Artful Dodgers Art Group, New Malden

Main Contact: Ian Williamson

Biography

The Artful Dodgers are a friendly and disparate group who meet regularly in a studio or outdoors. We use mostly dry media or watercolours for location work but are progressing in our use of other media, as well as studying technical problems; for example, perspective, tone, colour theory. The group is very supportive and we discuss our work and offer friendly criticism. We have had regular successful exhibitions locally and to help publicise these we have created our own website (www.artfuldodgers.wixsite.com/artful) and a Facebook page (facebook.com/artfuldodgersart). As a group we owe our genesis in the 1990’s to an inspirational and experimental workshop run on alternate Saturday mornings at the Malden Centre in New Malden. In the summer term our tutor took us outdoors to paint and we rather liked the idea. So much so, that we began to meet informally on summer Saturdays when there was no class. This has now expanded to cover the whole year and our membership has grown to 27. Locations vary according to the weather, including parks, gardens, rivers and architecture during the warmer times, while winter sees us at churches, pubs and museums. We acquired our name during a difficult period when we had no regular tutor, so we resorted to meeting independently in a local sports pavilion. After this problem was resolved we returned to the studio at the Malden Centre, where many of us continue to attend the fortnightly workshop to this day. Our aim is to be open and welcoming to newcomers who are always invited to join the group.