Congratulations to Ursula who has had her work published in the SAA magazine.  Check out the 'Artist's photo, you paint it' page below and see her excellent watercolour.

Lesley and members all working hard to complete their version of Slemish on 26th March 2025.

Today, 15th January 2025, Ursula received her award.  She was unable to join us for Christmas Lunch when all other awards were given.  Seen here with Tutor Margaret Fleck and Chairman Roy Naylor.  We were unable to attend on the 8th January due to snow and ice, but are now up and running for the next two months.

Award winners...
Award winners 
The Robina Woodrow Award (for most improved painter of the year) - Pat Armitage
The Marion Taylor Award (for the most promising painter of the year) - Ursula Meehan 
The Alan Emmett Award ( The people’s choice at Exhibition) - joint winners Margaret, Jacque, Maria & Carol

The Marion Taylor Award was won by Ursula Meehan who was unable to be with us.
​

Ballymena Vis Art invite you to visit our Pop up Shop.
You'll find us on Wellington Street Ballymena beside Snappy Snaps
We open on Wednesday 16th October 1.00 until 4 .00 pm and then for the rest of the week, including Saturday, from 10.00 until 4.00 pm. 
That is Wednesday 16th October until Saturday 19th October.
So don't miss out on this opportunity to buy original paintings, prints and cards produced by local artists. ​

 What a great day we had !

We started with taking inspiration from Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus - Homer's Odyssey based in myths and legends. We ‘read the painting’ looking for dark areas, bright areas, large shapes, bigger shapes, small shapes, and movement. Then looking for giants and myths of Odessey. This started group discussions about our own myths and legends. Of course, Giant Finn MacCool and the Giant’s Causeway along with Fairy trees and Leprechauns did not escape the chat. 
 
Next activities - out of our comfort zone.
First a line drawing - without lifting the pen from one side of painting to the next …
… then superimposing our own myth 

 This was followed with a group collage activity using scrap paper to depict our landscape. 
Then we moved on to using mixed media to paint or create our own personal landscape. This painting was then made in to cylindrical building blocks to fit our landscape. 
Such work and energy in two hours! 
A big thank you to our wonderful facilitators who made this happen. 
 

Lesley started a year in style with a tutorial on the colour wheel, which we have to complete for next week. I'm looking forward to the variation on the theme of colour wheel.

Everyone enjoying their Christmas lunch.  My apologies to Catherine McKeever, our host , I don't have a photograph of you. A lovely time was had by all.

On Tuesday 23rd May a presentation was made to Ballymena Golf Club by Vis Art.  Spring by Ursula Meehan, Summer by David Patton, Autumn by Lesley Sharp and Winter by Jacque McNeill.
Many thanks to all who attended especially the Captains Tracey Hughes and Paddy Kearney.

Congratulations to Sorrel Wills, one of our tutors , who today has had her painting presented to the King and Queen to commemorate the opening of the Coronation Garden in Hazelbank Park in Whiteabbey.

Anne McKeown, who has recently joined us in Vis Art, at an exhibition in Ballymena Library.  Her beautiful painting is the one on the top right -  well done Anne.
All the paintings you see were done under the tutelage of Helen working with partially sighted and blind  artists.
Una Mulgrew,
Community Facilitator
RNIB Connect in NI, contacted us some time ago and we are happy to welcome those from her group who come along  next term.

To celebrate the end of another successful year at Vis Art we decided to have some fun making a patchwork painting.  Lesley Sharp chose a famous masterpiece (a secret) and made two large copies of it, one of which was then cut up into 32 pieces, each numbered on the reverse.  These pieces were placed, face down, and members invited to take one and a similar sized piece of blank paper.  Everyone was then given 30 minutes to copy their portion of the masterpiece, in the medium of their choice - watercolour, acrylic, gouache, or pastel - as accurately as possible.  The pieces were reassembled like a patchwork quilt and “our” masterpiece revealed and compared with the original.  Looking at the patchwork shows the diversity of style of our members.  Below you will find artists with their 'patch' in progress (thanks Jacque), the assembly process and both masterpieces.  A great time was had by all!

Today Sorrel showed us the technique to use when painting a realistic sky in pastel. A great time was had by all and we learned a lot too!