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 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!
