Bernards Send Off

We had the internment of Bills brother Bernards ashes yesterday-after a short service at Brimfield church all the family went back to his sons for a celebration of Bernards life.
We had a beautiful BBQ, lots of reminiscing and laughs about the old days.
It would have been Bernards 65th birthday yesterday.
We took along some of the Chinese floating lanterns to let off -we all wrote messages on the paper before they were let off.
The children had great fun and wrote some beautiful messages to Bernard.
The kids went into the hot tub and really enjoyed it-we had to get them out so we could let the lanterns off- a lot of the family had never seen them before and it was great fun to see them going higher and higher into the sky-
it was a late night and a long walk home as we couldn't get a taxi-but we walked off some of the delicious food that we had eaten!
Thanks Adrian and Chris for a wonderful day.

New Stands

My stands that we have been using for years on the craft markets have been getting tattier and tattier over time-there is only so much damage that the black paint can hide!
I have splashed out on some new stainless steel ones that will look smarter and be easier to lug around the country.The old ones were heavy and cumbersome but have served us well.
I have 12 like the one shown here, they will be joined up in sets of 2's -There will be a variety of ways we can have them, so very adaptable.
I have bought a roll of black material to put behind them so the background will still be basically be black.
The paintings hang lovely on them-brilliant service from the firm I bought them off-ordered at 2pm and delivered next morning.
Cant wait to try them out at the next craft fair!

Serenity In Green -Oct 11th--one place left

I have just one place left for this new class subject "Serenity In Green"

on Oct 11th.

There will be the option of doing it in different colours-someone has already requested shades of browns, although it would work in several other colours such as blues or purples.

If you would like to join this class please get in touch via my website www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Class for 6th Sept--Oriental Dawn

Oriental Dawn was a popular subject with fantastic results the last time we did it in class.

Painted entirely in oil paint, the shades of grey and the brightness of the yellow sun setting across the water make a beautiful statement together.

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

Commissions

I have been busy over the past couple of days working on a commission of Swallow Falls in Wales.

Its a place that has inspired me from the the first time we went there 6 years ago.

Paul and his wife have each commissioned a painting that means a lot to each of them.Im working on Pauls at the moment--he has sent me the photos of the scenes but also given me the go ahead to do my own thing with them because they love my style of interpretation of subjects.

.I am really enjoying this----although I am still doing my usual and emailing each stage for confirmation too!

I am really pleased with the results-the pic shown does not do this painting justice!

Craft market Tomorrow

We have an early start tomorrow-we are on the craft market in the town square.
Its the annual Marches Transport Festival.
Cars and lorries from all decades descend into the castle and the square.
The weather promises to be beautiful and the town will be heaving with people so fingers crossed we will have a good day!
We love doing the local fairs-we meet up with all the regular stall holders as well as the customers.
As usual I will be painting in oils, acrylics and encaustic wax.There will be paintings for sale as well as all the materials needed to paint in any of these mediums.

Craft Fair Thursday 3rd April

Well after getting back from the WI demo at 10:30pm last night we didnt feel like loading the car ready for the craft market when we got home, so we got up early and loaded the car then.
We got down the craft market at 8am, and were all set up for 9:20am.The weather was beautiful for once-no wind blowing everything around, just lots of lovely sunshine!
I was able to get on and do some finishing off to several paintings that had been started at home, but not finished, as well as painting some new small oils.
Lots of new faces up there, we all made friends and we gave out some advice about what the craft market was about!
I am looking forward to meeting up with them at the next craft fair.

Class for Saturday July 5th "Forest Pool"

This is a new class subject "Forest Pool" is painted onto a black canvas which makes it less nerve racking for total beginners !!
Its a lovely atmospheric picture.
I have been working on some new subjects for some time, the photograph of this one is not brilliant as the painting is still wet.I will take another one later when its dry.
If you would like to join the class to do this painting, please get in touch via the website www.paintingmyway.co.uk
I sure the places will get booked up quite quickly.

GOOD LUCK JIM

We want to wish my son Jim the best of luck for tomorrow--he is rallying at Weston Park in his Skoda Favorit rally car.He has got his all time favorite navigator with him --Steve Gould--- so should do really well!
He hasn't had this car out before so its fingers crossed that it all works as planned!
He has worked very hard on this car,after a break of almost 2 years. We hope the weather holds for him and he has a safe, fun day there.

New Challenge

As you can see the images above are quite different to my normal style of work,I have decided to challenge myself this year to try new styles of creating art.

I have had my Chinese brushes and ink for almost 2 years now-sitting on the shelf waiting for me to pluck up courage to have a go!

I took the bull by the horns and ordered some Chinese paper and yesterday had a my first go---above you can see my results.

I have several books-bought from boot sales which explain the technique but have had lots of hints and tips from my friend Trine in Norway who uses the technique a lot-and is very good at it.

Its totally different from what I'm used to--the rice paper is soooo absorbent-you only have to touch it with the slightest touch of a wet brush and its there-and once its there on the paper there is nothing you can do-unlike when using oils and acrylics where you can scrape it off or paint over the top.!!

Its going to be very interesting to use these materials but I am looking forward to more experiments with it.I will post the results on here for you all to see-and have a giggle at!!