THE January meeting of Lansdown Art Club was extremely well attended for a talk and demonstration by local wildlife artist Jackie Garner.

We were given very interesting and helpful instruction on sketching and drawing using various thicknesses of charcoal, the importance of guidlines, light and shade, texture, detail and lack of detail.

Using either graphite powder or charcoal as a background, it was shown how a putty rubber can be used as a drawing implement, lifting the background colour, giving a softer outline.

She also showed the use of a Chinese White pencil on black paper, drawing a still life to great effect.

Finally she gave some hints on sketching wildlife in situ; do the part most likely to move first, probably the head; start with large creatures and don't try to put in too much detail at the beginning.

The next meeting is on Tuesday, February 10 at 7.30 in Sainsbury's cafe when Bryan Shambler will demonstrate "Painting a Portrait in Pastel".

New members and visitors are always welcome.

Our annual exhibition will be from Saturday, April 11 to Saturday, April 18, 10.00am to 5.00pm at Stroud Subscription Rooms.

Closed Sunday.