Battle and District Arts Group

Over 40 members and friends met last Saturday to enjoy an afternoon of entertainment watching Josie’s skills using mixed media

Working from some life sketches that she had produced a couple of decades ago, Josie began by deconstructing the figurative form to create a contemporary design, then the fun began as she glued fruit netting into place before methodically adding colour with a collage of tissue and marbled paper.

I am quite sure that at this point the gathered audience were wondering just how this would work out as Josie seemed completely immersed in her own world enjoying getting messy with glue and paper, but before long the concept started coming together and the image began to work, you could hear a pin drop as we watched Josie immersing herself in the process adding layers of acrylic paint, inks and dry pastels, picking up the textures of the collage beneath.

At the end of the demonstration Josie had produced a very dramatic stylised painting in purples and oranges, retaining a strong central figure.

I’m sure she has inspired many of us to get more adventurous with mixed media in our own work and it will be interesting to see if we have a few more mixed media exhibits in the upcoming summer exhibition.

Our next demonstrator will be Kent-based artist Paul Apps (www.paulapps.com) who will demonstrate painting African wildlife in oils, we will meet at 2.30 sharp on Saturday July 21.

Members are welcome to bring guests along for a nominal fee of just £2, payable at the door.

BDAG meet at 2.30pm every third Saturday each month at the Battle Memorial Hall for popular and informative demonstrations and talks. For more information including membership details please contact Stephen Cheeseman on 07976727004.