Class Of July 19th --stormy Skies

Stormy Skies is a great painting to do to get to know how to use just a couple of colours to create a masterpiece.

This painting uses just black and white paint to create this stunning monochrome scene.

Its a very atmospheric painting.You will learn to use several techniques, brushes and other materials .
This painting is suitable for all abilities from first timers to more experienced artists.

If you would like to join this class please get in touch via the website http://www.paintingmyway.co.uk/

There are 5 places left for this painting.

Path Through Birch Tree Woods

Here is my latest piece of art that I have been working on during the past week. I have had a free day today , so have been able to concentrate on finishing this work.
Each of the 3 canvas measures 20 cm x 60 cm so its 60cm x60 cm in total.
However it looks at its best when the canvas are hung a couple of cm apart so you can see the detail on the sides of the canvas.
My monochrome collection has proved very popular over the past year.
They look great against any colour wall, in any room.They suit today's contemporary home or the more traditional home.
The paintings will be coated in 3 coats of high quality artists varnish before posting.The price of these paintings is £200
They will be ready to post after this Wednesday March 19Th.
The P+P in UK is included in the price .If you are outside the UK please get in touch via the www.paintingmyway.co.uk website

Dusting !!!!

Ive nicked this off one of the artists forums that Im on--sums it all up really! lifes too short to dust!--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dusting!

Remember...a layer of dust protects the Wood beneath it.

A house becomes a home when you can write 'I love you' on the
furniture

I used to spend at least 8 hours every weekend making sure things were
just perfect - 'in case someone came over'
Finally I realized one day that no-one came over; they were all out
living life and having fun!
NOW, when people visit, I don't have to explain the 'condition' of my
home.

They are more interested in hearing about the things I've been doing
while I was away living life and having fun.
If you haven't figured this out yet, please heed this advice.

Life is short. Enjoy it!

Dust if you must ......

but wouldn't it be better to paint a picture or write a letter,
bake bikkies or a cake and lick the spoon or plant a seed, ponder the
difference between want and need?!
Dust if you must,but there's not much time . . . .

with beer to drink , rivers to swim and mountains to climb,
music to hear and books to read, friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must,

but the world's out there with the sun in your eyes,
the wind in your hair,
a flutter of snow, a shower of rain.
This day will not come around, again.

Dust if you must ,
but bear in mind, old age will come and it's not kind. . .

And when you go - and go you must - you, yourself will make more dust!

class of may 10th--"Mellow Moods"

Mellow Moods is painted using acrylic and oil paint. Its an interesting one to paint and is suitable for all abilities including first timers!

Please get in touch via the website if you would like to join the class.
www.paintingmyway.co.uk
Check out my 'snaps' pages on my site to see all my happy students with their paintings---you will see that many of my students come back time after time--my classes get booked up very quickly and I have a waiting list for some subjects.

The classes are very friendly,laid back and informative at the same time- great fun and a beautiful painting to take home as well!
Take a look at the guest book to see what some of the students have said about the classes as well!

I have kept my prices the same for the past 4 years--£35 which includes all materials used in class. We paint on a high quality box canvas which does not need framing-although if you wish to do so we supply a lovely frame to match your painting for just £12. Great Value!

Book Cover

"Guess Why He's Happy" is safely in its new home in Goring By Sea.

The image is going to be used as a be used as a book cover by the new owner.

I will post more details when I get them.

I have a one to one tomorrow-cant reveal anything else as the painting is going to be a Christmas pressie for her husband!

I'm really looking forward to doing this one-its going to be a on a great big canvas so will be very impressive when finished!

Latest Commission

I have spent quite a few hours working flat out on the latest commission, I have got the base layers on, various shades of reds and black--the top picture is the colour of it now, as you can see its started off layers of quite orangey reds, but that is just to build up depth in the finished painting.

As more layers go on it deepens and gets more depth.

The white blotches on the top picture is not paint, but a special impasto medium that will allow me to create the texture of the poppy petal.

Tomorrow I will start to add the 20 odd coats of coloured glazes, each one having to be thoroughly dried in between-a tedious process but necessary none the less.

I am emailing the pictures as I do each stage to Rachael who has commissioned this piece, she can have some input into the painting, if she wants the centre smaller or redder I can do it.

It works very well. I am very pleased with it so far. Its always interesting to see how each one develops-they turn out different every time!

