News
NEWS
7th May 2025
THE CREATIVES EXHIBITION
Fordingbridge Art Club Committee Member and Programme Manager, Valerie Nerva, and Club Member, Sue Sutherland, will be exhibiting with other artists at Cranborne's annual exhibition 'The Creatives'.
It's a great opportunity to browse an inspiring range of arts in beautiful surroundings.
NEWS
30th April 2025
V&A AWARD TO BURGATE SCHOOL
FAC member, Burgate School, has won a prestigious award at the V&A Innovate National Design Challenge, this year themed as planet-centred solutions for real-world problems.
Burgate’s winning theme highlights threats to marine mammals and their struggles in plastic polluted oceans. Their winning design concept - a recycled plastic book that tells the story of Monty the Manatee who struggles in a plastic-filled ocean - is aimed at teaching primary school children about recycling.
" The team’s fantastic engagement with their target audience of primary school students and their clear celebration of marine animals landed them with the category winning prize. "
The Victoria & Albert Museum
NEWS
24th April 2025
AGM
10.30 am to 11.30 am
Saturday 26th April 2025
Avonway
All members are welcome. Please come along. Meet your committee and share your views. And have a cuppa with us!
NEWS
2nd April 2025
THE INSPIRATION OF CHILLY HILL
Invited to exhibit a selection of her paintings in the foyer of Hyde Hall in Frogham, Fordingbridge Art Club member, Belinda Vize has painted from memories of a happy childhood living with her family in old railway carriages on Chilly Hill from 1945 to 1986, where her mother Eryl Vize, was also an accomplished artist.
Belinda’s work will be on view for six weeks whenever the Hall opens for events, or by arrangement.
In her own words, Belinda’s inspiration for her work
" To forget the past is to deny it ever existed!
The distant halcyon days of childhood were lived within these decaying historical carriages. They formed part of the ramshackle dwelling, now long gone, that was home to the Vize family from 1945 till 1986, when things changed forever. "
Belinda Vize with her paintings at Hyde Hall
View from the west
View from the east in the snow
NEWS
24th March 2025
EXPLORING IDEAS WITH AN IPAD
Willard Balthazar demonstrated how he uses an iPad as a sketch book to scribble down ideas using an app called Procreate.
Other similar tablets and apps are of course available.
The benefit of drawing and painting digitally, such as with an iPad, is that there is no mess or wasted materials while working-up ideas - perfect for travelling - or relaxing on a sofa with your feet up!
Using Procreate, Willard demonstrated ways to play around with colour and try out some of the drawing and painting brushes and tools in the app.
If you'd like to find out more about Procreate, take a look at their website, here.
Please note: Neither Fordingbridge Art Club nor Willard are promoting any products. Willard is simply sharing his experience with members.
NEWS
16th March 2025
GILL CARTER LANDSCAPE CHOSEN BY ST BARBE
Out of hundreds of submissions by artists across the Hampshire and Dorset area, Fordingbridge Art Club member, Gill Carter’s painting, based on a special area of Cranborne Chase, has been chosen for hanging in the St Barbe Open Exhibition at Lymington. The painting is titled ‘Our Pastoral Idyll’.
The exhibition, now in its 25th year, is an opportunity to acquire quality affordable art by local artists and runs from 22nd March to 26th April at the St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Lymington (see more here).
See more of Gill's work in our Gallery
'Our Pastoral Idyll' by Gill Carter
NEWS
10th March 2025
STARDUST
Sprinkling powdery watercolour crystals onto a drop of water, instantly revealed a whole new world of brilliant watercolour creation at Lucinda Nicholas's demonstration of Brusho.
An amazing range of effects can be achieved with the sparkling sprinkles that can then be manipulated with a brush, or left to run free, creating unexpected effects.
Following this demonstration, there will be a chance to try Brusho for yourself on 10th May at Lucinda’s Brusho workshop.
Artist Lucinda Nicholas demonstrates the use of Brusho.
NEWS
1st March 2025
THE ART OF GLASS
Members created their own pieces of light-catching glass art in a workshop with glass artist Helen Southwell.
NEWS
26th February 2025
CAPTURING LIFE
Drawing the human form is an intense and fascinating challenge and on Saturday tutor Su Joy set various poses for our life model and explained how to capture tension and observe and interpret the dynamics of each pose.
A few examples of life drawings by members.
NEWS
28th January 2025
TEXTURE TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
Saturday’s hugely popular workshop with Lindsey Cole was an opportunity to try a variety of techniques for creating texture.
The inspirational array of materials allowed for experimentation as various techniques were explored with exciting results emerging throughout the morning.
