NEW YEAR - NEW CLASSES IN THE HANGAR

You all know the familiar Hangar schedule for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday morning (see The Timetable on Our Site).

But for the coming year we are delighted to announce more activities: 

There's going to be an Art Expression Workshop on Sundays by Francesca Messina, and a Starters class for Life drawing and one for Watercolours, both on Friday - by Marina Kulik.
Below you will find extensive information about these new activities - an excellent idea would be to come to the Open Day on 25 September and talk to teachers Francesca and Marina in person!

1. ABOUT THE ART EXPRESSION WORKSHOP 

(first French, then English):

"Ateliers dédiés à l'expression libre et spontanée de son monde intérieur à travers différents procédés artistiques (peinture, collage, assemblage de matériaux). Dans le cadre de thèmes chaque fois différents, vous irez à la découverte de votre propre processus créatif en jouant avec les couleurs, les formes et les matières. L'atelier est également un espace de détente, d'introspection et d'expression qui permettra à chacun de goûter au plaisir de la création artistique suivant sa propre intuition.
Ateliers de groupe, adressés aux adultes, séances de 3 heures."

Une dimanche par mois, le matin à partir de 16 octobre.
Horaires: 9h30 - 12h30 - Prix : 35 euro
Prévoir une tenue confortable, les matériaux seront fournis.

plus d'infos & vous inscrire: francescames@yahoo.it

"A monthly series of creative art workshops dedicated to the expression of your own inner world trough different artistic technics: painting, drawing, collage and assemblage of materials.
Guided by selected themes, each time different, you will unfold and discover your own individual creative process, experimenting with colors, shapes and materials. The workshop creates an environment of relaxation, joy, self-observation and expression, encouraging each person to experience the pleasure of artistic creation and following his own intuition."

Adult Group workshop one Sunday morning per month starting 16 October
From 9:30 to 12:30. Price 35€.
All materials required for the workshop will be provided.

2. ABOUT THE LIFE CLASS FOR STARTERS:

5 Friday mornings, dedicated to drawing a naked model. Learn about proportions, perspective, composition, shadows, background and anatomy

5 vendredi matins, dédiée à dessiner un modèle nu. En savoir plus sur les proportions, la perspective, la composition, les ombres, arrière-plan et l'anatomie

From 10h - 12h. Prix 100€ TC - Materiel inclus
 
plus d'infos & vous inscrire: artsandcrafts@orange.fr (Marina Kulik)

3. ABOUT THE AQUARELLE STARTERS WORKSHOP

5 Friday mornings (or afternoons, tbd) dedicated to learning the technique of transparent watercolours. After the starters-workshop participants are ready to join the regular watercolour class on Tuesday afternoon. Colour mixing, colour theory, washes, leaving white, transparency, layering and more...

5 Matinées (ou après-midi ad) du vendredi, dédié à l'apprentissage de la technique de l'aquarelle transparente. Après ce workshop, les participants sont prêts à joindre la classe d'aquarelle de mardi après-midi. Mélange des couleurs, théorie des couleurs, couches, laissant blanc, transparence, superposition et plus...

From 10 - 12. Prix 100€ TC - Materiel et livre inclus 

plus d'infos & vous inscrire: artsandcrafts@orange.fr (Marina Kulik)

Look what came out of the kiln today !

This is a small selection of the work done just before the summer and left to dry over the summer.

Avril made a mask just before her holiday to Thailand

Christel's 3 bowls - glazing straight on to the greenware

Looking forward to seeing these two with glazing or patina - good job so far Christel

Andrea's little lamb

Tracy's bowl

Invitation Opening Exhibition Pim de Jongh in Chateau l'Aumerade

Uitnoding voor de vernissage en expositie van mijn nieuwe serie schilderijen. Ik nodig u uit om op 23e september aanvang 18.00 uur aanwezig te zijn bij de opening hiervan onder het genot van n hapje en een drankje. De expositie eindigt op 15 oktober.

Invitation for the vernissage and exhibition of my new series of paintings. I invite you to be present on 23 September 6pm at the opening while enjoying a drink and a nibble.

