New art group

Earlier this week I went along to the new Art Group at our church.  This was my very first visit, something I’d been looking forward to and all part of my retirement plan of trying new things.

The thing is, I have always quite fancied the idea of being a bit arty but I don’t have many credentials and haven’t picked up a pencil or brush since being a teenager.  I’m not sure I have the right young bohemian look, the outrageous hair or weird glasses to look the part, not that I’m stereotyping at all!

I was unsure of what I would be going into; was it going to be a room full of people drawing a nude?  Hardly, at such a God fearing, Bible believing church.  Would it be a formal lesson or demonstration?  Not sure.

As it happened I turned up a couple of minutes late and the group of 30 or so, was already underway.  So I sat down at a table, introducing myself to the two other artists there.  We got into a conversation about the group, what happens, who is who, who to avoid and so on.  Turned out my two fellow artists live in the same neighbourhood and we quickly struck up a good rapport.

Both of my fellow artists were already working on their paintings.  One, John, was using a photo for inspiration.  It was an acrylic still life painting of a bowl of fruit.  The other was Louise who was painting a picture of an elephant from a page ripped out of a magazine.

Everyone else seemed to be doing something similar.  There was no music playing, no arty farty outbursts or anything going on, just the background chatter of 30 people quietly painting and occasionally saying something to their neighbour.  The vast majority of folk there were grey haired and somewhat elderly.  I am not sure how I am going to fit in!!!!

My fellow artists advised me of “the talk” which happens at about the half way stage.  This is when the Pastor interrupts the group to say a few words of christian encouragement and possibly to say a quick prayer, to which everyone murmurs an Amen.  This time the Pastor introduced Ross, who is the new assistant Pastor and was asked to explain his testimony.  This is where he explained how he became a christian.

And me?

Well you can see above what I produced.  I’m pretty chuffed with my first efforts of painting through using some of those new fangled water soluble crayons.  It is based, I’ll have you know, on a photo of Rachel and Hannah walking along Newborough Beach in Anglesey.  Actually the photo was taken with clear blue skies.  I figured it was difficult to “draw” a clear blue sky with those crayons, so instead I used a bit of artistic licence and made it a little cloudy – I do like art!

Will I go again?  Yes I will.  It is a way of being sociable, mingling with other folk and having a go at being arty.

But what do I think?  No loud jazz disturbing the neighbours, no huge experimental canvasses with splashing of paint.  Just a quiet, group of folk all at different stages and abilities and where everyone is welcome.