NEWSLETTER huddartsoc@googlemail.com www.huddartsoc.webeden.co.uk

Founded 1890 Issue 51 - March 2020

I said I also wanted to look back on our history, partly inspired by the interviews carried out by Laura Davies with four of our senior members. I committed myself to researching and writing up the history of the Society, mainly from the 1960s onwards, and I am pleased to have presented the final book initially to Council. It was my intention to present it at the AGM to senior members who feature in the history, but now different arrangements will have to be made. I have however placed it on our website to be downloaded. I chose to take on oversight of the archives after Pat Pridmore was no longer able to continue. The deposit of our records at the library has been a major source for research, but it has also been necessary to make some realistic decisions about the picture collection, in difficult to access storage since the Society left its sole use premises 32 years ago, as well as the redundant antique easel. I carefully organised the dispersal or sale of almost all of the collection, and sold the easel. I have ensured good photographic records have been retained. I am looking to a more limited role on the Council, focussing on specific areas: I am taking back responsibility for outdoor days, which I had for 14 years, I am keen to organise further gallery visits, I have agreed to build and maintain the members’ gallery on the new website, and less prominently but importantly I will continue to be the contact with the bank that holds our investments and advise and manage these each year.Finally I want to wish Shirley every success as President, and I will offer my support whenever it is called upon. I first knew Shirley as an outstanding student at my Almondbury classes, and I was delighted that she joined the Society. I admire her commitment to her art, as well as to her great efforts in producing items such as her calendars for the benefit of her charities. The success of Shirley’s syllabuses reflects her awareness of members’ wishes, and her readiness to communicate with and respond to members, and I am sure these qualities will mean she will be a popular and effective President.

From Your Past President

Three years ago, after serving on the Society Council in various roles for 14 years, I knew the time had come for me to offer to stand as President. I cannot

overstate the central part the Council plays in making the Society the success that it is. It has been my privilege and pleasure to work with the team and I thank them for their support and commitment. Shirley has run a very popular Syllabus, Linda Downs continues to be an inspirational Exhibition Secretary, Carol Wood has served for 12 years as our ever-reliable Treasurer, Rachel Sykes continues to be a conscientious Secretary and reporter on our activities, Matthew Evans, after six years as President, has continued to take an important role on the Exhibition team, while David Whitney took over as Membership Secretary at short notice when Val Turner moved away from the area. Jo Sykes has gradually taken on more roles during her year on Council, and I think she will be an excellent Syllabus Secretary. John Steadman has brought ideas and innovations from the start, and will now have an enhanced role managing communications. John is also taking over the Newsletter from Jill Moynan, who though no longer on the Council has been producing the excellent Newsletter for ten years, for which we thank for her sincerely. The Newsletter was initiated in 2005 by Mary McKenzie, and we are delighted to welcome Mary back to Council after a ten year break.Apart from leading the Council and overseeing all our various activities, there have been some unexpected developments. Last year we took the opportunity to occupy empty shop units in the Packhorse Centre. We owe our thanks to Glen Williams for initiating this, for his regular presence there, and for his cooperation recently when we decided to combine the two units into one.

I wrote most of the above before the awful and unprecedented coronavirus crisis hit the world and affected every one of us including all organisations such as ours. I deeply regret that I could not express my thoughts to you on my term as President at the AGM, and to properly hand over to Shirley. I even replaced the ribbon on the President chain for the occasion! I am confident that members of the Council team, under Shirley’s leadership, will do everything we can to keep the Society alive, and to help you all through a very difficult solitary time, by encouraging you to take part in activities and sending us your images to put online. We can only hope that in a few months’ time we can begin meeting again and resume our much enjoyed activities.

David Whiting

President’s acceptance speech

Firstly, I would like to thank all members for voting for me, and to promise that I will do my very best to live up to the very high benchmark set by David and previous presidents. My ambition as President is to ensure every member gets as much (or as little) as

they wish from the society, and enjoys what is on offer throughout the year.I still remember the absolute thrill I felt at the first meeting I attended in September 2010; it was a demonstration by Jeremy Taylor that I found so exciting and inspiring that I was hooked! The enjoyment of sharing the pleasure with like-minded people has stayed with me ever since, and is what I hope every member feels when they attend meetings or take part in shared activities, such as the Portrait Swap. As a new member I attended whenever possible, and never really gave any thought to how it all came about, but over time it became apparent how much hard work went on behind the scenes to organise each event.

