When Keighley Art Club member Rita Butterfield joined 30 years ago, we met in Keighley College.

Over 80 now, she rarely misses a meeting, so she must enjoy herself. We don’t want clones of one person’s thinking, and love to see everyone putting their own style into their work.

There is always potential for learning more if that is what you want, and that is one reason we sometimes have demonstrators. People are welcome to these sessions on Wednesdays from 6.45pm to 8.45pm at Keighley Healthy Living. You pick up lots of tips and get good ideas if you listen, and you can ask questions.

Rita also goes to a group in Cullingworth. I run Long Lee and Thwaites Brow Art Group and Tony Pratt, our president, runs Riddlesden Art Group.

Some tips are to use a soft pencil to practice drawing circles, ellipses and squares then straight lines freehand, which should help improve initial sketches. Rubbing out drawings affects the paper, and using an elevated board or easel also improves your perspective.

When moving on to painting, mix enough colour, as it is nearly impossible to mix the exact same shade again. Remember watercolour dries lighter, and acrylic dries darker, so you need to judge and test on spare paper first. If you don’t finish your picture in one sitting, keep the brush clean but don’t leave it standing in water or you will ruin the bristles. Cover your palette with clingfilm for instant paint.

We are closed during Christmas, but 2014 offers more variety, with three professional artists visiting us before summer.

Bruce Mulcahy instructs us on Behaviour and techniques in gouache on February 5, then March 26 sees the return of artist Cath Ingles demonstrating an Eagle owl in pastels. Angel Kershaw’s event on July 2 is titled How to get the best from oils, so there is a lot of variety. All three artists are on the internet. Non-members are welcome, but a nominal charge is made to these events.

In between these, some members run weekly groups or bring photos or still-life material – whatever they prefer.

Our exhibition at Cliffe Castle cafe has closed, but you can still see our work in the Civic Centre and Keighley Picture House.

For enquiries about anything here you should call (01535) 669914. New people are welcome, and it doesn’t matter whether you have painted before.