Rochester & West Kent Art Society

11/06/2026

🎨 Share your art journey with R&WKAS

One of the greatest strengths of our society is the variety of creative voices within it. From exhibitions and open studios to workshops, personal projects and artistic milestones, there is always something happening within our community. To help us celebrate and promote our members, we now have two simple submission forms:

🎨Meet the Artist

Would you like us to feature you on our social media?

Share your artist story, your creative practice, and a selection of artworks you are proud of. We regularly spotlight members to help our wider audience discover the people and ideas behind the artwork.

🎨 Member Spotlight / Meet the Artist Form

https://forms.gle/dnYb4Te8wYczqSbZ7

📣 Share Your Exhibition or Art News

Do you have an upcoming exhibition, open studio, workshop, art fair, publication, award, or creative achievement you'd like us to share?

Use this form to send us the details and help us spread the word.

🖼️ Member News & Exhibition Submission Form

https://forms.gle/H1fHzBLigNKuGKHM9

💜 R&WKAS is more than exhibitions and meetings it's a community of artists supporting, encouraging and celebrating one another.

We look forward to sharing your work, your stories and your creative successes.

11/06/2026

2026 ARTIST FEATURE

MAP 18
DRAWING / PAINTING, MIXED MEDIA,
PRINTMAKING

Rochester & West Kent Art Society

The Vines Church, The Terrace (Off Victoria
Street), Rochester, ME1 1XN

Sat 4/ Sun 5/ Sat 11/ Sun 12/ Sat 18/Sun 19, 13:00-17:00
Mon 6/ Tue 7/ Mon 13/Tue 14/ 10:00-16:00

Rochester & West Kent Art Society (R&WKAS) is a thriving, friendly group with a passion for the visual arts, in Medway and beyond. We meet on the 3rd Thursday evening of the month (September to June), at the Vines Church in Rochester, for workshops/demonstrations. All welcome.

[email protected]
Rochester & West Kent Art Society

Disabled access: YES (fully accessible)



Image description: a large artwork of a dragonfly using mixed media. The dragonfly is purple with red and orange eyes. The background is full of textured grass. A combination of differing shades of blue and green.

09/06/2026

🎨 Who we are... Rochester & West Kent Art Society

Founded in the 1920s, our society has connected artists, makers and art lovers across Medway and West Kent for generations. Over the years, our exhibitions have welcomed thousands of visitors, and our history includes connections with distinguished artists such as Charles Spencelayh and Evelyn Dunbar. Yet perhaps the most remarkable thing about R&WKAS is not its past, but its continued ability to bring people together through a shared love of art.

Today, we are a friendly and welcoming community where artists of all backgrounds and experience levels can learn, experiment, exhibit and grow. Throughout the year we enjoy demonstrations, workshops, artist talks, exhibitions, outdoor sketching days and creative challenges, exploring everything from watercolour and printmaking to ceramics, textiles and mixed media.

Whether you are an experienced artist, just beginning your creative journey, or simply someone who enjoys being surrounded by art, there is a place for you here.

As we celebrate our centenary year, we continue to honour our history while looking towards the future supporting creativity, encouraging artistic development, and building a vibrant community for the next generation of artists.

Creating, learning and exhibiting together for 100 years.

04/06/2026

🖌 Introducing RWKAS Monthly Creative Challenges...

One of the lovely ongoing parts of our Society is our series of monthly creative challenges...designed to encourage experimentation, observation, and the joy of making alongside one another.

Throughout the year, members are invited to respond to different themes and ideas using any medium or style that speaks to them. Some challenges focus on colour or atmosphere, others on observation, limitation, memory or seasonal change.

The finished works are then brought to our monthly meetings, where members can view each other’s responses, share positive feedback, and celebrate the many different ways artists approach the same starting point.

These challenges are not competitions in the traditional sense they are opportunities:
🎨 to explore new ideas
🖌 to experiment outside familiar habits
✨ to stay creatively active throughout the year
🤝 and to deepen the sense of artistic community within the Society

This year’s themes include:
🌸 Spring & Medway
⏱ The “Half Hour” Challenge
🍂 Autumnal Colour Palettes
🌌 Night Sky & Firelight
🎄 Handmade Seasonal Cards

It’s always fascinating to see how differently each artist interprets the same idea... and how much inspiration can grow from simply sharing work together.

02/06/2026

🎨 Demonstration & Workshop: Boats & Reflections: Painting Water in Watercolour with Bodnar

Water in watercolour is never completely still. It moves, shifts, reflects, softens edges and creates atmosphere in ways that can feel both challenging and deeply rewarding to paint.