Eventually I was asked to join Council, and did so willingly because I wanted to support the excellent work carried out by a few dedicated members, and have never regretted it. I firmly believe in Huddersfield Art Society, and value all it does, as well as the good friendships I have made over the years. It is very warming to see the progress made by members, and to share their success and growing confidence – it makes all the hard work worthwhile. I also feel proud of the society as it changes with new ideas, particularly technology, and the way that new members bring new strengths and inspiration to take us forward to greater things. I hope to expand on the positives, by listening to comments from members and acting on them – for instance, quite a few have asked why we break during the summer, and could we have more outings, so these points will be brought up at Council meetings and looked into further. I hope that members feel they can approach me at any time to bring up queries, concerns and ideas about the society, and promise that I will take it seriously and do what I can to give satisfaction.Shirley WaddingtonMarch 2020

Additional commentsThe above statement was written as a speech to be read out after the elections at the AGM before the decision was made to cancel the meeting, in line with government advice due to the coronavirus crisis. Members were asked to carry out the AGM business online, and that is on-going as I write, so if the nominations are carried my statement above will be read in the newsletter instead of heard at the meeting that was planned for March 21st. Obviously we cannot continue with the planned syllabus, but Council members are trying very hard to make sure that members have lots of options and ideas for art that can be done and shared in different ways. So far we have the Portrait Swap led by John Steadman going on, a Portrait Group challenge by Linda Downs, a two-weekly challenge set by Jo Sykes, and a 30 day challenge set by me. I urge all members to take part in some, if not all of these to ‘keep their hand in’ and help to pass the time while we are confined to quarters. Up to press, our premises Studio 3 in the Packhorse Centre is still open for business, but that could change at any moment, so check before you set off for that.Best wishes to all members,

Shirley

John MacFarlan

It is my sad task and honour to record the recent death of John MacFarlan, a “man for all seasons” in the Society with his musical gifts, his expressive and powerful art skills and even valuable carpentry capacities when called on!

He was greatly encouraging and instructive to me as a quite recent joiner in the Society, making strong yet sensitive images using dark inks and other media. He played fine classical guitar music as a model to the Portrait Group one evening, offering us the most exquisite evening with Villa Lobos, Bach and other classical composers.

John Steadman and I were delighted to share lunch, tea and wide ranging conversations on a number of recent occasions with John and his wife Mary at his house. He took clear joy, as did Mary, in showing us something of his work displayed throughout the house. They were particularly proud of their grandchildren arranged above the landing. His studio attic, enormous with its accumulated work of portraits, landscapes and compositions of various sorts, was a treasure for him and Mary and a revelation for us.

I was happy to exchange thoughts and publications with him on such shared artists as Lautrec, Daumier and in particular Brangwyn, an Anglo/Welsh, more recent artist, of whom he was particularly fond.

I will treasure the memory of a shy and retiring man filled with high musical and artistic talents from which the society benefitted in so many ways.

David Whitney

David Whiting - President

With John’s death on March 1st, the Society has lost one of its most outstanding painters, and a quiet, modest man held in great affection by all of us who knew him. His loss was felt especially amongst members of the portrait group, which he had attended regularly for many years. This was a small, low key group until John Steadman took over, but John MacFarlan was one of the dedicated few who helped it to survive. More recently he has been one of the group members whose work we would always want to admire at the break, and we remember a special evening when he acted as our model, playing his guitar. John also served a brief term on the Society Council, during which time he acted as Exhibition Secretary. He also agreed last year to become a Trustee.

John joined the Society in 2010, when I was introduced to him as a former seaman, and some of his most impressive paintings featured ships. It is sadly ironic that his lung cancer was thought to be caused by earlier contact with asbestos encountered on the ships on which he worked. His most memorable works however were his large-scale portraits in several of our exhibitions, and those of us who have had the pleasure of visiting him at his home marvelled at the extensive collection of these displayed on every available wall space.

I received a number of responses to my email informing members of his passing, from which I quote: ‘a great human being’ ‘I could not take my eyes off his paintings in the exhibitions’ ‘lovely man’ ‘sweet and gentle man’. For myself, I will have a constant reminder of John’s talent through his painting of me for last year’s portrait swap.

Regrettably I, David and Linda had to decide not to attend the funeral due to coronavirus precautions. I had sent a card to Mary MacFarlan, and also spoke to her before the funeral offering my apologies.

