Out There Artists are a group of women who paint, draw and make art together. There are 13 members at the moment. The group has been going since 2006 and was started by Kaye Johnston and Sue Irvin. All of the members of the group have had art education. There are a few ex-art teachers in the group. The group meet at a pre-arranged location in the Shoalhaven every Thursday. It has to be good weather and there have to be facilities to use so we mostly go to parks, showgrounds, bush or beach locations.
Some of us use oil paints, some acrylic and others watercolours. It is often a challenge dealing with the elements such as sand, wind, tourists, curious onlookers and wildlife. Some of us work up a painting on the day and maybe the next week. Some artists work sketching or photographing the location so the painting can be painted in their studio in comfort. Painting plein air is not everyone’s cup of tea but a painting produced on site certainly has a vibrancy to it that is not easy to capture in the studio.
There are very talented artists in the group. Reiko is a ceramist and her ceramics can be seen at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery. The group works to inspire and motivate each other and we all get a go at talking about what we are trying to achieve at show and tell after lunch.
As We See It will be our third group art exhibition. It’s on at Jing Jo now and up until the end of June.
Kaye Johnston