Summer sketching

Over the summer I organised a sketching club for my local art group. It was very much easy come, easy go, with no commitment required and I think that it worked out very well.

Week 1 was at our local woodland, Ruff Woods near Edge Hill University in Ormskirk. It turned out that I was billy-no-mates for this one - it was cold, the venue didn't have toilets (which ruled out all of the older ladies) and not even the elusive red squirrels put in an appearance. Speaking of toilets, ahem, I'm not sure what's going on at the end of the path...

Week 2 was at one of the club members houses and I'm ashamed to say that none of us sketched a single thing despite it being a gorgeous morning - we spent all our time drinking tea, eating toasted teacakes and chatting!

Week 3 was a miserable day and it was quite amazing that 4 of us turned out at The Hayloft, which is a farm shop and tearoom in Lydiate. We took shelter in the barn with the peacocks and peahens, but barely made it to an hour before we retreated into the tea room for brunch. This sketch is no-where near finished, I need to go back on a sunny day. Unlike the others, which are all sharpie, watercolour and oil pastel, this one is in watersoluble wax.

Week 4 was at another club member's house. Again the weather was appalling so we sat in the conservatory. A little sketching and a lot of chatting and delicious biscuits washed down with gallons of tea.

Week 5 was at the local allotments right by the church where we meet. Again I was on my own, probably because the church hall was not open and there was no toilet access. I found myself attracted to this wheelbarrow housed in a makeshift shed.

I missed week 6 as  I was away in Bakewell so I sketched the local fish and ducks, viewed from above at the bridge by the car park..

I'd enjoyed the whole sketching thing so much that I decided to take a still life along to our regular art club meeting. I asked my facebook followers what I should take along - the only stipulation was that it must be small enough to carry in my bike basket - and this was what I came up with.

I'm very pleased with how the sketching club progressed, and how my own sketching style has developed. For all of these sketches (except the peahen) I used watercolours, iridescent oil pastels and coloured sharpies. I really like the loose expressiveness of this style and will be interested to see how it develops as I do more.

I'll definitely organise something similar for next year, choose venues that all have toilets so that everyone can come along and join in the fun.

Reply to UKIP's Mr Sen in response to their "Clockgate" open letter to me

By chance yesterday I came across an open letter from UKIP to myself on the UKIP West Lancs website. Since UKIP have denied me a right of reply, I have published my return letter to them below.

EDIT: I omitted to say that, unlike Mr Sen, I did the courtesy of emailing this letter to him more than 24 hours before publicly publishing it. With no acknowledgement and no appearance of my letter on their website as requested, my only recourse was to publish it here and on my blog.

Dear Mr Sen, 
Thank you for your open letter to me which I stumbled across this morning. I do not frequent this website often and am fortunate indeed that I found yourletter and am able to respond.

Most of the points you raise in your letter were discussed with you at length on my facebook page last night, however since you have now deleted all of your comments, along with some of my replies to those comments, I will respond again here. 

• Regardless of UK copyright law (which guards against theft of all images whether they are created by professional artists, hobby artists or students) it is common courtesy to ask permission before taking an image and using it at will. A simple reverse image search would have brought you right back to my website from where you could have easily contacted me. The answer would have been a polite no, and “Clockgate” as you are now referring to it would never have happened. I am alarmed that even now, in possession of the relevant copyright facts, you still seem to think that it is OK to use the work of students and hobby artists without asking for permission first. 

• I have NOT known about this for months as you claimed last night in one of your (now deleted) facebook comments, nor have I known about it for more than 6 weeks as you now state. 

• I contacted the echo just over a week ago as I felt it was important to highlight UKIP’s lack of commitment to your manifesto pledge of ‘Protecting jobs and increasing prosperity’ and the local party’s statement that ‘UKIP will incentivise small businesses’ - not, as you imply, to self publicise or to politicise. 

• At no time have I claimed any hardship and I have not at any time asked for any financial compensation for your use of my painting.

• I stress that I do not want my work associated with ANY political party, your being UKIP is completely irrelevant.

• The UKIP response to the Echo newspaper group acknowledged the image and promised to remove it ASAP. That message was passed on to me last Thursday so you have had a week to take it down, plenty of time to action your website developers. Furthermore, contrary to your (now deleted) facebook comments last night, at no time did I request that my details should be kept from you.

• I do not deny that I wanted to maximise impact and I stand by my comments on my facebook page; indeed you will notice that I have not deleted any of them. The issue of copyright theft is very important to ordinary working artists and photographers and this kind of thing needs to be brought into the spotlight.

• If visitors to my facebook page feel strongly enough to contact you then that is their absolute democratic right. 

Now addressing your reporter’s points in the blog post but not included in your letter to me.

• The article was not printed in the Liverpool Echo, only in the smaller Ormskirk Advertiser - a weekly publication relevant to the people of Ormskirk. 

• It really does not matter how much of your website the image occupies, it was still used without permission and I find your unwillingness to acknowledge this fact disconcerting. Again, it doesn’t matter that the piece’s title and my name were missing – a quick and easy reverse image search would have found me. 

• Further, if you click on the Pinterest link that you have provided in your blog post you will be taken directly to my old shop. This shop is now empty but my name is very clearly provided along with contact details and a redirection to find my new shop. 

• I only came across your open letter to me by chance. You posted some, but not all, of the content on my facebook page last night, content which you have now deleted.

Finally, as a dedicated mother myself, I am utterly horrified that you have brought your 3 year old daughter into this discussion. Regardless of whether your wife and daughter chose the image for the banner, it was very clearly your decision to use it on your website. I find it appalling that you feel it is acceptable to hide behind your 3 year old, exposing her to media attention in this way. I sincerely hope that you have not made her feel in any way to blame for her father’s current predicament. 

Since there is no way for me to create a login ID in order to publically respond on your blog I would like to exercise my right of reply and expect to have this letter published in full within 24 hours alongside your open letter to me. 

If you’d like to communicate with me, please feel free to write to me via email on StephanieGuyFineArt@gmail.com – something you could quite easily have done all along if only you had done that reverse image search. 

Kind regards,
Stephanie Guy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can read Mr Sen's letter to me here 

West Lancs UKIP have stolen my Ormskirk Clock Tower image to use on their website!

West Lancs UKIP have stolen my Ormskirk Clock Tower image to use on their website!

They didn't ask for permission and didn't credit me as the artist. Supporting local businesses? I think not. They have apologised but still not taken it down - why do they think that this is OK?

This is the image

And this is their website

http://www.ukipwestlancs.org/

They've had a week to take it down and it's still there. I'm not a happy bunny!