Paint in Northumberland
Following on from 6 months of learning about and developing our skills with water based oil paint time to switch to a new media (for some) and look at the range of techniques that can be used watercolours.
A Paint-Ex Event
Earlier this month members of our group had the opportunity to visit the English Heritage site at Belsay Hall and Gardens here in Northumberland.
After an exploratory walk around the extensive grounds, the inclement weather eased and members settled for some enjoyable Plein-Air painting and drawing.
The location offered us a varied choice of subject from lush green woodland and foliage, warm quarried rock face, architectural buildings and of course people. A wealth of inspiration!
â—¦ Some of our group felt that it helped to teach us the importance of only selecting the necessary information and avoid being distracted by details, when composing a landscape.
â—¦ It has helped to form an understanding of proportion and scale, for others.
â—¦ Whilst some enjoyed the mediative feeling of being immersed in the sounds and history of the landscape, which added to the overall experience.
Everyone agreed it was a worthy and instructive visit from which we all benefitted and enjoyed. We now look forward to our next venture.
We try to visit each season to capture nature as it changes.
The first few days of sun, a rare sighting this year, and we made our way to Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre. Although it looked lovely some members were aware of the biting wind off the sea and chose to work in their well appointed classroom from photographs. Others braved the wind and did some work capturing the views. It really is a lovely place for a visit and offers so much for the artist.
Michael is one of our members, we wish him well with this exhibition. Always worth checking with the Centre before making a specific trip to an exhibition as the room is sometimes in use for other meetings or events. Tel 01670 811951 https://www.nmcentre.org.uk/
Name: Michael Knox
Born 1977 Ashington
1996-1997 Foundation degree at
North Tyneside College
1997-2000 BA (Hons) Fine Art (painting) Manchester Metropolitan University
2000-2004 Studies print making under John Faschnact
2004-2006 Studies Museum Heritage at University of Manchester
2011-2014 PGCE/PCET Sunderland University
2011-2014 Lecturer in Fine Art
2015-2020 Freelance Musician
Exhibitions:
Manchester City Art Gallery
Cornerhouse Art Centre
Hatton Gallery
About the exhibition:
The work in this exhibition is comprised of drawing, painting and print.
Although the works traverse different styles, they are all essentially psychological self portraits which enable the unconscious to take concrete form.
I draw from art history, film, literature, music and personal experience to create images with deep personal meaning.
The meanings and visual codes embedded in the work are not explicit to the viewer who must create thier own interpretation based on thier own experiences and psychological states.
“There is a strange music in my soul that not even my throat can sing”
Source unknown C1915
I would like to thank:
Milos Kaliski
Theresa Magnowski
Ted Taylor
This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of my late father
 A package of letters sent to Captain Bell of the 6th Northumbrian Fusiliers in 1920, was found at a car boot sale on Tyneside and given to John Caffery. Captain Bell had written to the Evening Chronicle asking if any Fusilier (or family members) would like to share memories of their experiences in the Great War with the hope that they could be made into a book. The book was never made.
When John Caffery was given them 8 years ago, he set about trying to trace what happened to the men mentioned on Ancestry. He is a member of the Hive Storytellers audio drama group, and they helped decipher many of them (some written in pencil), and produced 3 podcasts reading the authentic thoughts of the Territorial Soldiers and their families. These men were sent to replace the Canadian Troops lost at the Battle of St Julien 3 weeks after they landed in France.You can hear the 3 podcasts, ‘The Lost Letters of the 6th Battalion, Northumbrian Fusiliers’ by the Hive Storytellers on Spotify and other online platforms.
Another member of the Hive Storytellers also wanted to try and draw attention to these men by drawing their portraits, with the view of making them and the podcasts into an Exhibition, but there are too many for one person. Ted Taylor’s Art Group came to the rescue and produced these meaningful portraits.Â
Anyone wanting to visit the CVA their address is: Northumbetland CVA, 107-109 Station Road, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63 8RS. As they are all in the ‘shop window’ they are visible at any time.
People doing their best for the people who did their best.
Thankfully with an improvement in the weather we  resumed sessions after the Christmas break.
Ted introduced these to many of us this season and we found it a very pleasant new medium. We purchased sets of these and they work very well, so posted here for reference or in case people want to get a set of their own. https://amzn.eu/d/320cCjc As always, an Amazon link simply given as its easy, there may be other sellers out there.
We recently did a lot of work using this medium, many of us found it a very forgiving way of working, though very dusty.
Contrasts of the organic forms and the industrial ones, contrast of textures, plenty of reflections.