Whitley WI Art Group (WI members only)
Our Art Group usually meet on the last Monday of the month 1.30 – 3.30 pm in Whitley Village Hall – please look on the calendar to check details – we don’t meet every month and sometimes vary the date. Art Group members are kept informed by email.
Susan Lynch and Jean Waite lead the group. We welcome everyone – experienced artists or beginners, and it is great to learn from one another. We have a different theme each month, though members are welcome to come along and carry on with their own piece of work. If anyone wants to come along and give our group a try, we can always provide them with paints, paper etc for them to have a go.
We usually start with members showing us any piece of art that they have been working on followed by a short discussion around the theme, sharing our ideas on different ideas and approaches. We then get on with our own piece of work, though there is usually a small group for beginners to work on something together, sometimes led by one of our more experience members or sometimes with some tutorials to follow.
Our Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be on Monday 27th January 2025, members will be notified about the theme for this session.
Our recent meetings
November 2024
Our Art Group met with a theme of Christmas, and Chris had a lovely display of cards, labels and Christmas foliage to inspire us. Pat G built on the skills learnt in our last session and produced a beautiful holly picture. Labels proved popular and some of us went home with a selection to take home and others painted Christmas pictures – a partridge, and a very Chrismassy pair of wellingtons.
A really enjoyable and sociable session, accompanied by Chris’s home made mince pies to put us in the Chrismas mood.
October 2024
Ten of our Art Group members met with a theme of ‘Autumn’. Karen led the session, and gave us lots of tips of how to use watercolour to build up the layer of colours, starting with lighter colours and then bringing in some of the lovely hues of autumn colour.
We were inspired by a lovely range of Autumn leaves, flowers and berries brought along by members. The room was almost silent as we all ‘had a go’ and everyone learnt something from the session.
September 2024 – Art Exhibition and Holidays
We started with a discussion about our excellent input to the CFWI Exhibition, and congratulations to Chris Spittle on her success in winning the ‘President’s Choice’ award. You can see our paintings below, but there are lots more to see if you visit the Cheshire website, by clicking this blue link. Six of our group visited the exhibition and really enjoyed themselves, impressed with the quality and variety of the Artwork. We also welcomed back Karen, who started this group before travelling abroad for the last couple of years. We look forward to her involvement in future meetings.
Jean had brought back some ideas from Galleries that she had visited on her holiday in Devon – some quirky ‘splash-art’ and ferns. She also brought a seaside scene (with instructions) from a tutorial that she had followed on the internet.
Lots of fun, with some ideas to follow up at home. We look forward to 2 events in October – the Comberbach Art Exhibition and ‘Autumn Leaves’ which Karen will lead.
Some work in progress
Wednesday 24th July
We decided to meet up at Walton Gardens to do some painting and met at the picturesque lily pond. The pictures and more information are currently on the Home page for you to see.
Monday 29th April 2024 – Living in Cheshire
CFWI are planning an exhibition in WI House, Chester in September. A group of us met to discuss possible topics for this and Joan was full of ideas which she shared with us. Some of us made a start, using some of these themes. from Joan
Monday 29th January 2024 – Winter Scenes
A smaller group than usual, but we had a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon painting Winter Scenes.
Some members had brought along some winter scenes and Jean brought along some ideas from the internet. She had found some ‘winter tutorials for beginners’ on the internet and showed members how to access these, and then play, stop, start, and replay the demonstrations. She also did some instructions for those who don’t do computers!
We used ‘wet on wet’ techniques to paint a background before adding trees/people to the picture.
Monday 27th November
We had a very productive afternoon with most of us making Christmas Cards or little boxes for our Christmas tables. Chris S brought along some beautiful cards and examples to inspire us. All were pleased with our results, Art Group is a great opportunity to give ourselves some time out to get out our paints and relax. Below are some examples of our work
Monday 23rd October – Christmas Cards
Our Art group had an early start to Christmas, with the idea that we would get some ideas for cards we could create for family and friends in plenty of time to do some at home.
Chris Spittle inspired us with lots of ideas for cards that she had made herself, we are so lucky have her enthusiasm and creativity. She set up a lovely display of different cards, and helped us with tips about painting them ourselves
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Our members then had a go at making some of their own, and Pat brought along a picture of her cat that she has painted.
Jean had been looking for different on-line tutorials which have been circulated to all our Art group members so they can try some of these at home.
Monday 25th September – Painting using the ‘Grid’ Method
After a break for the summer months our Art group met in September for a very enjoyable and informative session led by Ann C. She only started to paint when she joined our Art Group, but clearly is very talented and won a 3rd prize at the 2023 Cheshire Show.
Ann showed us how to use the ‘Grid’ method to more accurately make a copy of a picture that we want to paint. She used this technique for her first ‘proper’ painting, a picture of her pet dog Fudge.
Basically, you draw a grid on the picture, the same size grid on your piece of paper, and then copy the picture into each square on the grid. You can rescale it if you want to, but that can get a bit complicated!
Most of us had a go at this method, you can see some of our work below – maybe not up to the standard of Ann’s first picture, but certainly work in progress. We were definitely engrossed, with nowhere near the level of background chat the we usually hear when our WI members get together!
Monday 20th March – Camellias
Chris S had a beautiful vase of camellias from her garden as a centre-piece for our meeting. She had followed a tutorial by Harriet de Winton, and made notes from this for us to follow, with a picture of her own painting. She gave us a few tips on how the picture was built up, and then left us to have a go.
7 of us produced our own camellia pictures, while Betty made sure we had all had refreshments to keep us going. A very enjoyable afternoon.
Monday 27th February – Daffodils
We had 12 members at the meeting – with a general theme of Daffodils, or a ‘Welsh’ theme, in line with our March Meeting.
Several members had a go at painting daffodils, from pictures of from on-line tutorials. This was a good opportunity to demonstrate how to ‘drive’ a You-tube tutorial – stopping, restarting, rewinding, etc.
Ann C did an amazing Dragon picture, while another member painted a Welsh leek. Others worked on their own picture, and there was a lively buzz of conversation throughout.
We are still hoping to have some ‘Magical Place’ paintings that can be entered in the Cheshire Show, some members have completed pieces of work already, or have a ‘work in process’
At our next meeting Chris S is going to talk to us about her Art journey, and hopefully inspire us with an idea for a painting – she always comes up with beautiful and ‘different’ interpretations.
Monday 23rd January a ‘A Magical Place’
We were working towards some of our group producing entries for the Cheshire Show later in the year.
Topics covered in 2023
Jan – A magical place
Feb – Daffodils
Mar –
April –
May –
June –
September show – Display of art done by our members
October –
November –
December – No meeting
Topics that we covered in 2022
Jan – Flowers
Feb – Trees and landscapes
Mar – Water
April – Jubilee Cards for Village celebration
May – more jubilee work, and introduction to Drawing/sketching
June – Drawing/shading
September show – Display of art done by our members
October – Autumn
November – Christmas cards
December – No meeting