new pics for jan!!!!!!

Here are two of my most recent pics of the sky/sunsets/sunrises.I am very pleased with the results-the first was taken on the way to leominster and the second taken earlier that day out of the bedroom window.

I have loads more to put on my blog, the time has just flown, been doing a bit more to the commission, and getting on with putting the christmas tree up etc.

Will get back to norml posting tomorrow with luck!!!!!

Next Class August 25th

This is the subject of the next class on Saturday 25th August. There are just 2 places left for this class, it is different to my usual classes in that we will be working in acrylic apint and encaustic wax instead of the usual oil paint. Of course that means that the paintings will be dry for everyone to take home for a change.

Ray Of Light

I have been working on my latest painting in my abstract collection today.

Its called Ray of Light for obvious reasons!

I love the way the colours merge into one another--- yellow blue, green pink and purple, its hard to see where one starts and another starts.

It measures 80 cm x 70 cm and its painted onto staple free box canvas. The sides of the painting have been left black.

The price is £150 including P+P in Uk.

Todays Craft Fair

We had a fantastic day today on the craft market.The weather was brilliant, beautiful sunshine all day.

Some of the traders didnt turn up so we had 3 stalls and was able to spread out.

I have had a commission to do something really unusual, some people have had some new doors with a port hole window in them and they want them painting with glass paint.

I am going to have a practise run on some glass and email the results to them, if they like it they will come round here and see it in real life to be sure of the colours and then I will paint them for them, I am looking forward to doing something different for a change.

Lots of customers coming for classes and another enquiry about a demonstration.

To Cheer You Up!!!

My sister has sent this link--it will cheer up the most miserable day!!!
Watch it with the sound turned up! http://joe-ks.com/archives_may2005/Elastic_Baby.htm

What A Day!!!!!

I have spent most of the day on the computer sorting out all my sales off ebay. I decided to sort out my clothes that have become too big since I lost weight, and sell them on ebay--they all finished last night and today--amazing what they have fetched!!!!!!
Trouble is Im a bit rusty when it comes to ebay so my dear sis has had to come round tonight to sort out a couple of things,now we have got paypal sorted things will be a bit quicker next time!
I have loads more stuff to go on there--trouble is I havent much time to do it all-my Beckie is moving house tomorrow-we have class -all being well and Im on the craft market on Sunday, so will have a busy time next week doing it all!

We have had torrentual rain here all day again, everywhere is flooded and I have had a couple of tomorrows students ring up worried they wont make it because of the flooding.We will have to wait and see--several of them have quite a distance to drive and at the moment Ludlow is more or less cut off from the outside world!

Meet Gertie!

This is our latest caravan Gertie. She is a little younger than Bessie, and came with a much bigger awning, thus giving us more storage space-essentual when we go off for the 2 and 3 day craft fairs.She has the all important wine glass cabinet with stained glass doors and is really immaculate inside and out.I just know that me and Bill will have a lot of fun in her!

Getting Ready

Bill has been busy today, getting the canvas prepared for tomorrows class.As you can see they are drying on my worktops .

The brushes are in the garage being sorted out their box's, so we are all set for the Winter Wonderland class in the morning.

Sparrows

Its a little hard to see but these 3 little baby sparrows were looking so sorry for themselves today! It was pouring with rain all day. They just sat there in the bird table huddled up together waiting for mum and dad to bring then food!

I didnt wake up til 1pm and then if Bill hadnt bought me a cup of coffee into the bedroom I think I would have been there all day!

The past couple of weeks have been so hectic it has caught up with me I suppose.

I have nothing to do now until next Saturday when I have a full class--- so I can have a nice rest!

The festival craft markets have been cancelled due to the bad weather.

The painting knives will be here tomorrow , and I have got the new landscape and large oval brushes ready for the students who ordered them at the last class-they are a a bargain at just £1 each

It was great to be home and take a look at the fish in the pond-they have only had a quick feed lately, havent had time to enjoy them!

The picture at the top shows the 'Fairies Fishing Rods' that I have growing in pots around the pond-we will have a good show of them this year-the flowers are covered in buds-they look so pretty bobbing around in the breeze.

The 2nd pic shows some of the fish in our pond-the big white one is my favorite one-he actualy comes right out of the water when its feeding time-as you can see!

Shobdon Festival

We never seem to set out the paintings the same way twice at these craft fairs!

Here you can see the latest version of Poppy Quartet . Bill has given them a couple of coats of varnish to protect them and they are ready to go on sale.

We have had such a laugh today at the craft fair--no-one is safe from us-we have such fun telling each other about what has happened since the last time we met up--its a real community -the craft fairers.

We all have stories to tell!!!

I could write a book to be honest-one day I might share it with ALL my regular readers-although one or two are already in on it already and waiting for the next episode!!!

Landgrove WI

This is Maggie-the president of Landgrove WI.

We first met at last weekends Three Counties Show when she was helping with the refreshments.

When we arrived last night to do the demo/talk the rest of the WI'ers sang 'happy birthday' to her -and guess what --she won the draw too---she was over the moon to choose 'summer day ' as her prize.

The WI will be holding a special draw for the other painting 'the waterfall' next month to raise money for the 'Acorn' childrens hospice, that is local to them.

