The Solent Art Society was formed in September 2008 from a group of enthusiastic amateur artists, who, having met during art classes, wished to continue painting as a group. We opened with an exhibition in Stubbington Library and since then have gone from strength to strength, and regularly exhibit as part of the Hampshire Open Studios.

We are a friendly and welcoming society, enjoying the social side of our meetings as well as the challenge of developing artistic skills.

Our meetings are based around school term times with 12 weekly meetings each term on Wednesday evenings. Each term, we invite two visiting speakers/demonstrators to present to us and follow these with themed sessions aimed at developing the ideas that have been presented. Occasionally, a volunteer member (no compulsion!) will present on something that has grabbed their attention. We are also fortunate to have a professional artist among our members who can offer regular guidance to amateurs.

Watercolour is our primary medium, but we also enjoy a variety of other media including pastels, acrylics, collage and water-based oils. Unfortunately we are unable to offer tuition per se so we recommend that any potential new members should bring with them some prior experience of painting.

We try our hand at anything ranging from seascapes, landscapes and still life to figure drawing and portrait painting. Most of us have a natural tendency to paint figuratively but more recently we have experimented with painting in a looser style and developing abstract painting based on shape and tone. Very exciting, very challenging and great fun.

Experiencing the art of others is also an important part of widening our horizons and we organise excursions to notable exhibitions and have workshops on some Saturdays.

Waiting List. Our numbers are unfortunately strictly limited by the size of the room in which we meet. However, we are very pleased to say that our waiting list is now again open to new members. If you think you might be interested in joining us, do please get in touch by emailing solentartsociety@gmail.com. We will be happy to let you know a little more about our society, and to suggest some dates when you might like to look in on one of our meetings and see what we get up to.

Happy Painting.