CALL for ENTRIES

***CALL FOR ENTIRES*** Last day to enter.

We invite submissions from artists based in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Bedfordshire for consideration for inclusion on the exhibition of watercolours at Awash: A Festival of Watercolours to be held at Wells Maltings.

To submit work: https://eastanglianwatercolourists.co.uk/submissions/

Friends of the SEAW can submit at a concessionary rate of £6 per painting. If you would like to sign up as a Friend of the SEAW before submitting work: https://eastanglianwatercolourists.co.uk/membership-account/membership-checkout/?level=1

"Somebody Cares"

NEW WORK

"Somebody Cares.........#Watercolour on Arches papers

This recently completed  painting was from a photo I took earlier this year in The Gambia.  We were on a day out with Sandy, who founded and runs Goal For The Gambia, visiting the school in Somita. Sandy took along some blankets that Maggie and the scouts had made for the sick and elderly in the village. She handed one of the blankets to the headteachers mother and I was lucky to capture the moment. Such simple, but much needed things give so much joy to the people of The Gambia.

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 Goal for The Gambia needs your help

June 27th

Disaster in Somita today. Huge winds and rain today has taken the roof off at both Bantangba nursery and the new school we built earlier this year. I am told at least 10 families have lost their roof too. We need to raise funds urgently to fix the two schools. I am waiting for estimates but on past experience it will be no less than £2000 each. Maybe more. Please, if you were thinking about donating anything to the charity can you do it now. Quickest way is through virgin money giving , donate now button at the top of the page. If you prefer to donate through out bank account please let me know and I will send you the details. Let’s get these schools fixed before more heavy rain comes and does even more damage. The students will also not be able to attend classes or do their end of year exams. Every pound donated will help. Thank you
In the photos below you can see Bantangba nursery on the left and Somita Arabic school on the left

July 1st

Update on the roof situation. The carpenter/roofer who we have used with great success in Kitty has been to Somita to assess the damage. Both roofs have to be completely replaced including the wood structure. Bantangba quote us D150000 ( £2500 roughly). And Somita Arabic school is d170000 ( £2750 ish) so we are looking for £5250. Thanks to Alison who did the Thames Walk and raised £500 for us and has agreed it can be used towards the repairs. We have also had some generous donations from supporters who saw the original post. We now have around £1000 in total, so still a way to go. Please share, donate if you and if anyone has any ideas for fundraising please let me know. We have to do these repairs urgently, both schools are our responsibility and if they are not done it will be the students who suffer. Many of them are due to sit national exams very soon. Thank you to everyone who has already donated. We will get this done but only with your help! Thanks xx

July 10th

Work has started on the two roofs despite heavy rain at times. We are still a long way short of the money we need to complete this work , we have raised £1125.74 so far, thank you to everyone who has donated so far. We still need another £4K and at the moment I am using money for other projects which of course means we need to replace that to continue with promised work. I just can’t leave the schools with no roofs! If you can spare a pound or two it will help! Never think your donation is too small to make a difference. Virgin money giving link to donate at the top of the page or if you prefer bank transfer send me a message and I will give you the details. Thank you very much x

July 24th 

Work has gone ahead , despite not having the money we need to do the work yet! We are borrowing money from our other projects while we continue to seek donations. We really had no choice but to go ahead. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far! 

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If you would like to either, donate to the urgent work needed, sponsor a child/student or find out more about what the charity does. 

Please visit their website

GOAL for The Gambia

You can also help by shopping online through easyfundraising and Amazon Smile

and it won't cost you a penny. 

Find out more

HOW YOU CAN HELP

We are now registered for Amazon Smile. If you are purchasing anything through Amazon please click on our link. You then click on us by searching for Giving Opportunities to Achieve and Learn ( our registered name) and remember to shop on smile amazon each time. Your choice of charity only needs to be done once. It costs you nothing but could be amazing for us! Thank you x

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1125489-0

Elected a full member of the SWA

Thrilled, excited and honoured to announce that I have been elected as a full member of the Society of Women Artists.

