Chester-le-Street SODA Group explores a wide variety of subjects and mediums from painting wooden dove shapes to creating miniature paintings on pieces of slate. They also organise frequent subsidised day trips and outings and have lately been to an Anglo Saxon village, Yorkshire Lavender Gardens and on a drive up the Northeast coast calling at Bamburgh Castle, Warkworth and Alnwick.
See below for reports and photos of Chester-le-Street Group's recent activity. For further images of their work, visit the online gallery.
See below for reports and photos of Chester-le-Street Group's recent activity. For further images of their work, visit the online gallery.
Our group meets at Auckland Communal Room, 31 Auckland, Chester-le-Street, County Durham, DH2 2TU weekly on Thursdays from 11am–3pm.
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Recent activity
We have just got back to our regular group meetings and the first thing we are going to work on is a project organised by Kathleen where we’ll be painting on an old roof slate, which will be something different! We will be getting them judged and will award a prize for the best one.
We have recently gained a new member, whose daughter got in touch with SODA via this website. We have also put notices in all the doctors and community centre’s hoping to attract new members, so fingers crossed! We are hoping to have another trip into Northumberland for one of our outings and are planning a party to celebrate SODA’s 40th anniversary using the £100 given to each group. Below are some of our members' recently finished artwork.
"We recently had an Easter competition, with the judge pictured inspecting the entries below. Ruth won with her Easter bonnet and Ken won the Easter card competition."
"In December the group held a local exhibition in Chester le Street library where they joined forces with the craft class that meets in the same room as us on a different day. Despite not being a great venue for an exhibition as they use the same room for other groups meetings on an evening, it is the only venue close enough and we managed to sell a few pictures, both framed and mounted.
Due to this, Chester-le-Street Group won the Winter 2018 SODA Magazine's Art Competition in recognition of the fact that, despite a lack of ideal exhibition spaces, they exhibited their work in their local community, which just goes to show that you can successfully showcase your work even under difficult circumstances and that determination and perseverance can yield great results."
Due to this, Chester-le-Street Group won the Winter 2018 SODA Magazine's Art Competition in recognition of the fact that, despite a lack of ideal exhibition spaces, they exhibited their work in their local community, which just goes to show that you can successfully showcase your work even under difficult circumstances and that determination and perseverance can yield great results."
"In September we went on a trip to North Yorkshire where we visited the war museum Eden Camp which was very interesting and brought back lots of memories to our members. We took lots of photographs and made paintings but wish we were able to capture all the evocative sounds they played –from air raid sirens to old time music hall. Exhibits ranged from First World War to present day, so we decided to do a painting project showing some of the things we saw: doodle bugs, spitfires, pow camps, rations and clothes."
"A recent outing up the northeast coast was most enjoyable; the weather was perfect – unusual for the North! We all enjoyed ourselves, calling at Bamburgh Castle, Warkworth and Alnwick. We took photos at Bamburgh Castle and later made a range of artwork using the photos as a reference."