Lindsey has kindly written some notes about the processes and materials used in the workshop and her website is here.
Some examples of artwork by Club Members from Saturday's workshop with Lindsey Cole.
(Click to enlarge)
NEWS
23rd January 2025
IT'S LUCINDA WHODUNIT!
Artist, Lucinda Nicholas, has stepped forward to help support The Friends of Fordingbridge Surgery's Murder Mystery fund-raiser by donating one of her paintings - an original watercolour called 'Pink Azaleas' - for auctioning at the event.
The 1940s style Murder Mystery event will take place at the Old Beams pub on 7th February.
Thank you Lucinda for offering such a splendid work of original art.
'Pink Azaleas' by Lucinda Nicholas
Artist Lucinda Nicholas with Andy Wilson, trustee of The Friends of Fordingbridge Surgery.
NEWS
23rd January 2025
WELCOME
FORRES SANDLE MANOR SCHOOL
Forres Sandle Manor School is now featured on our website, where we are showcasing inspiring art by the school's students.
Head of Art at FSM, Clare Dixon-Clarke, says, "We are incredibly proud of the talented artists and designers at Forres Sandle Manor."
Forres Sandle Manor students now have a dedicated gallery here at the Fordingbridge Art Club and we look forward to seeing more work from their talented artists.
NEWS
12th January 2025
DEGAS-INSPIRED LIFE DRAWING - SUCCESSFUL START TO 2025
Our life model's elegant and graceful poses brought a record number of members to the Club’s first event of 2025.
Having trained as a ballerina, our model created a series of poses that allowed artists an abundance of opportunities to exercise their drawing and painting skills.
A big thank you to our model and to our Events Manager, Carolyn Pearce, who made all the arrangements.
NEWS
28th November 2024
WELCOME BURGATE SCHOOL
Burgate School is now featured on our website where we are showcasing art by Burgate School students.
Head of Art and Design at Burgate, Sally Firino, says, "We are very proud of our artists and designers at Burgate. We have a very high standard of work and excellent results."
Burgate students now have a dedicated gallery here at the Fordingbridge Art Club, including an area presenting their inspiring Peace Poster designs, and we look forward to seeing more work from their talented artists.
"Many thanks for your support of the arts and the school."
Sally Firino
Head of Art and Design
Burgate School
NEWS
3rd November 2024
STIMULATING CREATIVITY
A warmup exercise to get the creative mind working, before starting a painting, was a key take-away at this Saturday’s workshop with Angela Corben.
Members filled the classroom, as artist and teacher Angela, guided everyone through a series of exercises to inspire creativity.
A variety of paint mediums and tools were explored, as each member had brought along their favourite collection of resources, from acrylic paints to watercolours, and inks, pastels and crayons, along with brushes, sponges, scrapers, pens and pencils.
Angela guided members through the personal process of exploring the effects of treating their chosen mediums in different ways, which proved to be a fun and useful way to release expressive energy in colour and form.
NEWS
23rd October 2024
PALETTE KNIFE MAGIC
It’s always a magical moment to watch a talented artist create a vibrant image and at our Saturday demonstration Fiona Forbes deftly showed members how to use a palette knife to create a sweeping landscape with poppies in a field.
Working in water-based oils Fiona described her techniques as she painted and answered questions throughout the session. She also gave a brief demonstration of a snowscape, showing how to add figures taking perspective into account.
Find Fiona Forbes' website here.
NEWS
6th October 2024
THE COLOURS OF AUTUMN
"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness..."
This Saturday's Paint Together session was themed ‘Autumn Still Life’ with an array of leaves, seed heads, fruit and flowers to choose from to sketch or paint.
The Art Club's Paint Together sessions are always a relaxed opportunity to get together, have a coffee and a chat, and share our love of art.
If you missed this session, come along on Saturday 19th October when Fiona Forbes will be demonstrating the use of water soluble oils and acrylics with a palette knife to quickly capture a street or market scene.
NEWS
22nd September 2024
THE GIRL IN THE ATTIC
When Janet retrieved from her attic a treasured portrait of herself, she was distraught to find it had disintegrated beyond repair.
The portrait, a delicate sketch on thin paper in chalk pastel, was of her as a young girl.
Janet was keen to see if anything could be done to preserve this precious memory and sought help from Fordingbridge Art Club while visiting their Summer Exhibition in Fordingbridge.
Professional artist and Fordingbridge Art Club committee member Lucinda Nicholas stepped in and offered to paint a copy of the fragmenting original.