Tomorrow we are off to take the paintings to Stoke on Trent to The Art Bay gallery.So may get to do some Christmas shopping too !!

Some Inspiration

Can you guess what these pictures are?

I took them all with the digital camera on the way home last night-they are all from car head lights and the snow!!

Its given me some ideas for some future paintings!

The snow was coming down so heavy at one time you couldnt see more than a few yards, we had to make a de-tour because of a fatal accident on our usual route.

we were glad to get home I can tell you!

Wellesbourne Art Society

We had a lovely ride down to Wellesbourne, nr Stratford Upon Avon yesterday. We stopped off and had a wander around Stratford, bought some bits and pieces before finding our way to where we were staying for the night.The Old Dispensary.

We had a lovely welcome from Jenny.

Pictured above are the lucky winners of the raffle with the 2 paintings that I did for them that evening.Catherine and John.

We were doing the demonstration at the local fire station--they were 2nd in at the dreadful tragedy in which 4 firefighters died.

The proceeds of the raffle for the 2 paintings I painted during the demo, went to the fund for the families that lost loved ones in this tragedy.

I will be returning to do one or two classes there by the sound of it,I only take 7 people max for a class in order to be able to give everyone enough time and show them the method thoroughly.There was a lot of people interested last night, so may have to make it 2 classes instead of 1 class.

Since I started teaching people to ''Paint My Way'' --my prices haven't gone up at all in over 3 years .I have absorbed all of the price rises of canvas , paint, and brushes and the cost of hiring rooms to hold the classes--because to me the most important thing of all is to show the ordinary man in the street that THEY can paint beautiful oil paintings -all they need is encouragement and to be shown a technique,which shows in what they produce in my classes-

The exhibition in Dec 'From Small Acorns'' will show that.

Stick Insects

As you can see the stick insects are growing well.One in particular is getting very big.They really are hard to see when on the plants though. They seem to prefer the blackberry leaves to anything else.

They are giving all the kids in the family much amusment!

Babysitting

Look at this little cutie!!! Little Holly was as good as gold for us on Saturday night

Shes such a happy little thing. We decided to sleep in our caravan on the drive as we had Darren, Lydnsey and her sister staying, rather than have anyone sleep on the sofa.

Bill had made repaired the bed which broke when we were at Onslow Park when we playing scabble!.

It was a good job the cooler box was the right height to prop up the bed when we were there or we would have been stuck!

Tomorrow

We are on the craft fair tomorrow, lets hope that the weather keeps fine.We are having a different stall, to usual, the old one was quite exposed to the elements. We will be on the opposite side to normal and we will extend the stall backwards, as we do on the sunday, so we have lots of room for all of the stands and loads of paintings.

Jeannie Zelos

I want to tell everyone about a great forum that I am a member of http://forum.jeanniezelos.com/


is a great site with like minded members on board. Lots of hints and tips as well as being able to make small talk with other artists.
Its amazing what you can learn from forums such as these.Drop in and say hello to me and all the other artists on there!!!

Off We Go-- To St Audries Bay

We are still packing everything ready for the off to St Audries Bay! There is so much to remember-the list gets longer each hour!

I should have stopped at home while Bill fetched my friend from Stafford who is house/pet sitting but decided to go along for the ride last night instead!

There is no rush to get there though-as long as we arrive in time for the lovely 3 course meal this evening!

I will have internet access while I am away so I will keep you all posted with whats happening at St Audries Bay!

Childrens Encaustic Parties

After an inquiry today after a mum who I met at the weekend, I am able to announce that I will be available for childrens encaustic art birthday parties.

The children will be supervised and shown how to create beautiful melted wax pictures.
I will also supply a frame for the birthday child to put his/her favorite picture in.
They will be able to make some postcard size pics and also 1 A4 size.
If you are interested in having an encaustic party please get in touch with me.

Get A Wobble On

This is the latest in my ''manic series''

It measures 16in x 20in and is very intricate! Some of the lines are not straight-hence the title!

The sides have been left black.

The cost includingP+P to UK is £100 if you are outside the Uk please get in touch

ALL MY WORK IS LOGGED AT http://www.protectmywork.com/

Exhibiton

I

have had a great response for the ''From Small Acorns'' exhibition. I have people from a long way away coming to exhibit their work.It is growing bigger every day and with room to put around 150 paintings, promises to be an exciting time for everyone concerned!