The exhibition will last until 15 October

Invitation pour le vernissage et l'exposition de ma nouvelle série de peintures. Je vous invite à être présent le 23 Septembre 18:00 pour l'ouverture en appréciant un verre et quelque chose à grignoter

L'exposition durera jusqu'au 15 octobre

ABOUT TURNER II

For those of you who are in doubt if they should join the trip to the Turner exhibition in Aix: GO! It will inspire you... Here's a 2012 Aquarellista blogpost about his life... The trip is on 16 September, by comfortable bus and the cost is only 45€ for Hangar members! 
Contact Marijke Obbink  marijke.obbink@free.fr to subscribe


William Turner (Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775 - 1851) was an English watercolourist, a predecessor Aquarellista! In the next post I'll write a bit about his style, in this one more about his life.

Turner was born into a middle-class family in London. His father was a wig-maker and barber. His mother died while he was quite young. William Turner was sent to live in the countryside with relatives who soon discovered that he was very talented: he painted this castle when he was 10 years old:

Unbelievable... he could definitely observe...

He joined the Royal Academy of Art at the age of 14 - and, surprise surprise, he excelled. He left London in 1798 "with little more than a borrowed pony and pencils" and started painting a series of landscapes around Wales...

This work he made as a 23-year-old in his Hereford Court sketchbook. It fetched up £500,000 at a Christie’s auction...

Turner had success and made a fortune when he was quite young. That gave himl the opportunity to innovate freely.

Young William Turner - selfportrait as a bit of a dandy

Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same year.

He also made many visits to Venice

As he grew older, Turner became more eccentric. His paintings changed in style and his audience struggled to understand his vision. He had few close friends except for his father, who lived with him for thirty years, eventually working as his studio assistant.

Old William Turner - in his atelier

And the atelier once more - look again - and you'll see how impressive  it is... especially if you realize that this was painted in the 19th century!

William Turner died on 19 December 1851 and lies buried in St Paul's Cathedral. He left his money to support what he called "decayed artists". He designed an almshouse for them at Twickenham, with a gallery for some of his works. But some relatives contested the will and part of his fortune was awarded to the family. The rest went to the Royal Academy of Arts who still from time to time award students the Turner Medal...

NB: I have used pictures from the Turner special in the Figaro - to have a look inside, borrow it from me or order via http://www.lefigaro.fr/

ABOUT TURNER 1

For those of you who are in doubt if they should join the trip to the Turner exhibition in Aix: GO! It will inspire you... Here's a 2012 Aquarellista blogpost about his work.. The trip is on 16 September, by comfortable bus and the cost is only 45€ for Hangar members! 
Contact Marijke Obbink marijke.obbink@free.fr to subscribe


Turner is known as "the painter of the light" which I think is a very well-deserved title. To me his work was a true inspiration, I remember going to an exhibition of his watercolours in London when I was still in art school. I realized what is possible with aquarelle and it actually made me decide to concentrate more on that medium.

sketch Turner made of the cathedral in Rouen - look at the combination of ink and watercolours

His work is impressionist (although in his time that didn't exist!). In oil as well as watercolours Turner was the first who didn't try to achieve complete realism, but gave that away for atmosphere and emotion.

I read somewhere on the internet  that Constable once said about his work "he seems to paint with tinted steam, so evanescent and airy"... In this day and age we would consider that a compliment! But it was meant as a sneer (compare "Fauvism", now a much loved painting style- but the terminology was first used to degrade the painters as wild animals...) England (the world) wasn't ready for full-blown aquarelle and impressionism yet!

In this aquarelle (Ewenny Priory, in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff) Turner used perspective and light to achieve a sense of vast space

Sunrise, 1845 - Made during the Industrial Revolution: it has been suggested that the pollution might be reflected in Turner's paintings

Turner died 76 years old (a respectable age in those days). From what I found about him he was slightly crazy, but a good person, and we should be thankful that he left us so much fantastic and inspiring work! Like all great modern artists he researched, in his case for possibilities to express atmosphere, emotion, scale, vastness in a painting. He didn't just use watercolours, his oils are also very very impressive, but hey, we're aquarellistas! Below two more extremely beautiful - and clever - watercolours...