Dear OVAS Members,
It would seem that we are now enjoying some lovely early summer weather and the blossom trees and roses are out in full bloom – time to turn our thoughts to dusting off the plein air equipment and getting out into the beautiful Devon countryside or to the coast for some exciting painting!

If the prospect of doing this on your own daunts you, we have several opportunities arranged for you to join with others to practise your skills outside. The first one of these is a day at the lovely coastal village of Beer with artist Nick Watton on 30/06/18.

There is a coach outing to RHS Rosemoor in north Devon, organised by the Sidbury WI, on Friday 23rd June , cost £20, which would give you a chance to sketch or paint outdoors. (please ask me for details).

The third arrangement is a repeat of our last year’s successful trip to the Sidbury Allotments on either Tuesday 14th August or 21st, weather dependent. Our events secretary , Maureen Stone, can give you more details.

I hope that you have all received your OVAS summer exhibition forms , and that you are busy working to prepare your work for display. This is your chance to show others what you have been painting over the last year, and also perhaps to sell a few pieces to the public, who always appreciate our annual exhibitions.

The standard of work seems to go up each year, as does the framing, which we are reminded by artists such as Ray Balkwill and Phil Creek, is of great importance in valuing our work.

These two artists are also very generous in offering us either an original or a print as prizes for the raffle, the proceeds of which this year will go to the Ottery Help Scheme , which many of you may know. Our judge for this year is Exeter based artist Rod Ashman, who will attend the preview evening 2/08/18 to present the awards.

As you will appreciate, your committee works very hard to arrange and put on the exhibition every summer, and they really need your help in stewarding it every day it is on. You will also realise that it is a requirement of exhibiting your work to commit some time during that period, so please, please sign up to the rota as we want to have another successful exhibition!

The publicity materials for those of you who could help to display or deliver them locally, will be available very shortly. [Preview poster here]
We have been enjoying the varied programme of artists at our monthly meetings and the demonstrations have inspired us to either try out new materials or to revisit ones we haven’t used for a while.

In April we met with one of our favourite artists, pastel artist Rebecca Da Mendonca, and in conjunction with some of the Sidbury Art Group, we enjoyed a productive day’s workshop painting animals and/or landscapes in pastels.

Our May demonstrator, Adrian Sykes, was a refreshing and intriguing artist in acrylics and oils , showing us his techniques of painting in layers, the subject matter often from his imagination. Adrian will send us an invite to the preview of his forthcoming exhibition at The Marine House Art Gallery in Beer in the autumn. Please do continue to give us your suggestions for future demos as these are put on for your benefit and entertainment.

In June we saw Tony Hogan at work on a mixed media riverscape.

 

Many thanks to those of you who do bring visitors to our meetings and I hope that more of you will help our membership to continue to grow.
One of the most important changes that we, as your committee, have been obliged to deal with recently , along with every organisation that holds your personal details on their data base, is the GDPR consent . I hope that you have all received your forms from Terry Davies , our Membership secretary, who now has the title of Data Controller! It is MOST IMPORTANT that you return the forms to him ASAP , so that we are able to still contact you by whatever method you consent to. You can also find the Privacy Policy on our website HERE. along with a downloadable consent form if needed.

This has been a big responsibility for Terry to complete by the Govt deadline, and we do thank him (and his daughter) in taking this task on for us with his usual commitment to our society.
I hope you all have a wonderful few months this summer, either at home or on holiday,  sketching and painting to your hearts content.
With best wishes,
Penny Lamb
Chairperson of OVAS