I have recently heard from one of the ladies who attended the class that was held at the college a few months ago, Nikki showed her painting to some friends and one of them was dying to have a go, so Nikki is buying her one of my gift vouchers for her birthday and they will come to Ludlow for a class.I am looking forward to meeting up with Nikki again.

I have also heard from one of my Hadnall WI ladies--she has booked herself and her daughter in law in for the Tropical Summer Day class, she phoned yesterday to book another place for Christine whose home we did the class in.

That means that that class is now full--in fact its more than full--we have an extra one to normal but thats not a problem-I have taught this painting quite a few times in classes now so 7 instead of 6 people wont be a problem!

This Weekend's Food And Drink Festival

This weekend see's one of Ludlow highlights--The annual food and drink festival take a look at http://www.foodfestival.co.uk/ Ludlow will be heaving with people from all over the country and the world.

There are beer trails and sausage trails amoung other exciting things going on in the town.

The Streets Alive will be in town with the stilt dancers,music and loads of things going on in the town square.

We will be in the college Saturday and Sunday doing the craft fair which raises money for the Air Ambulance.

I will have room to put lots of paintings on show and as usual I will be demonstrating both the encaustic and oil painting techniques.

Several people that we met at Onslow Park steam rally will be coming to the craft fair to pick up their encaustic sets, that I had sold out of!!

I have stocked up with plenty of supplies of encaustic stuff so hopefully I wont run out of stock this weekend!

Nice To Be Appreciated

I have hd some lovely surprises over the past few days-on Saturday Carol presented me with this beautiful arrangment that she had made as a thank you gift for me, its really beautiful and is sented with rose oil so my room is filled with the most beautiful scent all the time.

I had a letter from Jan (Mrs Subtle!!!) who attended the class at Hadnall a couple of weeks ago thanking me for a great time and booking herself and her daughter in law in for the Tropical summer day class on the 10th Nov.

This morning I had a lovely letter from Alice who I met on Saturday at Onslow Park. She was a very keen student and created a beautiful encaustic painting.Her dad came back first thing on Sunday morning to buy an encaustic set for her as she was so excited by the experience.

Unfortunatly I had sold out of everything except for my demonstration set and a pack of card, I managed to make up a box of waxes out of my own and we eventualy managed to make up a set for Alice to start creating at home. Its so nice when youngsters take the time to say thank you. I will be writing back to Alice and enclosing a few more encaustic cards for her to frame and hang on her wall!!

Saturdays Class

We had a fantastic time in last Saturdays class.

Carol, Hayley, Jan and Mandy were as keen as can be to get cracking on ''the birch tree's'''

Jan was 1 st time artist who was a little nervous to begin with but she soon settled down and within minutes was saying what fun it was.

Carol and Hayley are now old hands at this painting lark--this was Carol's 9th picture and Hayleys 6th.

Mandy has been to me once before, but has done a couple of brilliant pictures at home which she showed us photos of.it was a beautiful sunny day and we went outside to flick the paint at the paintings to do the bark on the trees.Everyone managed to get freckles at this stage!

We used the encaustic pen to add detail of pink melted wax afterwards.

Everyone is bringing their paintings back for this Saturdays class for Bill to varnish them.

Jan is also having hers framed into one of our contemporary black frames for her daughters birthday. What a lovely surprise she is going to get when she opens her present!!

Jan and Carol are coming back this Saturday to paint Stormy Skies.

Stripping

I spent most of yesterday stripping----grime off the top of the kitchen cuboards and off the wall tiles ready for retiling.

Sugar soap is the most amazing stuff ever invented-just one wipe with the sponge soaked in the soloution and the results were amazing!!!

Bill was very impresses with the results.!

He has finished putting up the tiles in the extra bits that I wanted them-after taking down the old cooker hood I decided that I wanted a bigger area tiling than was done before.Bill has decided to tile over exising tiles rather than remove them and risk having to replaster the walls- so today is the big day when the new tiles are going to start going up over the top .

We decided last night that we would like a new double glazed window in the kitchen to replace the secondry glazed one, of course that means that we might as well replace the bathroom window while we are at it , so we have the man coming round at 6pm to measure up!

To think that all this started cos I went to focus to get some odourless thinners!!!

If we hadnt had some luck on the lottery's we wouldnt be able to do it, but the way Im spending it I will need another win tonight! Im off to rub my lucky 3 legged toad!