Malcolm Cudmore – Artist

The final article in my series on coloured pencil techniques has now been published in “Paint” – the members’ magazine of The Society for All Artists (SAA).  It shows stages of the “work in progress” of a small still life and invites readers to “Try Your Hand At” the picture themselves.  Some of the reader’s pictures will be chosen for publication in a future magazine together with comments from “yours truly”.

There is a small reference in the article to my newly created double DVD set “Yes You Can Draw” which is launched in the SAA Autumn catalogue.  I’ll be devoting some future posts to this exciting new venture  (for me – at least!).  So -watch this space!

It has been a hectic summer and I’ve been away from home for a good deal of it.  As a result, I’ve been neglecting this website and not even reported about the 2 successful CP techniques days I ran at The Art Trading Company studio here in Bungay.

During the first workshop – focusing on Rural Architecture and held on 24th March, we managed to “shoehorn” 10 participants into the modest studio space for a very full day of excercises, observation and experiment.  We even managed a short walk out from the studio to view some old stone and brick walls and a quick visit to the remains of the two towers of Bigod Castle.  Fortunately, these features of historic Bungay are all very close to the studio.

On 25th June, 9 participants (a slightly more manageable maximum for a “sitting-down” workshop in this studio!) enjoyed a CP session based on Still Lifes that we set up in small “shadow boxes” designed to simplify the lighting for such subjects.  Once again, it was a very full day and some lovely work was produced.

Coming up in a few days on Saturday 15th September is the 3rd workshop – this time focusing on CP techniques for Portraits.  Once again, this workshop is another “full house” and I’m looking forward to another really productive day.

The final of my three coloured pencil techniques articles has appeared in “Paint” magazine.  It deals with erasing, embossing/indenting and scratching out.

In the September issue, there will be a “Try Your Hand At” article based on my CP painting of a simple still life.  Readers will be encouraged to submit their own versions of the painting – from which a few will be selected for a brief critique and inclusion in a follow up article which I anticipate will be in the New Year 2013.

Writing these articles has been a very valuable exercise for me in clarifying these CP techniques and has resulted in some great feedback from readers.  It has also lead to my recording a DVD set for SAA/Teaching Art which will be a complete drawing course for beginners.  I’m pretty excited about this project.  Watch this space for further details of the launch!

This is a project that has been brewing for a while.  I’m not directly involved in the Bungay Festival this year – so was trying to come up with something else.  So – I’ll be making a bit of art and helping to raise some funds for the Bungay Joint Tourism Committee which is a mixture of local councilors and businesses that work hard at promoting Bungay as a tourist destination.  For the duration of the project, I’ll keep a separate page running on the site so that I can post progress towards the finished article and keep my “sponsors” up to date with their involvement in the picture.  A fuller description of the picture and ways for Bungay people to get involved will be on that page.  The page is under “Exhibitions/The Bungay Panorama Project”.

The second of my articles on coloured pencil techniques is in the May issue of the SAA magazine “Paint”.  It focuses on choice of palette, optical and physical colour mixing and burnishing and I’ve tried to de-mystify the techniques!  There will be a final article in the July issue in which I cover erasing, indenting and reserving the paper.  Here are scans of the full article.

Well – it’s not exactly “Hello” or “OK!”, but – I have my name on the front cover of the most recent issue of “Paint”, the bi-monthly magazine of SAA (The Society for all Artists).  It refers to the first of three articles I’m writing about basic coloured pencil techniques.

“Paint” goes to every SAA member (45,000+) and has already resulted in additional subscribers to my newsletter.

Incidentally, the other name on the cover – Steve Higton (a great landscape  painter) – is almost a neighbour!

Here are scans of the full 2 page article.

I’m pleased to say that the first of my three coloured pencil techniques days in Bungay (24th March) has now sold out – including participants coming from Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, the second (23rd June) is half full and there are already bookings for the third (15th September)!   It seems that there is definitely an interest in this fine art medium here which is not being met by anyone else locally.  I’m really looking forward to the first session.  Meanwhile, I have a demo on the 15th for the Beccles SAA group to prepare for!

Two good pieces of news!

1. A new art shop in Bungay (The Art Trading Company) that is committed to high quality art materials!
2. The art shop has a studio upstairs which is available for artists to run workshops and courses.

I have booked the studio to run three one-day coloured pencil technique days:

• Saturday 24th March – Walls, Bridges and Rural Architecture
• Saturday 23rd June – Still Life
• Saturday 15th September – Portraits

Each day is from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm and the cost is £40 per person (maximum 10 participants).  For further details and to download a flyer, please click on the “Courses” tab above.  Booking has been brisk since I delivered the flyers to The Art Trading Company.  To reserve a place on any of the workshops, please call or e-mail via my “Contacts” page.

I have also booked to run three three-day courses of Plein-Air Oil Painting.  Using The Art Trading Company studio as a base and utilising the landscape of the Waveney Valley which is immediately nearby.  Each course is Wednesday – Friday, 10.30 am to 4.30 pm.  The dates are:

• 2nd, 3rd & 4th May – Fresh Spring
• 15th, 16th &17th July – Full Summer
• 24th, 25th & 26th October – Autumn Challenge

Once again, for further details and a downloadable flyer, please click on the “Courses” tab above.

I’ve just returned home from an interesting event at The Ferini Art Gallery in Pakefield, near Lowestoft.  Organised by Waveney and Blyth Arts, local artists were invited to respond to the winning poems in a recent WBA poetry competition.  Over a bowl of home-made soup, we listened to the winning poems and a selection of others inspired by paintings that had been previously shown at The Gallery.

Two of the winning poems were about Benacre Broad, a wonderful area of coastline south of Kessingland and north of Covehithe.  There is a great deal of erosion along this section of the Suffolk coast and the “bones” of trees that once formed the copses that have now fallen into the sea are stranded on the beach there.  I visited the place to observe and photograph some subjects and submitted a couple of small coloured pencil paintings to the event.  The responses are all displayed at The Ferini Art Gallery over this weekend after which the pictures will transfer to Lowestoft Arts Centre (at the Triangle, Lowestoft) to form the February exhibition there.

Unfortunately, I didn’t photograph my artwork before racing off to deliver it last weekend!  Instead – above is a photo of one of the “bone trees” on which I based one of my paintings.

I’m delighted that some of my work is in the Christmas Show at The Cork Brick Gallery in Bungay.   Run by Gill and Ken Skipper in the heart of the town, the gallery always has a good selection of the work of living East Anglian artists and I’m really pleased that I’m included in this show.  The show includes “Good Luck Cork” (CP), “Yellow Bouy” (a small plein air oil landscape) and “Cast Study – Mouth of David” (oil study).  Five of my life studies are in a browser and some of my blank greetings cards are also for sale at the exhibition.  I understand that the Gallery is having a new website created at the moment.  Meanwhile, they can be reached via the Bungay Town website here →