The Society will also be hanging 4 of my paintings at this years exhibition. I would like to thank all the ladies who work tirelessly at the SWA and a huge thank you to all my family and friends, without who's continued comments, support and inspiration I wouldn’t have made it this far. 

From left to right: Emmeline,  Behind the eyes,  Somita girl

Bottom:  Punda milia

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Society of Women Artists 157th Exhibition

Mall Galleries:  The Mall . London . SW1

Exhibition Open: Tuesday 25 September at 4.00 to Sunday 30 September 10am to 5pm daily, closing at 3pm on Sunday 30 September

New Tiger Painting - SEAW Exhibition

Just put the finishing touches on this New Tiger painting, ready for the Society of East Anglian Watercolourists members Spring Exhibition. Be sure to come along and take a look, full of very talented watercolour artist.

It will be held at The Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings, Suffolk from Friday 25th May to Wednesday 30th May. @eastanglianwatercolourists

Pre-selected for the RI. . . .

Pre-selected for the RI. . . . 

Thrilled to get this painting "Behind the eyes" pre-selected for the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 206th Exhibition . Feel so honoured to even get it this far, fingers crossed for the next stage

With special thanks to the photographer for the use of his photo:  Donald Teel on Unsplash

Charity Raffle . . . win an original watercolour

DONATE &WIN ONE OF MY ORIGINAL WATERCOLOURS

I am fundraising to support GOAL for The Gambia and the work they do to improve the lives of others, by raffling one of my original watercolours. The winner gets to choose from the paintings below.

From my first visit to the Gambia I had decided I wanted to sponsor a child and spent a long time researching for the right Charity. All my searches came back to one charity, Goal for The Gambia. We got in touch with Sandy, Founder and Trustee GOAL for The Gambia, who on our next visit, took us out for the day to show us the work they do, where they are now supporting five schools and a health clinic which serves more than 10,000 people.

We were taken aback by how far our mere £5.00 went, which is all it costs to sponsor a child to go to school, including uniform and books. And were consulted on what would happen if any was let over. I know, hard to believe that there would be anything left. 

We were particularly struck by the work being done in the clinic. What has already been achieved since they started helping the clinic is astounding. When I first entered the building I felt I was in a time zone, that of a wartime hospital, images you I would have seen on old TV films, I found it hard to imagine what it was like when they started, knowing the amount of work that had already been achieved. Please take a few minutes to read about what this charity does HERE  We decided then that we wanted to do what we could to help, which is where raffling one of my paintings came in. 

Amongst so many emotions we felt throughout that day, one of the things that struck was the transparency of how the charity is run and seeing that for ourselves first hand. 100% of every donation goes where it is supposed to. They do not fundraise for administration costs, instead relying on Gift Aid to fund these essential overheads. You can read more about them and the work they do by visiting their website Goal for The Gambia

You can donate and be in with a chance of winning one of my paintings with as little as £5.00 and know that it will go a long way to helping the children and the people there .   

If you donate, please make sure to either add your email to the message box as it will be needed if you win. If you would rather it didn't show on the charity page, please send it to me by email: contact@stephiebutler.com. I will also post the winners name on all social media, along with my website and blog. Thank you in advance for all those who donate and know how much it's truly appreciated. I thank you on their behalf. 

DEVON UK . . . 2 DAY WORKSHOP

DEVON UK 2 DAY WORKSHOP

Watercolour Portraits

13th & 14th October 2016

Delighted to be asked to give a workshop at the East Devon Art Academy

www.eastdevonart.co.uk

 Limited places available

Please contact me and I will send you the relevant info or visit their website

2 Day workshop in Holland - last few spaces

I am pleased to announce I will be back in Holland this year giving another 2 day workshop.

The workshop will be held at the Hotel de Valk, in Franeker.http://www.hoteldevalkfraneker.nl

If you would like to attend the workshop, please contact me through the contact page on my website. 