I only met John for the fairly short time I came to portrait evenings so I didn’t know him well. However, I found him to be a very sweet gentle man and a talented artist.

KayHe was always kind to me. I liked him a great deal.

Rebecca 

I sat next to John on many occasions at Portrait Group, he was always ready to give advice and help others. He was a friendly and generous man. He will be deeply missed by us all.

John S

John was a great human being. His presence at Portrait Group shall be sorely missed by one and all of us. May his soul rest in eternal peace

Sharmila

Saturday Syllabus events

Saturday 16th NovemberPerspective – How to get it right!

Shirley Waddington led a superb workshop on perspective and started by talking about the definition, from Latin for the science of optics, to the google definition of “the art of representing 3D objects on a 2D surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth and position in relation to each other”, or view or prospect.Shirley introduced a general talk with examples and explained what can go wrong, she drew everyone’s attention to the importance of vertical lines by showing a drawing she had completed of the Folly at Settle, and the difference straightening the lines had made to the overall perspective.We were then provided with a view finder for single point perspective, Shirley had made these from acetate and pen. We were given lots of examples of 2,3 and multi point perspective and where to look in relation to the verticals and horizontals. Everyone was issued with an exercise on perspective spotting errors on each diagram.Shirley provided a range of materials including pictures, books, videos, and handouts and each member chose a picture to work from, concentrating on perspective and using a medium of their own choice. Members found the workshop interesting, worthwhile, and produced some good work.

Rachel Sykes

Saturday 30th November Painting on an I-pad by John Steadman, Jayne Clegg, and Sebastian

John Steadman delivered a brilliant presentation on painting on an i-pad, he introduced the software, features, and marking tools. John talked about the reasons for drawing on an i-pad, no mess, no cleaning up, no water or mediums, most people have a tablet and it contains everything required. John demonstrated the different makes of tablet, and the marking tools including the Friendly Sweede, the Apple pencil, and the 2nd generation Apple pencil. The apps recommended were the Affinity Designer, Brushes, Artrage, Adobe Illustrator and procreate. John launched Procreate, he explained which background to use, how to create a new canvas, the use of the colour palette, changing the thickness of the pencil and adjusting saturation and brightness. He showed us the brush library with 150 brushes, how to change the palette, and the use of different layers.Sebastian (David Whiting’s grandson) demonstrated Artrage, he has an interest in solar systems and geography, and he produced a map of the world, and demonstrated how to alter the size of the pen and enlarge the screen.Jayne Clegg then did a super demonstration on Procreate, she finds it very useful for the portrait group, it is very user friendly, and it has helped her to learn the digital process. Jayne showed creating a digital image of a portrait, and played a video of an online digital course with David Belliveau where he created a portrait in one week.A very interesting presentation showing members the benefits of learning digital art.

Rachel Sykes

Saturday Syllabus events….continuedSaturday 11th January Audrey Erbany – Mixed Media

Audrey works in a wide range of different mediums, and she found a niche in using a pallet knife. She creates depth and atmosphere in her work with the use of colour and texture. She introduced collage and mixed media and explained that collage happens whilst working, and things can be changed and moved around. She introduced landscape composition to collage and pointed out that the focal point should be at one third, and provided very useful diagram of different landscape compositions.Audrey showed some excellent examples of using collage and watercolour, a very simple collage and a portrait made from fabric paper and newspaper. She uses PVA glue for all types of materials including heavy materials and tissue paper. Audrey the did a demonstration using tissue paper. She did a quick sketch then formed a landscape with sun, clouds and a ploughed field. After arranging the pieces of tissue paper she stuck them down with PVA glue, pointing out that the colour will change as the glue dries. Her second demo was inspired by certain scraps of paper and card to form a landscape. She placed a piece of textured card on the bottom, then textured paper in the middle adding some charcoal to allow the card to stand out. She showed how the landscape was formed at different stages from scraps of card and wallpaper. Audrey's finished piece was outstanding, her demonstration was brilliant and members were inspired.

Rachel Sykes

Saturday Syllabus events….continued

Saturday 25th JanuaryCezanne and Still Life – Shirley Waddington and Linda Downs

First we had members' presentations from Robert Ingham and Linda Downs. Robert presented an excellent collage he produced after a Sue Ford demonstration at Huddersfield Art Society. He showed a landscape painting of Castleton where he had celebrated his 70th birthday, he took photos and worked on them later using watercolour. He also showed some brilliant ink drawings he had produced from Stanley Chapman's sketches. Linda paints en plein air in oils and showed a fabulous landscape painting. She attends the portrait group and she presented a portrait of Jayne Clegg in coloured pencil. Linda is currently working on pantomime scenery for Aladdin and showed some outstanding work. She presented a range of other items she produces including lino prints, cards, mugs and a calendar.

