Centrepieces Painting Workshop by Christie Cassisa

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This new year, Centrepieces has allocated Tuesdays for a series of three part workshops.  The first one, was a painting workshop, run by me.  We started our painting workshop on the 10th January, the second day back from our Christmas and New Year Holidays.


Our first lesson concentrated on very basic brush use and techniques.  In our first lesson, we learnt to prepare hardboard for acrylic painting.  (Hardboard is a very cheap and easy to find resource for painting, and can be cut to any size quite easily) I had also bought a selection of different canvasses and canvas board, as an example of the different choices there are to paint on.

  The first painting project was to choose a 'twilight' colour and to use only this one colour for the background.  We also painted a source of light, the favourite choice was the moon.


Once our background colour was dry, (with the help of the radiator in the room) we used marker pens to draw on our chosen silhouettes.  Marker pens are excellent for creating a fine line when drawing detail, or to have more control in your line drawings, then if you want to you can go over the ink with paint.


Here are some of the results after our first painting session. 

James


Denise Tarant

Karen Larkin


In our second lesson a week later, we moved onto graded colours for our background, using two or three colours to blend for a 'sky' background effect.  And again, once our background paintings were dry, we used the silhouette effect for our foreground images.

Here are some of the paintings from our second lesson.

Louise Sydawney Henderson

Duncan Wilson
Duncan Wilson




Paul Gadsdon
For our third and final lesson, we learned to use glazes among other techniques, and our theme was 'Outer Space'.  By this time, we had used all of the different sized and shaped brushes that Centrepieces had bought for the course.  Of course the one that gets the most flack about care of brushes is the teacher, when she forgets to practice what she preaches and leaves her brushes in the water, but at the end of our lessons, all of our brushes were lovingly cared for and stored away for our next painting workshop.


Here are some of the results for our last lesson in this course.

Paul Gadsdon
Duncan Wilson
Louise Sydawney Henderson

Duncan Wilson
Paul Gadsdon


After each lesson, I was delighted to see what our group's artists had created from what they had learnt during the week.  It seemed as if they had made huge leaps in their progress, and I was so inspired by their excitement and motivation.  Each one of them made the workshops a pleasure to teach, and carried on with that enthusiasm right through the week.  Here  are some of the paintings that the artists from this workshop have created since.  Many of which will be framed and some of which may be on sale at Centrepieces very soon!

Denise Tarant

Karen Larkin

Paul Gadsdon

Denise Tarant

Eva

Denise Tarant

Denise Tarant

Denise Tarant

Written by Christie Cassisa. Artist member and Tutor at Centrepieces.

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Erith Community Christmas Tree Project

community project
I confess that I cannot resist decorating every room in my house for Christmas and a quarter of my loft is taken over by Christmas decorations, so when Centrepieces needed someone to design and set up a tree to support a community project in a church in Erith I had to volunteer! The added incentive to raise money for the church and local hospice made the whole enterprise really enticing.

I wanted to do something a little different and came up with the vision of an ethereal Christmas angel, using the tree as her body.

The title of my tree was 'Spirit of Christmas Past'. 


I was running a workshop using salt dough and several of the artists there helped to create decorations in cool blues, silver and white.


Such was my enthusiasm that I was up till 1am one night making tissue paper roses which I frosted with artificial snow to add to the glamour of the figure. The ribbon garlands used to create the impression of a dress were made from old net curtains.



I made the face of the spirit from salt dough, which was then painted and varnished. I wanted her to have long, icy hair and used a roll of cling film which really caught the light in the church.
I had to have fairy lights to complete the magic and sparkle of her dress along with some baubles and silver beads to use as her jewels.


I am fortunate that Duncan and Paul offered (they would tell a different tale) to help me put up the tree in the church and as it took four hours.  I would like to thank them, especially as neither really enjoys the Christmas festivities. 

Adding to their torment that afternoon, was that the vicar had thoughtfully put together a compilation CD of carols and classic Christmas popular songs. This played on a continuous loop for the whole of our time there!

The huge church looked spectacular with about 70 trees filling the aisles.  Our tree caused so much interest and it was great to get feedback from the organisers who were delighted that we dared to be so different in our theme. They told me that it had provoked so much interest. They said that our tree was 'stunning' and can't wait to see what we do next year...I cannot resist a challenge and only 11 months to go...


