Ickenham SODA Group use their regular group meetings to explore a wide variety of subjects ranging from portraits and still life using flowers and vegetables to line and wash and mixed medium seascapes. They also organise frequent subsidised day trips and outings and arrange for demonstrations from professional artists to help them develop new skills and techniques. They recently held a joint party with the Uxbridge Groups to celebrate SODA's 40th anniversary. To find out more about the occasion see our 40 Years of SODA page.
See below for reports and photos of Ickenham Group's recent activity. For further images of their work, visit the online gallery.
See below for reports and photos of Ickenham Group's recent activity. For further images of their work, visit the online gallery.
Our group meets at the Methodist Church Hall, Ickenham Rd, Ruislip, Middlesex, HA4 7BX
weekly on Mondays from 2pm.
weekly on Mondays from 2pm.
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Recent activity
Our group continues to meet on a Monday afternoon in the Methodist Church Hall in central Ruislip. It is an ideal location for us to meet and we continue to enjoy the very comfortable facilities in the room we use. We are most grateful to the church for allowing us to use the room at a very reasonable rate. We have had some very enjoyable afternoons covering a range of painting subjects including seascapes; the sky; farms and farmyards; and flowers and bottles.
We also supported a charity afternoon tea held at the Central Middlesex Skills Development Centre in Northwood. Our Treasurer is the Chief Executive at the centre and each year they support another charity in the area. This year’s event supported ‘Action for Kids’ which is a charity that provides financial support for children who need special equipment like adapted wheelchairs and other equipment which makes life easier. It was a beautiful sunny day and we all enjoyed a very tasty cream tea.
We have had two outings during this term: a sociable lunch at the Coy Carp in Harefeld and a painting and sketching day at The Saville Gardens in Windsor. The Saville Gardens are an excellent venue for disabled people as the whole garden has wheelchair access on beautifully smooth paths. We enjoyed a very good lunch in the restaurant before going out into the garden to paint and sketch until it was time to go back to our bus for the journey home.
We also supported a charity afternoon tea held at the Central Middlesex Skills Development Centre in Northwood. Our Treasurer is the Chief Executive at the centre and each year they support another charity in the area. This year’s event supported ‘Action for Kids’ which is a charity that provides financial support for children who need special equipment like adapted wheelchairs and other equipment which makes life easier. It was a beautiful sunny day and we all enjoyed a very tasty cream tea.
We have had two outings during this term: a sociable lunch at the Coy Carp in Harefeld and a painting and sketching day at The Saville Gardens in Windsor. The Saville Gardens are an excellent venue for disabled people as the whole garden has wheelchair access on beautifully smooth paths. We enjoyed a very good lunch in the restaurant before going out into the garden to paint and sketch until it was time to go back to our bus for the journey home.
40th anniversary party
Ickenham SODA group, together with Uxbridge SODA groups, enjoyed a shared party on 17th May to celebrate the 40th anniversary of SODA. Thanks go to Vida for organising the event, Ann and Betty for the food and to Joy for arranging the raffle and music.
"Our recent painting subjects have included trees, volcanos, landscapes, spring flowers and designing and making Easter cards.
The high light of our term was a demonstration by Sue from Brushstrokes. Sue has become a popular local artist and her demonstration was absolutely inspiring. This demonstration was made possible by the generosity of the family of a late group member and I am sure that Norma would have thoroughly approved of the finished picture. She did a beautiful mixed media landscape for us (shown below). We were surprised that Sue did not use any paint brushes and produced an incredible picture in just over an hour using strips of card and ‘luxury’ kitchen roll. Almost unbelievable!
The high light of our term was a demonstration by Sue from Brushstrokes. Sue has become a popular local artist and her demonstration was absolutely inspiring. This demonstration was made possible by the generosity of the family of a late group member and I am sure that Norma would have thoroughly approved of the finished picture. She did a beautiful mixed media landscape for us (shown below). We were surprised that Sue did not use any paint brushes and produced an incredible picture in just over an hour using strips of card and ‘luxury’ kitchen roll. Almost unbelievable!
"Our group had a painting day out at Black Park a local beauty spot near Iver in Buckinghamshire. We were so lucky to have such good weather a lovely sunny warm day. The reflections in the lake from the trees was amazing. We spent time sketching and finished off our work at the following weeks meeting. The day was rounded off very nicely with a meal at a local pub before returning home."
"A real highlight for us lately was the demonstration we had by Sue Holmes, a professional art demonstrator and tutor from the company ‘Brushstrokes’. The group had asked her to do seascapes and she did not disappoint us. Sue showed us new techniques and used mixed media to produce two pictures and inspired us all."
"10 of our members went to Hampton Court Palace, the former residence of Henry VIII in London. It was the hottest day of the year, but our desire and enthusiasm made it very smooth and enjoyable. We had some time to wander around and do some painting: some of us stayed in the rose garden either drawing or enjoying the lovely fragrance of the flowers, one member chose the chapel court yard and then visited the lovely chapel which had peaceful organ music playing in the background and a few members took the opportunity to visit the Palace rooms. We had an unforgettable day."