A few weeks later, Lucinda presented Janet with her new watercolour portrait. Janet was delighted with the result and said:
'It looks more like me than the original and I am looking forward to showing my painting to the world.”
Remarkably, on the day Lucinda presented Janet with her portrait, Lucinda realised that Janet was wearing an almost identical top to that in the painting – and Janet had no idea she had done that!
In her studio, artist, Lucinda Nicholas (right), with Janet and her portrait.
Original portrait of Janet as a young girl that was found to be disintegrated beyond repair.
NEWS
7th September 2024
A MATISSE MOMENT
Our September workshop was transformed into a Matisse studio.
The stage was set with exotic fabrics, flowers, and a live model wearing colourful clothes and a hat as art club members were encouraged to explore their 'inner Matisse' in their own way.
The workshop, hosted by artist Su Joy, was a full-house and members of all skill levels enjoyed the challenge of capturing the model's form amongst the rich array of the patterns and colours of the draped fabrics.
Purple Robe and Anemones, 1937
Henri Matisse
NEWS
16th August 2024
EN PLEIN AIR AT HYDE FLOWER FARM
Painting en plein air at Hyde Flower Farm was a great opportunity to experience and capture the stunning array of late summer blooms on show.
A big thank you to Lucinda Nicholas for organising the event and to Debs Needham for the photos.
Choosing.... then painting the fabulous flowers at Hyde Flower Farm
NEWS
6th August 2024
SUMMER ART SHOW SUCCESS
Our 2024 Summer Art Show was a great success with visitors impressed by the high standard and variety of art on display.
Congratulations to the winners and to all who took part – and a huge thank you to everyone who helped make the show a success.
We are now looking forward to creating more art for next year’s show!
NEWS
27th July 2024
SUMMER ART SHOW NOW OPEN!
Fordingbridge Art Club's Summer Art Show is open at the Salvation Hall, Round Hill, from 27th July to 3rd August.
Visitors are welcome to browse the paintings, sketches, ceramics, prints, books and greetings cards on show.
With many artworks available for sale at a wide range of prices, the show is an opportunity to buy original artwork by local artists.
JUDGING BY PAUL KIDBY
Judging the artworks on show was Paul Kidby, renowned artist and illustrator of the globally successful 'Discworld' series of books by Sir Terry Pratchett.
Paul Kidby
Paul Kidby, and his wife Vanessa, with Willard Balthazar, President of Fordingbridge Art Club
THE WINNERS OF THE FORDINGBRIDGE ART CLUB SUMMER ART SHOW
NEWS
15th July 2024
'DISCWORLD' ARTIST TO OPEN FORDINGBRIDGE ART SHOW
Paul Kidby, illustrator of the globally successful ‘Discworld’ series of books by Sir Terry Pratchett, will officially open and judge this year’s Fordingbridge Summer Art Show.
Paul Kidby, who lives in the Fordingbridge area, worked with award-winning writer Sir Terry Pratchett to create the iconic artworks for the ‘Discworld’ series - and designed a set of special Royal Mail stamps in honour of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.
The Summer Art Show features art by members of Fordingbridge Art Club, founded in 1946 by a group of artists including Augustus John RA, one of Britain’s leading portrait artists.
The Club’s enduring success comes from attracting artists of all levels, from beginners to professionals, who gather in a friendly setting of shared interests, that include informal painting sessions, demonstrations, talks and plein air painting sessions.
The Fordingbridge Art Club’s Summer Art Show is held at the Salvation Army Hall, Round Hill, Fordingbridge, from 27th July to 3rd August 2024 10am to 4pm.
The opening ceremony and private viewing will be held on Friday 26th July at 6pm.
‘Discworld Massif’ by Paul Kidby
© Paul Kidby 2024, all rights reserved.
FORDINGBRIDGE ART CLUB SUMMER ART SHOW
27TH JULY TO 3RD AUGUST
NEWS
10th July 2024
PLEIN AIR SESSION - ST MARY'S CHURCH, FORDINGBRIDGE
Left to right: Caroline Wilkins, Willard Balthazar, Felicity Singleton, Jill Leigh, Carolyn Pearce
NEWS
29th June 2024
AVONWAY OPEN DAY
Fordingbridge Art Club was represented at the Avonway Open Day by Carolyn Pearce, Willard Balthazar and Trudi Day who met other groups who share the facilities at Avonway.
The event was an opportunity to build awareness of Fordingbridge Art Club and promote the Summer Art Show.
Carolyn and Trudi displayed examples of their art, which drew much interest from attendees.
NEWS
12th June 2024
PLEIN AIR SESSION - THE COTTAGE GARDEN
(Formerly New Forest Lavender)
