The People

When a crisis occurs in your life you take steps to preserve your own sanity and inner happiness. When my husband was diagnosed with kidney failure, I took the step and joined the Art Group. We were a mixed bunch. Some had great talent, others, like me, a lot of interest and enthusiasm. Our tutor drew out in each of us something of ourselves which we could communicate in many different ways. It gave me a confidence I did not know I possessed and for only two hours a week I was in another world: aware only of my desire to improve and, for a time free from anxiety.

The encouragement I was given helped me to improve and develop as well as sharing the successes of others. One day I hope to produce a masterpiece that will say all this visually!

Teaching art has been a constant source of delight to me and I never cease to wonder at the differences and potential in each of us. Working with Felton Art Club has been especially good fun as we gossip and make and have a thoroughly self indulgent time. My art making comes from life experiences but I’m visually inspired by qualities of light and colour in wild land and seascapes and the seasonal changes in my garden. What happens on the canvas is a journey of exploration where inner meaning and outer reality come together through symbolism and the interplay of aesthetic elements. www.johume.co.uk

I grew up in the North East before moving to the South West, then Scotland and finally returning to Northumberland in 2012. A formal introduction to painting in watercolours soon grew to an exploration of acrylics and a chance to find abstract ways of expressing my love and fascination for the wild Northumberland coaastlines. Many of my paintings are taken from sketches and photographs I take when out and about. I am a keen gardener and will paint flowers from time to time. I have exhibited successfully in Scotland and Northern England.

I have always wanted to learn to ‘do art’ and came to art group after benefiting greatly from art therapy.  I am most interested in the expression of emotion in art and particularly enjoy drawing.  I use a variety of media except watercolours.  My favourite artists are Tracey Emin & Gerhard Richter but I have also recently very much enjoyed exhibitions by Peter Doig, Daumier and Louise Bourgeois.   

Some of the events and visits of the Group

Having returned to art-making in retirement, after a gap of around 50 years since leaving school, I consider myself these days to be a digital artist as virtually all of my art is created on an iPad. Using Procreate and other software packages, and working on the iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil, I have embarked on a steep learning curve. As a beginner, I have very much enjoyed the tutoring and encouragement of the Felton Art Group, which I joined in 2019. I enjoy portrait making and figurative art but I am also trying to branch out into semi-abstract and abstract work.

I started painting having not picked up a paintbrush since my teenage years. It was something I had enjoyed but became eclipsed whilst working with the natural world and helping others. Now my inspiration comes from being outside in wild places and playing with making marks that satisfy something inside. Combining these two things is my continuing challenge...

I am a young artist living in North Yorkshire. I have a very abstract style and I am inspired by the landscape in the Yorkshire dales and the Northumberland coast. I like to work in a free and loose way using colour and shape to express feelings and atmosphere. The majority of my paintings are in acrylic but I like to experiment with mixed media. I get a lot of pleasure out of painting and find the creative process very therapeutic. 

I very nervously joined the group in 2021 and am so pleased I did.  The guidance, help, gentle challenge and overall support from not only Jo but from others in the Group makes for a very enjoyable couple of hours each week.  I continue to love drawing anything and am on a lifelong quest to crack watercolours.  My most memorable success to date has been my 2 year old granddaughter recognising her favourite TV character – Waffle the dog – on her birthday card.

I have been interested in art and apinting on and off for most of my life. Finding time to do it has always been a problem. But since joining Felton Art Group it has given me some discipline to pursue it again. My interests started using oil, then acrylic and then watercolour, until working my way back through acrylic and now back to oil. I always feel quite relaxed when painting.