Artist Demo – 14 March 2025
Rodney Kingston
An ‘Old Rocker’ in Oil

This demonstration will be held on 14 March 2025 in Market Hill Rooms, Royston (map) but please note that this demo and all future RAS demos will start at 7.30pm and finish at 9.30pm.

Rodney studied art and design at Wimbledon School of Art followed by a graphic design degree at Camberwell College of Arts and has worked on printed publications since 2006.

For many years he dabbled in oil painting until a desire to become a better painter led him to attend a figurative art course in 2013. This experience confirmed a love of oil painting which has developed into a career through a range of regular painting endeavours and ultimately becoming a full time professional artist last year.

After enjoying the experience of painting from life on the street in an outdoor quick-paint event this gave him a new approach to painting, so he now paints the vast majority of his work with the subject in front of him. Inspiration comes from everyday life – people, places, still life objects – and the challenge of translating three-dimensional subjects into a convincing two-dimensional oil painting.

Rodney has been a Contestant on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2019 and on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year in 2017. He has had his work in numerous exhibitions including the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries and has written articles that have appeared in The Artist magazine, Waitrose Food magazine and Leisure Painter magazine, amongst others.

For more info please see www.rodneykingston.com

Royston Arts Society
Annual General Meeting 2024

The 2024 AGM was held in Market Hill Rooms on 16th January 2025. The event included a painting competition, a raffle and some lovely refreshments.

The Chair went through the the RAS events and activities during the year. He highlighted the very successful Autumn Exhibition and the Artist Demonstration programme. There were also a few areas that were less successful especially the 2024 online RAS Members’ exhibition. These will be addressed by the new Committee that was voted in at the end of the meeting.

RAS members were invited to bring along a painting that featured “A Winter Scene”. After the meeting, everybody voted for their favourite.

The winner was Peter Morgan and he was presented with his prize by the RAS Chairman.

We also had a “free to enter” raffle and this was won by Susan Sanders

Many thanks to the members who attended the AGM and contributed to the discussions. The Committee is sure that our members will enjoy the events and activities planned for 2025!

Artist Demo – 14 February 2025
Bobby Open
Royston In Watercolour

This demonstration will be held on 14 February 2025 in Market Hill Rooms, Royston (map) but please note that this demo and all future RAS demos will start at 7.30pm and finish at 9.30pm.

Based in Cambridge, Bobby has exhibited across England, including exhibitions at Cambridge Contemporary Art, Cambridge Drawing Society, the Society of East Anglian Watercolourists, the Babylon Gallery in Ely and at Broadway Arts Festival.  He started plein air painting in 2012 and has taken part in events including A Brush with The Broads and the Windsor and Eton Plein Air event marking the Queen’s 90th birthday.  In 2023, Bobby won the Great Broadway Paint Off with his painting of Broadway High Street.  Other awards have included the Rosemary and Co Brushes Prize at A Brush with the Broads, and the People’s Choice Award at the Norfolk Gardens series of Paint Out.

Bobby mainly works in pencil and watercolour, enjoying the challenges and opportunities that come with watercolour: exploring what is possible with paper, brush, pigment and water; careful drawing combined with happy accidents.  As an architect, his subjects often include buildings, parts of buildings or other manmade elements, often contrasted with natural elements, or how people interact with these spaces.  Just as important as the actual subject, he looks for interesting combinations of abstract, positive and negative shapes.  Bobby also attends regular life drawing sessions and also enjoys portraiture and still life painting.  He recently started teaching workshops at Windrush Art Courses near Burford and will hopefully be running a workshop at Broadway Arts Festival in 2025.

Examples of Bobby’s watercolours can be found at instagram.com/bobbyopen

Artist Demo – 10 January 2025
Marc Jackman
The Art and Science of Artist’s Paint Making

This demonstration will be held on 10 January 2025 in Market Hill Rooms, Royston (map) but please note that this demo and all future RAS demos will start at 7.30pm and finish at 9.30pm.

Established in November 2019,  Jackman’s Art Materials has a vision to create the highest quality art materials to give artist’s the best possible experience. Marc will show us how they achieve that goal.

Marc Jackman, Founder and Chief Chemist, grew up around the Art Materials industry with father Peter Jackman who has spent all his working life in the industry. Marc swapped his day job as an Accountant for an idea that would allow them to build something together; this idea was Jackman’s Art Materials.  It wasn’t long before attention to detail and making the highest quality watercolours became an obsession. This very quickly led onto formulating Traditional Indian Drawing Inks and later Acrylics. This fits with Marc’s natural interest in Science and always questioning ‘why’. 

Jackman’s mission is to create the purest watercolours possible, researching and working closely with artists. Their binder only consists of hand picked Kordofan Gum Arabic, distilled water, vegetable Glycerin and a touch of biocide making nearly all their watercolours vegan friendly.

