Keighley Art Club hopes you had a wonderful Christmas and wishes you a happy 2014.

If your New Year’s Resolution is to start painting again, we meet on January 22, when Lorraine Green will set up a ‘still life’.

I shall bring photographs of celebrities on January 29 for people to practice portrait skills, but you can paint your own scenes.

Programme secretary Jeanette Bray arranged Nigel Overton to attend the last meeting, to describe and show his methods of acrylic painting. It was interesting to see another style in his seascape of Saltwick Bay, near Whitby.

Nigel takes his own photographs and notes, and spends time on site to get the atmosphere and smell.

He runs courses in a friendly, informal manner, in any medium. Observation and a basic understanding of techniques is the key to ‘perfect pictures’, and any level of ability is welcome.

Some leadership can help everyone, and Keighley Art Club helps provide this with both demonstrators and informal sessions, where questions can be asked.

Nigel is an oil painter by trade, but his wife objected to the strong smell so he changed to acrylic, which he described as being between oil and watercolour.

Nigel’s paints are sourced privately, and he can be contacted for details on his website. He paints professionally and is based in Ilkley, and has exhibited in numerous galleries in the North and South of Ireland.

Nigel recommends using the best materials possible, layering one colour of acrylic with another, adding white to make it more opaque. He believes drawing with pencil causes the painting to be simply ‘filled in’ rather than created. Nigel often asks his artists to turn paintings upside down and start painting again.

Nigel used watercolour paper treated with Gesso primer to obtain a receptive surface on the easel. Colours on his palette were very bright, ranging from a bright yellow to shocking pink, and he mixed his own down-shades.

He wasn’t able to finish the picture in the two hours, but the essence of the scene was apparent from the first few strokes he made.

Our ongoing exhibitions at Keighley Picture House and Keighley Civic Centre will be changed on February 2.

We have three paintings in Smallworld’s Postcards of Keighley exhibition at Cliffe Castle this month. The exhibition ends in August when, hopefully, the lottery-funded works in the park will have started.

Contact Barbara Klempka on 01535 66914 for further information.