Shirley and Linda led an outstanding workshop based on the theme of Cezanne and still life with fruit. Members brought fruit and items for their own still life study and worked in a medium of their own choice. The workshop also involved recreating a Cezanne Classic together using sections.

Recreating a Cezanne Classic (still life with apples) The task was for each member to paint a section of a Cezanne classic painting, then at the end the pieces were assembled together to produced the finished painting ‘still life with apples'. Everyone was given a piece of mount board to paint on both sides, and a section of the painting to reproduce. Acrylic paint was used and it was necessary to try and get them as exact as possible in scale and colour. Everyone admired the finished piece and most of the sections matched well.Shirley moved on to talk about Cezanne. In 1899 Cezanne achieved great success and pointed the way forward from impressionism and became known as the ‘father of modern art’. He had a unique approach to perspective and concentrated on shapes and forms, individual objects, brush strokes and colour.The rest of the workshop involved members working on their own still life paintings. A variety of mediums were used including pastel, oils, acrylics and watercolour. The workshop was very well attended with 29 members present. Some brilliant pieces of work were produced and everyone had a fabulous day.

Saturday Syllabus events….continued

Saturday 8th February Hamer Awards

David Whiting presented this years awards to five outstanding students from Greenhead College, New College and Shelley College who demonstrated creativity, enthusiasm and talent.

Skye Fisher (Greenhead College) is an articulate and successful student who produces flawless work. She has explored different media and for her exploration and discovery project she chose the human figure, working on different life drawing poses. She has a strong interest in animation and is going on to study computer animation at University.Molly Nicholson (Greenhead College) is a fantastic student, enthusiastic and delightful, she has a strong interest in abstract work and focuses on nature, landscapes and weather types. She showed examples of where she had created different elements of nature, using acrylic, biro, and chalk. Her work had a natural curve of movement.Macy Austin (New College) produced some fantastic portraits in her project of containment. She illustrated absence and presence in her project of light and dark. She produces outstanding works in mixed media using mono-printing, photography and paint.Reuben Laycock (New College) loves the human touch in art, he likes to experiment and tries to be impulsive and spontaneous. He uses lots of lines and marks to fill the space and captures movement in his work, demonstrating some brilliant examples of people walking. He is going on to study Fine Art at University.Emma Preston (Shelley College) is a fantastic and committed student and her favourite is pattern and colour. She has researched Japanese art and showed examples of experimentation with vibrant colours, patterns and styles. She produces models with wooden surfaces combining all the styles and showed experimentation with wire and fabrics.Sophie Rowlands (Shelley College) was unable to attend the presentation day due to an interview. Plans were made to meet her and make her presentation in May but unfortunately that has had to be cancelled, so further arrangements will be made directly with Sophie and will be reported in a future newsletter.

The meeting continued with a presentation from Stuart Hoyle of Calder Graphics on new materials currently available on the market.

Rachel Sykes

Saturday Syllabus events….continued

Saturday 22nd February Portraits using charcoal and acrylics

Members’ presentations Vivienne Brown is a very talented artist who appreciates something different. She presented an abstract painting she had produced at one of our Saturday workshops along with two replicas of the painting in textile form. She showed a beautiful example of the abstract printed onto silk and quilted, and explained how she stitches using a needle like a paint brush.Shirley Waddington produces some brilliant ink drawings and presented her own calendar. She showed some outstanding pictures she had created using fine liners, and one with a watercolour wash.

Anthony Barrow After a brief introduction Anthony showed some examples of portraits he had completed using mixed media, then he led a workshop on creating a portrait using charcoal, pastel and acrylic paint. Everyone was given a piece of lining paper which had been coated in gesso, this is important to stop the acrylic paint from soaking into the lining paper. Anthony provided everyone with a handout about placement of features and a photograph of a child. The lining paper was taped to a drawing board and coloured in with willow charcoal. Anthony then drew an oval shape for the face using willow charcoal and carried out a step by step demonstration of how to position the features starting with the eyes, nose and mouth using lines down and across. He demonstrated the use of a rubber for highlights, and used hair spray to fix the charcoal. The next stage was to wash over the portrait using a burnt sienna wash and a large decorators brush. Once this had dried a damp cloth was used to lift colour off for light, colour was added to the lips and eyes, and hard white pastel was used for highlights. Each time charcoal was added it was necessary to spray again with hair spray to prevent smudging. When the portrait was complete it was covered with Ronseal varnish and left to dry, before finally washing over with a range of different coloured acrylics. An excellent workshop, Anthony was a very interesting and entertaining presenter.