They continue to work closely with pigment manufacturers and artists to ensure they get the best, most vibrant pigments possible and every batch is checked for quality and consistency.

The Flow Formula Acrylics have been designed to be mid viscosity, low rheology, low sag, low VOC, mid gloss, highly pigmented artist acrylic that also contain no extenders.

More information on Jackman art materials can be seen at www.jackmansartmaterials.co.uk

Free admission for Royston Arts Society members;
£4.00 fee for non-members pay on the door , no pre-booking required 

Exhibition in Royston Library

The Royston Arts Society exhibition in Royston Library was refreshed on Monday 4th November.

There are now 43 paintings on display created by RAS members – all talented local artists. They include a wide variety of subject matter painted in different media.

The are all for sale at very affordable prices. Simply talk to one of the library staff, pay in cash and take your painting away.

More Information

Paul Kane Artist Demo – 8 November 2024

The next Friday evening demo will be held on 8th November in Market Hill Rooms from 8.00 to 10.00pm when Paul Kane will be demonstrating his approach to painting a Street Scene in Oils.

Paul is based in his studio and gallery in Kettering, Northamptonshire UK, where his gallery and studio can be viewed by appointment.  He has been developing his own works and producing commissioned pieces since 2010 and more recently  enjoying teaching on a one-to-one basis along with carrying out workshops and demos to larger art groups.

He works in various media and covers a variety of subjects including portraiture, landscapes, seascapes and murals. On occasion his work deals with conservation in the hope that it shines a light on current issues, raising awareness and funds for special causes.

Paul’s art has hung in the Mall Galleries, Trafalgar House. It has also presented in a number of solo shows plus successfully contributing to the Art 4 Africa shows in 2016 & 2018.  His art has been sold to clients all over the world, places as far flung as Melbourne, Atlanta, Huston, Algarve and Malaga.

Paul’s approach to commissioned work encapsulates ‘Imagination made real’. Clients can place anything within the landscapes or composition giving the work a highly personal meaning. The limits really are bound only by imagination.

Examples of Paul’s work can be seen on Etsy.

Free admission for Royston Arts Society members;
£4.00 fee for non-members pay on the door , no pre-booking required 

Reduced Price for RAS Membership

Artists can now join Royston Arts Society at a reduced price. If you join before 31st December 2024 the prices are:

• Adult Members – Over the age of 18 – £12.00
• Junior Members – Aged 18 or under – £7.00

Your membership will run through to 31st March 2025. During this period you will be able to attend up to ten painting sessions and five artist demonstrations. You will also be able to exhibit your paintings in Royston Library.

If you wish to continue your membership after 31st March 2025 you will need to renew before that date at the full rate. This is currently £20.00 for adults and £10.00 for junior members.

We look forward to welcoming you to Royston Arts Society!

Jo Brown wins the Favourite Painting Award

Royston Arts Society is celebrating another highly successful Autumn Exhibition.  The 2024 show, held in Royston Town Hall as part of the Royston Festival, was attended by the Town Mayor, Cllr John Rees, and attracted more than 800 art lovers.  Visitors were invited to vote for their favourite painting in the Exhibition and the clear winner was Jo Brown’s “Red Lanterns”.  Jo, an RAS member who lives in Bassingbourn, was presented with a cash prize and a certificate by RAS Chairman Richard Clayton in recognition of her achievement.

This year’s show featured 333 paintings from 62 local artists. The wide variety of styles and subjects ensured that there was plenty of choice for everyone to enjoy.  Sales were not far below the record levels set in 2023, with the price of the purchased paintings ranging from £14 up to £450, and 35 of the exhibiting artists sold something. Visitors were uniformly positive with their feedback, especially in their comments about the high quality and wide variety of the artwork on display. There was also praise from exhibitors for the efficient organisation of the event, which depends heavily on the efforts of a hard-working group of volunteers. 

Visitors also gave generously to a collection in aid of Home-Start Royston, Buntingford & South Cambridgeshire, which RAS has been pleased to support. The Exhibition was again sponsored by the Royston Town Mayor’s Community Trust Fund and by Johnson Matthey plc.

The Royston Arts Society Autumn Exhibition will be held in Royston Town Hall (Map) from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th September 2024. It is a major part of the Royston Arts Festival.

We are very grateful to Johnson Matthey and Royston Town Mayor’s Community Trust Fund; the main sponsors of this exhibition. We are also grateful to our advertisers – click here for a full list.

Free admission to see 333 paintings, all for sale at affordable prices, over 300 greetings cards and the chance to vote for your favourite framed painting.

The paintings cover a very wide range of subject matter, the medium used to create the painting and its style. They are all created by local artists.

There is something for everyone!

The online catalogue includes the names of the exhibiting artists and the prices of the paintings.

We hope to see you at the exhibition