Basingstoke Art Club: Demonstration

Cockerel from Basingstoke Art Club Demonstration.

Thank you very much to Basingstoke Art Club for the wonderfully warm reception as a guest artist to demonstrate yesterday afternoon.

Walking into a room full of faces waiting to watch you paint and hear what you have to say could be a daunting prospect for any artist. I adore working with watercolour and meeting people so sharing my passion for my chosen medium seems to come naturally. However the audience of the art group or society really can make a huge difference to how your presentation is accepted. I realised yesterday I have yet to meet an art society or art group who aren't enthusiastic .

The hours flew by as I shared several  demonstrations on a variety of subjects. Starting with simple blues moving to the honorary cockerel who now always seems to make an appearance during my events. After the break we moved on to honesty, poppies and finished with a quick rose. Considering I had aimed at  demonstrating a dog or cat in Autumn Golds this all came as a surprise to me! But a demonstration isn't about the presenting artist. It is about what best suits the group, what techniques will inspire and what subjects will fascinate. My goal is to have everyone watching me leave the session  racing to pick up their brushes.

I  also feel its important to listen to what everyone wants. There were a few thoughts on what would be beneficial to see so I happily changed direction at times. Colour flowed rather too quickly as always because it was time to leave before I knew it.

So to everyone who was there yesterday it was wonderful meeting you, thank you so much for buying my book and I hope you are now all painting with new ideas  and exciting colours!

**************