Painting Holiday at Bandouille . . . 2015

Come paint with me in France 28th Jun - 4th July 2015

www.francepaintingholiday.com

Last year I spent a glorious week as the guest teacher  of a portrait watercolour group at the beautiful Bandouille in France and am thrilled to say I will be back there again in 2015 teaching watercolour Portraits and Wildlife.

Bandouille A heavenly place to relax and paint .

Bandouille is a beautiful stone building, part of 12th century monastery and part 18th centuary farmhouse. 24 acres of the most beautiful surroundings, consisting of a 12 acre lake with outbuildings and barns, along with the remains of the original church, the magnificent monastery dome, two smaller lakes, fields and orchards.  I can't put into words how lovely it was to stay and teach at Bandouille. Bix and Drew go over and beyond making you welcome and comfortable in their  home.

www.francepaintingholiday.com

Eyes of Bue" voted runner up . . .

Thrilled to find out my painting "Eyes of Blue" was runner up in the Redbridge Arts Association Summer Exhibition 2014. This was done by public voting so thank you to all those who took the time to vote not only on mine but everyone's work. Thank you

"Eyes of Blue" is currently on Exhibition for sale at the Picturecraft Gallery in Holt. 

Exhibiting at the Picturecraft Art Gallery in Norfolk . . . .

After a lovely visit to Holt in Norfolk today I'm happy to tell you I will be Exhibiting at the Picturecraft Gallery later this year.

Email	info@picturecraftgallery.com
Website	http://www.picturecraftgallery.com

The joy of teaching . . .

There seems to have been so much going on lately to keep me from remembering to update my blog, so it may take me a while to catch up with it all.

My demo painting "Eyes of Blue"

Among other thing I have been teaching, which is something i'm trying to do more of . One of the many friends I've met online over the years is very talented lady, Pat Elliott. Not only is Pat an Author, an Artist, but an amazing healer as well. I had known Pat for quite some time and recently started having Reflexology treatment from her, this I can highly recommend, hands that heal don't come close to describing what Pat has done for me. If you live in the south of the UK, look her up, you won't be disappointed.

Back to the teaching day. Pat wanted a days tuition on how to paint portraits in Watercolour, so off I went and spent the most wonderful day with her. The sun was shining and as it turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year, we painted all day in her summerhouse.

I started the demo using a ref photo from the Wetcanvas photo library. Painting a little at a time showing Pat various techniques that I use, along with encouraging her to include part of herself in her painting. This is a little difficult to do at first when learning to paint in a different style, but does come when you learn to relax, play and take chances.

I was amazed how quickly Pat picked things up and her eagerness to learn was inspiring to me . What she achieved at the end of the day was outstanding, especially when taking into account, the ref she used was a very small snap shot.

This is Pat's painting as it stood at the end of the day. Isn't it amazing. So much more than a portrait painting, the emotions captured here are uplifting.

Pat's painting from the tuition day. @Pat Elliot  

 It was wonderful to read that Pat had kept up the hard work soon after I left and carried on playing and practicing the techniques, combining her already vast knowledge. This was a painting she produced on her own, developing the composition herself as she was already a much practiced artist. It was great to see her post a comparison to a much earlier painting, something we should all do with our own work every so often.

It gives me such a thrill to know i've helped in any way. When seeing a student paint with eagerness and enjoyment, it gives me added inspiration in my own work.

Archie ©Pat Elliot - 

Pat's previous painting @Pat Elliot 

The most important thing I can advise anyone learning is to play. Not everything will turn out as wanted, just take the bits you liked and carry them on to the next painting. It is the only way to move forward.

SWA Society of Women Artists Exhibition.

I know I have a lot to catch up on here and this one is very late but wanted to make sure I remembered to post about the SWA Exhibition and what an amazing day it was.

My friend Joanna had made a promise to me that if I got in this year, she would come and stay, and we are talking about from Holland here, and join me in going to the preview day. I hadn't attended in the past couple of years for a variety of reasons, but was determined to go this year. Thank you Joanna it meant a lot.

