Painting for Pleasure

Kevin Jones discusses how the Painting for Pleasure group he runs at Preseli U3A is continuing virtually.

We have a fabulous group of 18 people, who meet on a fortnightly basis to socialise and draw/paint for ‘pleasure’. All members are very positive and supportive of each other’s artistic endeavours.

We set out a programme of events for the year, which involves monthly themes which members are invited to follow (e.g. ‘Coastal Landscapes’, ‘Botanics in watercolour’, ‘Painting on different surfaces’, ‘Viewing an image in black and white and considering how the artist painted it in colour’, ‘Abstracting from Reality, etc). It is also nice to see members working on their own ‘painting for pleasure projects. We learn a lot from each other and from videos and demonstrations. The emphasis is always on painting for ‘pleasure’.

We have suspended our fortnightly meetings in order to keep members safe and to prevent the further spread of Coronavirus (Covid 19). Whilst that is regrettable, we are still very active in a 'virtual' sense. We will continue to follow our monthly themes. These will involve’ a group collage’, ‘tonal drawing as a basis for tonal painting’, ‘figurative - humans/animals’, ‘printing without presses.’

We are doing this by producing a fortnightly 'group newsletter' and via the setting up of our own WhatsApp group. The newsletter works similarly to the Whatsapp group, just without the same immediate feedback. All members of the group have been invited to contribute to these 'forums' by sending photos of finished drawings and paintings, as well as suggestions, supportive comments and recommendations (e.g YouTube videos on particular art techniques). This is working very well and it is nice to keep in touch.

We miss the warmth and support which we get from each other when we meet in our group, but we feel that this virtual presence is helping us to continue to get pleasure from painting. We know that we haven’t lost the wonderful warmth and support which we derive from our group. A number of other groups in U3A Preseli are maintaining contact and continuing with projects via similar means.