Rachel Sykes

Saturday Syllabus Articles

Rachel Sykes has written all of the articles and provided many of the photos for the Saturday Syllabus section of this issue of the Newsletter.

Additional events

Saturday 29th FebruaryGallery visit – Cartwright Hall

Members enjoyed a gallery visit to Cartwright Hall in Bradford, situated in the picturesque Lister Park. The gallery holds an outstanding collection of South Asian pieces displayed amongst traditional British art, demonstrating a true reflection of Bradford’s culture. 17 members spent the day admiring the work on display in the Main Gallery, Gallery 5 (relaxing room where art work is displayed without labels), Kehillah (Bradford's Jewish community), Places & People, Precious & Rare (Islamic Metalwork), and the work of David Hockney. Everyone gathered in the Cafe for a very pleasant lunch, before continuing with the tour of the gallery.

Rachel Sykes

Other News

Life Drawing GroupHello Members, As some of you already know I have handed over the Newsletter baton to John Steadman. Thank you John. I am sure you will do a brilliant Job.

I have also decided because of the Virus and the latest official advice to suspend the life drawing group from this Thursday 19th March.

Best wishes to you all

Keep well. Jill Moynan

2020 ExhibitionWriting this I have absolutely no idea whether our show will go ahead or whether this year will go down in our history as one of the very few years since the Society began, when there was no annual exhibition.

Let’s be positive at the moment and give ourselves something to aim for, a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of an early September hand in date. As I have already told you by email, we have secured premises on the Piazza, the unit that was Evans dress shop opposite the entrance to the gallery. We take over the

premises on 5th September and will have some decorating to do in preparation for hanging the work so I can’t give you a definite Hand In date but current thinking is that it might be the Sunday, September 6th, with a six week run starting on 12th September and continuing until 24th October.

The space is big enough to hang our normal number of paintings, maybe even a few more, we can use all the wall space and we are going to borrow stands to give us additional display space in the centre, plus there will be tables available for workshops. There is a fantastic shop window to entice people in, we can sell from the unit, not just pictures but probably cards etc and we can hold our own little Art Market.

The reality of course is that we cannot predict the outcome of our current situation, obviously we will keep you informed.

Stay safe. Sending a virtual team hug.

Other News…..continued

MembershipI have been delighted to assume the position of Membership Secretary after Val Turner was compelled to resign the position following her moving family to Gloucestershire. Her assiduous attention to detail in running the membership post made the transition between us quite smooth I’m pleased to say. It has also been a pleasure to find that the membership total has continued  to grow  in recent times, now reaching 99 with one or two applicants taking us shortly over the magic century.

David Whitney.

Christmas Lunch Saturday 14th December

To celebrate the festive season members gathered at the Old Mill, Brighouse for this years annual Christmas lunch organised by Jo Sykes. Just under 30 members arrived and ordered drinks at the bar, followed by a 3 course lunch. Members had a lovely afternoon and it was a perfect opportunity for socialising, celebrating and members catching up with each other. Thank you to Jo for organising the event.

Saturday Syllabus

Because of the Coronavirus we are sorry but all Saturday Syllabus meetings are suspended until further notice

Jo Sykes Saturday Syllabus Secretary

joannesykes@virginmedia.com

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The Portrait Group We meet at: Paddock Quakers Meeting House, Church Street, Paddock, Huddersfield HD1 4TR

Because of the Coronavirus we are sorry but all Portrait Group meetings are suspended until further notice

Linda Downs For more information contact me at email: lmdowns@hotmail.co.uk

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The Life Drawing Group

I have also decided, because of the Coronavirus and the latest official advice, to suspend the life drawing group from this Thursday 19th March.

Jill Moynan Life Drawing Group Coordinator.

Your Newsletter designer and editor If any member would like to write an item for the next newsletter please get in touch.

John Steadman email: johnsteadmanhas@gmail.com

Mob: 07837118799 __________________________________

MISCELLANEOUS