What also made it really special this year was that I and my work was introduced by the President, Sue Jelly, to the Patron HRH Princess Michael of Kent who opened the Exhibition. If that wasn't enough I sold one of the paintings too. Wow, what a day it turned out to be and one I will always remember.

 Joanna managed to grab a couple of photos for me .

I have to say I found the standard even higher this year than it normally is. There were so many outstanding paintings I was left wondering how I managed to get these two in.  I would encourage every woman artist to enter this exhibition, it truly is a wonderful Society.

http://www.society-women-artists.org.uk/
 

Selected for Mayfair Art Exhibition

I'm absolutely thrilled to have had three paintings selected Essex Art Club and to be showing in Mayfair again. I have been busy doing various things of late, but this is one exhibition I do my utmost to enter. The Essex Art Club is one of the two Art Societies I belong too, a wonderful inspiring and friendly organisation

Above are the three paintings that were selected. These will be for sale along with some unframed original paintings in the browser. In a while I'll be off to help hang the Exhibition, another experience I'm very much looking forward too. Do try and get along to see the exhibition during next week if you are in London, it's a lovely gallery with a varied collection of contemporary and fine art. See previous post for details.

 A very special thanks to both  Steve Evans and Rita Willaert  for the use of their wonderful photographs as ref for the portraits.  Please take some time and enjoy browsing through their work. 

Studying Form.....

This is one I originally painted a couple of years ago.  It went into exhibition at The Dovecote with Ilford Art Society where it Sold. On the original I painted more of the photo, where the gentleman was reading the newspaper, hence it finally ended with the title of Sunday Morning.

Drawing and painting portraits seem to be more enjoyable when they have some character to them and this gentleman certainly has plenty of that in his face. Loved drawing out this one again and taking more time on it on this occasion.

I couldn't come up with a title for this, which isn't unusual for me, it's something I struggle with often. But both my partner and a friend came up with the same one, Studying Form". The painting had suggested the subject was reading the paper without the need for me to paint it in this time. This makes you stop and think how much you need to put in, do you need to paint everything or is it better to leave some of the story for the viewer to fill in.


 It's not until I redo a painting, which I don't do often, but perhaps should, that I see how i've much, if any i've moved forward. This is one where I see that step forward and am pleased with my progress.

Special thanks to Redfloor on Stock.xchng for the use of this wonderful photo.

Pride of Samburu....

Pride of Samburu.....Watercolour & Ink

Still working in watercolour & Ink and getting a real liking for it, thoroughly enjoying it so I carried on with the sketches I had done previous. These lions were a combination of a couple of photos and used with the kind permission of the photographer. I had painted these as separate photos on a previous occasion and some of the reason behind painting them again was, to not only see how much I had improved as an artist, but the fact that I could see how I wanted to capture them differently in my mind. I went about this in much the same way as "Lost" was painted, only when dropping in other colours it probably wasn't so wet in wet.

 

It really is quite difficult to photograph a painting with a white background so this doesn't quite show as it should and even more so as it is a full sheet in width. 

Below is a closer view of the lions and shows the colours a lot more accurately.....This one really was so enjoyable to paint, and I will definitely doing some more ink work.

With much thank to Paul Ijsendoorn for allowing me to use his wonderful photos. 

"Lost" ....Watercolour & Ink

These were some quick sketches for some ideas that were whizzing around in my head...Some came from my own photos and some from photos that I have kindly been given permission to use. It's always good to work like this as it develops ideas in your mind, that lead to paintings further on. 

 

I had played with some ink work in a previous short course I took at Adult Education a few years back and really enjoyed it. I was then inspired by some wonderful work I had seen by Sharon Williams.  

I had a photo of a white lion I had taken a couple of years ago and never yet got round to painting. they have so many colours in them and this was the ideal opportunity to try it out. After lightly drawing the main lion in pencil, I very quickly and loosely went over some of the lines with an ink pen. If you do this, don't ink around it all and  try not to be too accurate as it has a much better effect. Then it was on with the washes, mostly wet in wet . Adding in colours and watching them mingle and granulate, I love that part. This was a chance to try out colours and effects to see what worked.   