Written by Denise Tarrant
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Centrepieces Annual Auction 2016

auction
In March 2016, I very excitedly booked our second annual auction at 'The Meeting Place' in The Orchards Shopping Centre, Dartford.  After our successful first auction here we were looking forward to creating a repeat performance, carefully timing it to finish just before the turning on of the Christmas lights.
However, as we moved closer to the event and began to send out word and advertising to our contacts about the coming auction, we thought we should just confirm with the shopping centre that everything was okay to go ahead.


It wasn't.


During the year, the management at Dartford Shopping Centre had had a restructuring, and during this time the record of our booking for the auction had been lost.  It was a big shock to everyone, as we had already done a large part of the work towards our yearly auction.


However, with the quick thinking of The Orchards Shopping Centre management and a lot of rescheduling for some very understanding groups who use 'The Meeting Place', with days to spare, the auction was back on!
Even the volunteer's children lent a helping hand with moving the furniture, taking pictures and keeping each other occupied with some quiet games and laughter.

A huge display of paintings were hung, covering the walls.


A visitor admiring a painting 'Full Sail' by Trevor Whitting.
Sculptures are a relatively new addition to the auction as we expand on sculpture workshops at Centrepieces throughout the year.
There are always last minute preparations in organising the most efficient way to keep the best records, and to keep the auction running as smoothly as possible.
A visitor admiring 'The Gypsies Promise' by Christianna Cassisa.















Diana Donkor, our arts administrator and Geoff Norris our coordinator then worked frantically on a tight timescale to gather and catalogue all the artwork that was needed.


Hundreds of selected artworks were loaded into the cars and van of our hard working team, all artists and volunteers of Centrepieces; the work was then loaded into shopping trolleys so that we could maneuver them through the corridors of the shopping centre from the loading bay to the venue. Paintings were hung wherever we could find space, sculptures were displayed on the furniture we could find, and display tables were set up for cards, hand made jewellery and artwork to be sold there and then.


Once the artwork was all in place, the shoppers started to wander in to see what we had on offer.  Artists and Centrepieces members were there for 3 days during opening hours waiting to talk to interested visitors who primarily came to see the wonderful artwork on offer, but were also very interested to hear of the personal stories of the artists, and how art for them can be therapy, an outlet and eventually a career!

Other stalls that were on display held Centrepieces greetings cards, small sculptures, unframed paintings, and handmade jewelry that were on sale throughout the viewing period, before the auction.  


The large range of Karen Larkin's handmade jewellery on offer throughout the four day event.
Members of the public admiring Karen Larkin's huge range of handmade jewellery.
Stalls were also there for cards, sculptures, paintings and hand made jewellery available to be bought on the spot.
On the morning of the auction there was more work to be done, and as well as speaking to the members of the public who were still discovering this Aladdin's cave of wonderful art work, our team of helpers got to work arranging the chairs, remembering to allow for wheelchair access and viewing space.  Then there were our food organisers who bought, prepared and laid out a beautiful buffet, not forgetting the mince pies, fruit juices and wine!  While all of this was going on, our administration team worked out the best plan of action for the complicated processes of registering bidders, handing out the paintings and taking the payments.     


Hand made pieces, jewellery, Christmas ornaments, keepsake boxes, and sculptures ~ a few of the extras on offer.
Paul Adams our auctioneer adds a little interest or personal touch to every piece by remembering the stories he hears in conversation with our artists, members and other volunteers. He creates a great atmosphere with an easy and laid back humour, while keeping everything together with his professionalism.

After our auctioneer had familiarised himself with many of the artworks and gained some interesting background information about some of the pieces, we counted down the minutes until we could introduce ourselves to the audience that had slowly been filling the room, and start the auction.
Our auctioneer Paul Adams assisted by our lovely ceramics workshop tutor Denise Tarrant.
The auction fell into a nice rhythm and many pieces were sold, some had advanced bids already for those bidders that couldn't attend the event and when the auction came to a close, Centrepieces had sold about a third of the artworks, and made over a thousand pounds, which was split with the artists 50/50.

Seconds before our auction was about to start.
Our happy young assistants helped from beginning to end, and entertained and uplifted us with their endless energy and smiles!

When the auction was over, everyone enjoyed our buffet and there were lots of animated conversations about the auction, about the Centrepieces Mental Health Arts Project and generally about art, life and everything in between.  Happy buyers left with their paintings and sculptures they had bought, either a treat for themselves or perhaps Christmas presents. And who knows?  Perhaps one day, that little painting will bring them a huge investment when they see that their chosen artist has at last achieved fame and fortune!
Thanks to some lovely helpers, we had a fantastic buffet to offer our volunteers and guests to the auction!
Written by Christianna Cassisa
Photography and editing by George Banfield



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