SODA's Anglia region, encompassing Breckland Group and many lone members, holds an annual residential painting holiday each Autumn. With professional demonstrators coming in to provide tutorials and advice, as well as the chance to socialise in the evenings, the SODA holiday is very popular with everyone that attends. Reports of the Anglia SODA holidays from the last few years are featured below.
To see details of the outings and day trips that all of the groups organise and attend, see the Recent Activities section on each group's page,
under the Our Groups category.
To see details of the outings and day trips that all of the groups organise and attend, see the Recent Activities section on each group's page,
under the Our Groups category.
Anglia Region soda holiday 2019
We had a very enjoyable Anglia Region SODA holiday from 22nd–26th July 2019 at Belsey Bridge Conference Centre. It was very hot throughout, which made it hard for some members, but many enjoyed relaxing in the pool after the workshops. On Tuesday we had a watercolour workshop by Colin Ayers. He did a demonstration for us and took us through it step-by-step. Everybody did really well and came up with such different paintings even though we were all working from the same demonstration!
On Wednesday we had a collage workshop by Ailsa Lyn. This was something that many members had not tried before and we found it a good challenge to use a new medium. Ailsa demonstrated her particular technique that involves painting old maps, music and all kinds of different paper with watercolour to create different colours and textures. She then showed us how to combine watercolour and collage to
create beautiful mixed media pieces. We worked from different photos and used a variety of old papers that we had brought from home, and again created some great pictures. We were even shown how to improve previously painted work with collage, and some of us took this opportunity to rework some of the paintings we’d made the day before if we weren’t satisfied with the finished result.
On Thursday we had time to relax and do our own work. As it was the hottest day of the year many of us enjoyed the pool. Unfortunately some members had to leave early due to the extreme heat exacerbating their health issues and so not everyone is in the final group photo. Next year the holiday will be again at Belsey Bridge from Monday 31st August–Friday 4th September 2020.
On Wednesday we had a collage workshop by Ailsa Lyn. This was something that many members had not tried before and we found it a good challenge to use a new medium. Ailsa demonstrated her particular technique that involves painting old maps, music and all kinds of different paper with watercolour to create different colours and textures. She then showed us how to combine watercolour and collage to
create beautiful mixed media pieces. We worked from different photos and used a variety of old papers that we had brought from home, and again created some great pictures. We were even shown how to improve previously painted work with collage, and some of us took this opportunity to rework some of the paintings we’d made the day before if we weren’t satisfied with the finished result.
On Thursday we had time to relax and do our own work. As it was the hottest day of the year many of us enjoyed the pool. Unfortunately some members had to leave early due to the extreme heat exacerbating their health issues and so not everyone is in the final group photo. Next year the holiday will be again at Belsey Bridge from Monday 31st August–Friday 4th September 2020.
anglia Region soda holiday 2018
The annual Anglia region SODA holiday took place at Belsey Bridge conference centre from the 3rd to the 7th September with 15 SODA members attending. We enjoyed 2 artist workshops. First was a workshop from Gillian Marklew, a watercolour artist, in which we worked hard to perfect our wet on wet technique. We practised first by painting a cockerel and using our brushes to drag out the paint to create feathers and avoid hard lines. In the afternoon we perfected our technique by painting a boy. This was a very complicated painting and we had to work very hard and it was challenging, but it was satisfying to have pushed ourselves and learn something new!
The next day we took part in a workshop led by Nicola Slattery, an acrylic artist, who gave us each a palette of paints and supported us to do our own paintings. Having worked hard the day before to learn new skills, it was a nice contrast to work on something less complicated and we enjoyed the freedom to paint what we liked. The results were amazing and everybody did great work!
On our final day we had time to work on our own paintings, or to explore the local area, ending with a social gathering and games in the evening. We had great fun on the holiday: spending time together, painting and learning new techniques, watching art films in the evenings and spoiling ourselves with the amazing food and cakes provided.
The next day we took part in a workshop led by Nicola Slattery, an acrylic artist, who gave us each a palette of paints and supported us to do our own paintings. Having worked hard the day before to learn new skills, it was a nice contrast to work on something less complicated and we enjoyed the freedom to paint what we liked. The results were amazing and everybody did great work!
On our final day we had time to work on our own paintings, or to explore the local area, ending with a social gathering and games in the evening. We had great fun on the holiday: spending time together, painting and learning new techniques, watching art films in the evenings and spoiling ourselves with the amazing food and cakes provided.
anglia region soda holiday 2017
The Anglia Region SODA holiday took place at Belsey Bridge conference centre on the 4th to 8th September. On the 5th we had an excellent demonstration by Emma Graham, a professional illustrator, who taught us how to create our own characters. We all illustrated our own versions of the Owl and the Pussycat, which we proudly held up for a photograph! On the 6th Marie Antoniou gave us a demonstration of how she paints beautiful pictures of animals using a specific technique of more abstract lines and colours. We all painted our own animal pictures in her style. On the last day we had time to do our own thing and put the finishing touches to artwork done on other days. We then ended with a social night which was great fun.
anglia region soda holiday 2016
The Anglia Region SODA painting holiday commenced on 7 September at Belsey Bridge and we had our usual painting room with a table for each person. It was great to meet several Lone Members and quickly members were meeting up and swapping ideas. On the Wednesday our tutor was well known Sara Kenyon, a watercolourist who lives in Norfolk, not far from the Broads. We spent the morning creating watercolour paintings, and after lunch we had great fun learning unusual techniques using cling film and salt.
anglia region soda holiday 2015
This year’s Anglia SODA holiday was attended by more members than usual, 23 in total! We all mixed together and socialised very well. On the Tuesday and Wednesday we had visiting artists to demonstrate and teach us new techniques. Richard Nichols instructed us on watercolour with limited colours, focusing on trees and seashore objects. Nicola Slattery demonstrated acrylics on canvas or wooden board, using sunrises and seascapes as subject matter. On Thursday we all worked hard to finish our work, which we then put up on display for the staff to view – a mini exhibition of all the artwork done on our SODA holiday!