 

     

This actually turned out a whole lot better than I anticipated which of course is always the way when you are not trying for a masterpiece. The problem was, as I was playing, it was painting on the back of another sketch. This was by no means wasted as it had allowed me to experiment, and there were parts I wasn't keen on so could take all this forward to another painting. 

I drew this out again and took more time to get it as accurate as I could without getting too bogged down with detail. A first I wasn't sure I would capture this little guy in the way I had done in the previous painting, which is often the case when working with watercolour in this way. It has a certain part of it that is uncontrollable and unpredictable, but then that is what gives it it's individuality. I soon went from being unsure to being so pleased with it the more I worked on it. There are lots of subtle washes in the face that you can't seem to capture with the camera, but it's almost there.

Catching up....

        I'm so far behind posting on my blog I'm not sure where to start in catching up with it all. I need to close 2012 before I can open 2013 and share what i've been working on so far this year. I know it's a bit late but it also helps me to keep a record of what i've done and where I am today....

       It was a busy end to last year in many ways as you might have gathered from my lack of postings, although I did keep mostly up to date on my Facebook Art Page. Some moments were to celebrate and some not, as like many families this year, illness seem to have dampened Xmas a little. So to close 2012 I will make it a quick round up.

Xmas collection in memory of Oliver

Firstly I want to say a very big   

Thank you... 

At the end of last year I was busy getting cards printed of my painting "Ho ho ho." as these went on sale through my website with all profits going to "Oliver's 4th Christmas collection for GOSH and Little Havens Children's Hospice 2012" . I want to say a very big Thank You too all those who bought cards and/or donated money to this fundraising. I handed over just over £50 to the family, which when you think how last minute it was, was a tremendous amount. I know how much it was appreciated and hope you take pride in knowing how you have helped the children and their families. I'll have them started earlier next year so hopefully we can raise lots more. Thank you again for you kind support.

 "Ho ho ho" also went along with me to the Essex Art Club Christmas meeting, where it was voted as best Painting chosen by the members. We do this yearly at both clubs I belong too. I was overwhelmed to have got 1st place at the Ilford Art Society, but to have got it here too... So I want to say a very big thank you to all the members that came along to both events, thank you so much for this, it made ending the year amazing and so very special to me. 

Take "Time to Reflect"

As artists we need to take time every once in a while to look back on how far we've come on our journey. I especially like to do this at the end of the year,  As artists we too often get despondent, wondering if perhaps we are not moving forward. Well, I bet if you took a look back to where you were this time last year you will get quite a shock, I know I always do and can say even more so in this past year. I really enjoy browsing through older work, remembering some that were real achievements and still being proud of them. A good tip is to also make sure you date the back of your paintings and sketches.  Taking a little time to look at what you've achieved over the past year no matter how small at times it may seem, gives you so much of a lift and inspires you onto the next step of the journey and it never hurts to pat yourself on the back once in a while and be proud, you've earned it. 

I hope you all had a great 2012 and are already having a creative 2013

Santa Ho, ho ho... Voted Best painting

Voted Best painting by members.....

I've just got back from the AGM and Christmas bash of one of the Art Societies I belong too, and am so thrilled that Ho, ho, ho... was voted Best Painting by the members.

I hadn't got quite caught up to sharing this painting on my blog yet, I was saving it until I had got the cards and everything ready so I didn't bore you with too many posts about it. Anyway, I painted this Santa with special thanks and much gratitude to the photographer Julia Freeman-Woolpertfor allowing the use of her photo. I did plump the face up a bit and round the nose off as I wanted it to look like a real old fashioned Santa.

I have just had this printed onto cards and will hopefully have them up on here and my website tomorrow for sale. All profits will be going to a special children's fund, but that deserves a post of it's own so i'll tell you more about that in the next post when the cards are packaged and ready to go... 


Thank you so much to all my friends at the Ilford Art Society and all my friends that continually support me, it's been a great year :) ........

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