Arlunwyr sarn artists

workshops

Sarn y Plas Workshop

Just recently, on 30 April, we went back to Sarn y Plas for a day of outdoor sketching/painting. The National Trust very kindly gave us access to the interior of the cottage and provided staff members to support our day. We all took copious photos and all achieved at least a sketch with lots of images and memories to paint later. The weather was amazing with a temperature of 26 degrees and it was another lovely day to be remembered.

In the Beginning Workshop

At the beginning of March 2025, a week of Christian events was held at Capel y Drindod, Pwllheli and included an exhibition of art work organised by Lois Adams on the theme ‘In the beginning…. We decided as a group to produce a piece of art work for the exhibition resulting from a dry point etching workshop run by Hafwen Dorkins. We began by creating simple line illustrations of the seven days of creation, then we etched on plexiglas plates the lines before spreading the plates with etching ink. After removing the surplus ink the plates were pressed with paper through a printing press. When the ink had dried the work ws coloured with pastel or watercolour. All the circular pieces were then arranged on a black canvas board and verses from the book of Genesis were written alongside the pictures with gold pen. The exhibition was extremely interesting with work by local and national artists and local schools created a memorable exhibition.

Jane Fellows Workshop

Jane Fellows joined our group in September 2024. In February 2025 she agreed to hold a workshop for our members and here is a summary of the exciting, fun and very successful workshop. ‘Seascapes in soft pastels, Gesso and acrylic ink’ was the title of the workshop. Jane uses Uart500, a special pastel paper similar to sand paper and a photo of the Eiffel hills from Porthdinllaen. Firstly, a layer of Gesso was layered using a pallet knife on the paper with bits of ripped card to create shapes and textures of mountains, rocks and grasses. Gesso is a substance of mixed fluid and chalk which has been used for centuries to prepare canvases for paint. The Gesso had to be dried with a hair drier before moving on to the next stage. The second stage involved mixing acrylic ink with water and painting it onto the Gesso. The ink creates interesting patterns when sinking into the textured cracks of the Gesso. The next step was to paint the sky with soft pastels and mixing the colours into each other with fingers. The same technique was used to colour the sea, the land and grasses by introducing new colours to create harmony. The last stage was to drag soft pastels across the Gesso to define the rocks and grasses before exhibiting the final works

Sarn y Plas Workshop

On 15 October, 2024, our Group was invited to the end of season event about the work of Elsi Eldridge with fascinating talk and viewing of her beautiful artworks. This was followed by a celebration of the completion of a book entitled "I Chwilio" which has been illustrated by the children of Ysgol Drud y Werin in collaboration with Anni Llyn and Tess Urbanska. It was attended by the children and was a perfect day.

Events at Sarn y Plas, Rhiw, Penllyn May, 2024 - May 2025 - home of Elsie Eldridge, artist and R S Thomas, poet.

The National Trust organised a number of small activities involving the local community the first of which was held on 23rd May 2024. A few members were pleased to take part in an open air workshop led by Kim Atkinson, local artist. Materials were provided as well as tea/coffee and biscuits. It turned out to be an exciting day of group painting in the morning using mixed media and limited colour palette - painting large leaves that Kim found on site. Each person had two minutes to paint the leaf in front of them before moving to the next leaf along and continue to work for two minutes there and so on round the table. Below are a couple of examples of the results. In the afternoon, we sketched and painted in warm Spring sunshine and all went home happy.

Sue Walls Workshop

During March 2020, we had an excellent workshop with the late Su Walls, a printmaker and artist from Pwllheli. She introduced members of our group to paper drypoint plates for etching purposes, and she will be missed very much. In the past, we have enjoyed a collagraphy workshop with Su where areas were cut out of a mountboard plate and then sealed with button polish before printing the image using a printing press. Using the paper drypoint plates is a much quicker process in that areas of the surface can be cut away using a very sharp craft knife and inked and printed using a printing press straight away.

Palette knife Workshop with Steve Pablo.

The year got off to a good start, with a highly enjoyable and productive workshop by the Welsh artist, Steve Pablo. Demonstrating the technique that he uses, in his own highly accomplished paintings, Steve guided us through the steps needed to succeed in applying oil paint with a palette knife. It was a good opportunity for many of us to let our hair down and work in a looser and bolder manner! Steve made time to talk to us all individually, giving sound and considered feedback and advice. Although it wasn't a technique that everyone felt they would be using in the future, it was an extremely interesting morning and an excellent learning experience.

Previous years workshops