Renewal, growth and rebirth are just some of the symbols of Spring. Many see Spring and March as the start of the new year, believing it’s a better time to set new year’s resolutions. Which is certainly apt for this year, as we’ve had Lent, Ramadan, and the Lunar year in the same month to celebrate and observe. It’s also a time of year when we see many flowers blooming, which was the perfect inspiration for Zoe to use for our artist-led session on the 5th March.
Who is Alex Katz?
Alex Katz is an American artist, recognised for his bold colours (often inspired by Pop Art), minimalist aesthetics, and focus on 2D rather than 3D. Often depicted in his work, especially in portraits, is Ada Katz; She is one of the founders of the Eye and Ear theatre and Katz’s wife. She is featured in at least 250 of Katz’s paintings and is the subject of his most famous pieces, Blue Umbrella. Although Alex Katz is best known for his portraiture, he also experimented with the natural world, painting many flowers throughout his career, retaining his bold style and flat shapes. These flowers, in particular, were the obvious and perfect choice for the focus of our session on the 5th March. You can find out more about the artist and view more artwork here.
Zoe also used his work as inspiration because “His style is very simple. And I know that there are a few people in the group who have dexterity difficulties. Who can’t move their hands as easily, and would struggle to do a very detailed drawing. And his style is just really accessible in that sense and builds confidence to walk away with a nice, powerful, bright painting.”
What we did
We had the tables set up as usual, with the larger one in the middle holding art supplies. Alongside the art supplies were fresh flowers, some brought by participants, some by Sue (our leader) and some by Zoe. I’m not an expert on the types of flowers currently in season, but I did recognise Daffodils as just one of the types available to us.
At the start of the session, participants had 30 seconds to paint colours onto the page and to paint the vague shapes of some flowers. This was a warm-up, so there was no pressure to follow any references or to get things right. However, if people wanted to use references or a still-life of a flower, that was fine! Ultimately, the point was to just get colours and shapes on the page!
Once people had finished the warm-up, they could use the Alex Katz printouts provided to inspire their work, or draw on still life to create the flowers as they wanted.
For Zoe, the goal was to “Focus on colour. Just think more about the emotion of Spring and the emotions around Spring and communicate that through colour rather than get distracted by perfect drawing.”
Which is why we had the warm-up, to get participants used to just working with the colour and simple shapes. If you look at the photos below, you can see a variety of approaches. Some used basic colours and shapes to achieve their desired flowers, while others were more detailed with their shading. Even the media people used were all different! In this workshop, we encouraged participants to use watercolour as it’s much easier to blend and can easily create good ombre variations even at a beginner level. We had more of those palettes set up on the table. But some were also comfortable using pens or Acrylic too.
Now, some may be reading this and think: But why didn’t you force everyone to use watercolour? The simple answer is that not everyone wanted to! And Art For Fun is all about providing participants with choice, because a lack of that autonomy takes the joy out of the experience. When it comes to colour, you can do that, no matter if it’s Acrylic, Chalk or Markers. Plus, we have a lot of people with disabilities or who are elderly who, for a variety of reasons, i.e. mobility, prefer a completely different medium than Watercolour.
This idea of freedom and being open is something at the front of Zoe’s mind when planning our workshops “When I’m planning, I think for this group, I try to find activities that are very open. So, not things that have lots and lots of steps of instructions because the group is quite big, and it’s not as relaxing when there’s just lots of steps to follow. So, generally, something that gives a lot of room for everybody to put their own stamp on it and take it where they want to take it.”
Newham Civic Awards 2025
We are absolutely delighted to announce that on the 4th March 2026, Art For Fun was awarded the Create & Thrive Newham Civic Award for 2025. Everyone at Art For Fun is proud to receive this award! As a group, we were proud just to be recognised, let alone win anything. We were also deeply touched by the kind words about our group at the award ceremony. However, Art For Fun wouldn’t exist without our volunteers, participants, leaders, and visiting artists who enable us to run these sessions. Who continue to foster a welcoming, inclusive environment that gives Newham residents a creative outlet and helps participants focus on their wellbeing. This award is a testament to their hard work.
Art For Fun will always be proud to provide the residents of Newham with a safe space to create their artwork, find friendships and find that sense of community. And we hope to continue providing that space for people for many, many years to come!
If you would like to see more pictures of Zoe’s workshop or higher-quality photos of the Create & Thrive award (without a blue cup ruining the background). Please check out our Instagram. Where you can see a more in-depth look at Art For Fun and the valuable work we do!
We hope you enjoyed this week’s update, with all the fun stuff happening at our group, and that you come back for more next week. Until then, we hope you have a great week!
Art For Fun 