September 2025 - Ginny Farquhar - Colour from plants
Ginny initially spoke about the range of garden plants that could be used for producing natural dyes. Madder, Weld and Woad being the key 3 species, and the classifications of dyes eg substantive and mordant dyes. She also gave us a tip about looking for plants with tinctoria in their Latin name eg Rubia tinctorium (Madder).A fter the initial presentation Ginny started to demonstrate how to dye fabrics. For example, immersion dyeing and bundle dyeing. Solar dye jars was very interesting and might be a way to liven up our kitchen! Ginny brought a wide range of materials to show us al. She then explained how to alter the pH of the solution to increase the intensity or colour of the final dyed fabric (eg using iron).
On a rainy and stormy evening, a packed PACS audience had a demonstration of placing figures in spaces by Julie Collins. Julie is a published artist and tutor, originally from the Isle of Man but now lives in the New Forest. She uses a mixture of watercolour and acrylic paint, on both paper and canvas and demonstrated how her artworks evolve over time, some taking up to a year to reach completion. Julie often changes her mind about a composition and uses acrylics to overpaint an area of her work to achieve the desired change.
Above :- A selection of Julie’s work
Below:- Julie at work
JULY 2025 -HEATH POND, PETERSFIELD
Images from the recent sketch out held at the Heath Pond, Petersfield. Whilst the morning threatened heavy showers, the afternoon was much more conducive to a bit of sketching and the group had plenty of subjects to study and capture.
Above :- a group of artists taking advantage of the shade while they work.
Below:- some of the sketches
May 2025 Gel Printing with Alison Butler
The highest attendance of the year to date saw Alison Butler’s demonstration of printing a wide variety of subjects using Gel Plates. Soft and flexible, these plates are used with acrylic paint to create some stunning effects. Alison used various textures including pressed wild flowers, feathers, lace, bubble wrap plastic caps and stencils to create graphic backgrounds that can be used to add other subject matter. Taking a second image from the same plate creates a “ghost” image, less intense and detailed than the first but still very usable. Alison also used charcoal to create an image that was then transferred to the plate and overpainted with acrylics before transferring it all onto paper. Seen here, some of the images from the evening.
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Sketchout days are restricted to PACS members only and take place in stunning locations like this.
View the Sketchout Programme here.