc. All themed evenings are voluntary so that you can choose to do your own work if the theme isn't of interest to you.

In the alternate weeks marked "General" or "Own Work" in the programme you can do your own work or continue the previous week's theme. We bring our own materials to the club each week.

Everyone in our group is encouraged to relax and work at their own pace - there is no pressure to compete with others, and we have a wide range of abilities and skills within the group. We don't offer tuition, but friendly advice is always available.

Our programme every year includes an informal “Competition Evening” when we will exhibit in a room at the Strutts and invite artists from other local clubs to come and vote for their favourite pictures in various categories. This is a fun event and a good chance to meet other artists from our area, have a drink and a chat. We generally also hold a week long exhibition at the Gallery at Cromford Mill in the summer.

As a way to illustrate how diverse our group is here is a picture of Steve ‘just a member’ proudly kneeling in front of his latest piece, a mosaic mirror frame. However, Steve does not just do mosaics he also does Lino-Cuts and paints.

For further information or to just put a voice to a name please feel free to ring:

Thankyou


Linda Hartshorn on 07393 778796
or via email at linda.hartshorn@btinternet.com
Frank Smith on (01773) 827700


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