The first meeting of the Drawing Group got off to a great start. Really pleased by the turn out who all managed to squeeze into a small living room. Thanks for all the suggestions - we first did an upside down exercise copying a figure drawing whilst it was upside down. It was really to prove to people that they could draw something if they just observed it carefully without thinking oh it is a figure I cannot draw that. The silence of concentration was intense. Then we drew our own hands, there were some interestingly hairy ones, and finally had a go at drawing each other - that caused some hilarity. Then a big discussion on what to do next time and what ideas on some "homework". Plus best of all home made apple and blackberry spice cake was demolished. They went off with a request to try drawing something for next month - a room interior or any other object that they liked. This week I went to see an acrylic and pastel demonstration by Carol Massey - it was very enjoyable and made me think about using pastels for a change. The acrylics were used as watercolour paint, and they dried very quickly. I haven't touched acrylics for years as I found them very disappointing and with crude colours but apparently they are much better than they used to be so maybe I will give them another go. We also had great cake (coffee walnut cream cake), which was from the Tiptree jam factory. I went to RHS Hyde Hall Gardens to do some drawing but it was murky and wet so ended up just sitting in the coffee shop. It is now very cold in Essex.