We had an earlier night than expected because I did my talk and demo before they had their normal meeting as they knew we had to be up early to be at Shobdon Flower, Food and Drink Festival.! So we were back home at 10pm in time for me to clean my brushes and pack the bits and bobs that hadnt been taken to Shobdon earlier in the day!

work in progress

You can see the 3 basic stages that went into my latest work-yet to be named-any ideas for a name please email as usual! The flowers are irises.

It will not be dry in time to take to shobdon, we will be setting up there tomorrow, but it should be dry enough to take to the craft fairs next week!The forcast is not great but we will be in the dry in the marquee.There are lots of busloads of people booked to come to it the organisers have told us , so whatever the weather it should prove to be busy!

Todays Class

Kevin is deciding how many more poppies to add to his painting!

Todays class went really well.

We did the revised version of Summer Day.Everyone settled down to painting without the usual nerves and very soon it was clear that they would all turn out a little dfferent from each other!

Hayleys sky started out looking quite bright as we used some pinky purple as well as the usual blue to do the sky.But as we tickled the canvas gently with a special tickling brush it soon started to fade down and become softer.She was amazed at the end result" I cant belive Ive really painted that" she remarked after she had finished.

Carole and Kevin were also very happy with their finished paintings. I will ask them to bring them with them to the next class so I can take a another photo of them all-the photos have turned out far too light!

Coventry Class

This happy group came all the way from Coventry to do the class today.Cheryl (2nd left )had booked it for Grant (on left) 40th birthday.

We had such a laugh- they were a great bunch and I think we will see them again!

As you can see the paintings turned out quite different to each other-some were quite bold with the colour wash and some more subtle!

Grant certainly had a birthday to remember after the class they were off to The Feathers for tea, then back to Coventry to go to the theatre-and Im told there are more suprises to come tomorrow--Grant should think his self lucky he has such great friends!!!

Talking of friends-a lady and her hubby came talking to us for quite a while after the class,then about an hour later she was back-they had lost their keys and were retracing their steps.We looked and couldnt find them anywhere, so phoned my son who is a mechanic to see if he could help-he was on his way to a rally so I phoned the owner of the garage where he worked and he said he would come and get it started for her.They had a dog with them and they were looking at either staying in B+B for 3 nights until Tues cos they thought the keys might have been left in post office or having the streering lock broken and fixed which would have been cheaper!

She kept saying how good we were helping her-we said no problem.She went to find hubby to say we could get the car going for her and came back to say hubby had found keys-she had a beautiful bunch of flowers for us for helping, a lovely gesture.

They say what goes around comes around and I am finding more and more that this is true-you get what you sow.

Desire

As you can probly see, I have been tempted to have a play around with one of my recent works'Desire'
I was not completely happy with it, it just wasnt vibrant enough in some places.
I have reinforced the bits I wasnt quite happy with and also turned it round again, from vertical to horizontal.
I am much happier now.The strength of colour is much stronger in real life than on the screen.

You can see why so many people love my easel-when we do the craft fairs and demos we often catch people standing looking at it,it is a work of art in itself!!
This painting is 90cm x30cm and is for sale at £150 including P+P in UK

Latest Painting

This is my latest work. Bright, vibrant and bold, blues merge with reds and yellows to produce all sorts of beautiful colours inbetween, its hard to see where one colour starts and another one ends.
A great piece for the modern contemporary home.

Its painted on deep edge box canvas and is painted on all sides for easy hanging with no framing required.I created it using high quality acrylic paint.
It measures 30cm x 90cm so its quite a large piece.

It started off life as a horizontal painting but when I turned it on its side to paint the bottom-everyone prefered it this way!

At the end of the day its personal preference, the painting can be hung in 4 different ways-you can choose which way you like it!

The title is 'Desire' and it is for sale at £150 including P+P in UK.

If you are interested in buying it or commissioning one like it please get in touch, through either of my wesites
www.paintingmyway.co.uk
www.dianetheartist.com

Lovely Day

We are just home relaxing with a glass of rose wine after the most enjoyable day. We have been to Pershore to see fellow artist Rob Kirbyson's fantastic work in exhibition at No 8 in the high street. He's a fantastic artist working mainly in acrylic's. The exhibition is called 'Beyond The Concrete'
His new website is well worth taking a look at www.acrylicsandoils.com

After that we called round at the 3 counties show ground to suss it out before we attend for 3 days next month, then a quiet drive back to The Salway Arms near Ludlw for a beautiful steak as it was Bills birthday yesterday-great meal and very reasonable too! Can highly reccomend it!

WI demo at Bishops Castle

There was a lovely atmosphere at Bishops Castle WI last night, it was held in a lovely cosy room next to the local church.As you can see there was a lovely lot of goodies for after the talk!

The winner of the draw chose the waterfall painting and I left the Summer Day painting for them to use to raise funds for their chosen charity.

Bang goes the diet again! Put 1 lb on today when I went to weight watchers!

As its Bills 59th birthday on Friday I expect we will be going out for a meal so the diet will definitely out of the window this week!

Craft Fair

How are we supposed to stick to diets when you have a pig roast next to your stall all day at the craft fair!!!

The smell of bacon and pork sizzeling away all day is torture--we gave in at lunch time and had a beautiful pork bap complete with apple sauce,stuffing and a little crackling!

The one advantage is the smell of the cooking brings people from all around and while they are waiting for their pork baps to be prepare they wander over to my stall and usualy end up with something!!