We have great pleasure in presenting Cardigan Art Society, the winner of this year’s Art Club of the Year Award on pages 73 to 75 along with the five paintings that won the society the title. They were all painted by amateur members of the group, showing a wide range of styles, media and techniques that came together to create a coherent and well-balanced group of paintings. We are looking forward to launching the 2018 Art Club of the Year competition in our April issues (on sale 23 February) and online at PaintersOnline. If you’re ready for your next challenge, turn to pages 12 and 13 for details on how to enter Leisure Painter’s 2018 Open Competition, which will culminate in our annual exhibition, launching at Patchings Festival this summer.
If you’re like me and a bit of a fair-weather painter, you will be pleased by the number of demonstrations and ideas in this issue for drawing and painting in the comfort of your own home. Why not use your time indoors this month to draw and paint still lifes, your loved one or pet, or the view from your window? Winter is a good time to practise your drawing skills so take Stephen Coates’ advice and try his drawing exercises (pages 35 to 38) then tackle the festive robin you’ll find on page 38. It’s a good time to experiment with painting abstracts with Linda Birch (pages 58 to 59), and tackling snow scenes in watercolour from photographs with Colin Steed (pages 22 to 24) and Colin Joyce (pages 47 to 49) or even from your imagination with Alison Fennell (pages 39 to 41). Richard Holland also discusses in the first article of a two-part series his process for producing finished paintings from quick pen and oil sketches (pages 32 to 34). These are just some of the highlights you’ll find within LP’s pages.