In this special evening workshop, Aliya Bodnar will share her personal approach to painting water through observation, experimentation and expressive technique.

The evening will begin with a short presentation about Aliya’s artistic journey and her development as a watercolour artist in the UK, before moving into a live demonstration exploring the behaviour of water, pigments and light within the medium.

Together we will explore:

🌊 Reflections, movement and atmosphere
🎨 Watercolour materials, pigments and surfaces
💧 Water control and expressive washes
📄 The difference between papers including painting on 100% cotton watercolour paper
🖌 Creating depth, softness and transparency in water

Participants will take part in a series of short practical studies before creating a final guided painting inspired by **boats and reflections**.

This workshop is designed not simply as a technical session, but as an opportunity to slow down, observe and experience the unique flow of watercolour in a relaxed and supportive environment.

Artists already working in watercolour are warmly encouraged to bring their own materials and palettes. Materials will also be available for participants working in other media.

Suitable for different experience levels.

📍 The Vines Church, Rochester
📅 18.06.2026

We look forward to painting together

01/06/2026

June 2026. “Capercaillie” by Michael Bamping.

There is something wonderfully timeless about Michael Bamping’s "Capercaillie". Not only in the subject itself...a bird deeply rooted in the folklore and forests of Scotland...but also in the quiet dedication behind the hand that painted it.

The name "capercaillie" comes from the Scottish Gaelic capall coille, meaning “horse of the woods” a fitting title for such a commanding and theatrical creature. In Michael’s acrylic painting, the male capercaillie stands proudly amongst soft grasses and wildflowers, captured mid-display with all the drama and presence for which the species is known. During mating season, these birds perform elaborate and almost surreal courtship rituals: fanned tails, raised feathers, rhythmic movements, and loud calls echoing through woodland spaces.

Michael’s interpretation feels less like a scientific study and more like a quiet celebration of character and spirit. The contrast between the delicate softness of the surrounding meadow and the bold stance of the bird creates a sense of both vulnerability and strength a reminder that nature often holds these opposites together. What makes this month’s featured artwork especially meaningful is the story of the artist behind it. Michael has spent decades painting, carrying his creativity across different chapters of life and different parts of the world, including many years living in South Africa before returning to the UK. As one of the longstanding members of our society, he continues to approach painting with genuine curiosity, warmth, and enthusiasm proof that the desire to create does not fade with time, but often deepens.

In many ways, "Capercaillie" speaks not only about the beauty of wildlife, but also about artistic endurance itself: the lifelong instinct to observe, interpret, and continue making.

30/05/2026

Exploring the Unexpected: Fountain Pen Ink & Bleach Workshop with Nick Stewart. What a wonderful pair of workshops we shared with artist and educator Nick Stewart Fountain Pen Inks & Bleach

Across both sessions, participants explored the expressive and often unpredictable world of fountain pen inks...discovering how colour shifts, reacts and transforms through experimentation with bleach, chromatography and layered techniques.

What made these workshops especially memorable was not only the techniques themselves, but Nick’s generous and engaging approach to teaching. With warmth, humour and deep knowledge, he guided participants through processes that felt both accessible and creatively liberating.

Throughout the evening, tables gradually filled with vibrant colour studies, experimental textures, expressive mark-making and beautifully individual responses. It was lovely to see artists of different experience levels fully immersed in the process of exploration and discovery.

Workshops like these remind us that art is not always about control or perfection... sometimes it begins with curiosity, play, and allowing materials to surprise us.

A huge thank you to Nick Stewart for sharing his time, experience and unique artistic language with our community.

Here are a few moments from the workshops...

27/05/2026

This June, our member Hazel Christine will be exhibiting as part of Art in June Open Studios at Mereworth Wines.

Hazel’s work moves through the language of geometric abstraction but behind the bold colour and strong structure there is something quieter happening. Her paintings explore movement, rhythm and the way forms shift and dissolve into one another. Architecture becomes less about buildings and more about experience; lines stop behaving as boundaries and begin guiding the eye through the work.

Working primarily in acrylic, Hazel creates pieces that feel both energetic and considered balancing vivid palettes with carefully constructed compositions. There is a sense of curiosity in her practice: an invitation not simply to look, but to stay with the work a little longer and discover relationships between colour, space and movement.

What feels especially interesting in Hazel’s journey is the breadth of creative experience she brings into her painting allowing her abstract language to remain open, expressive and distinctly her own.

If you are exploring Kent’s Open Studios this summer, we encourage you to visit and experience the work in person.

📍 Mereworth Wines
📅 5–21 June
🎨 Art in June Open Studios

Please join us in wishing Hazel a wonderful exhibition and many inspiring conversations along the way.

29/11/2025