Poppies and Daisies Workshop

We had 4 generations of one family in class today--though the youngest didn't paint--little Amber aged just 11 weeks was as good as gold bless her-her mummy,Amy is on the left..        Today's subject looks quite simple--but they are often the hardest ones LOL--and most of the students said it was one of the hardest they had done... with hindsight I should have taken the swear box with me!!   Its good to have a challenge though and once the background was done and it was time for the flowers ,butterflies etc to go on they had more or less settled down :-)

Karen joined us for the 3rd time..she has beautiful twin girls who were born 8 weeks early and are around the same age as little Amber--but they are still only around the 4lb mark so look tiny compared to her!

Anne was painting her 7th picture with me--and she found it hard at first to be random---this seems to be the hardest part of the whole picture--its very easy to do 'symetrical' when painting but especially when painting things like the grasses!!

Jo had us in fits of laughter all through the workshop...she received her artist brooch today for attending 6 workshops..

Jo bought along a friend George--first time for her-and she seemed to find it quite easy and fancies coming along to paint the Cats in Tree next year..

Carole bought along her sister Tina, her niece Amy and her Dad Tony--she decided not to put any poppies in her painting as she has them in all her previous ones...

Tony was a real star-aged 83  he stood the whole time although the family had bought along a stool for him to rest on-he didn't use it once! He was great--has a wonderful imagination--and added a spiders web to the side of his painting at the end..he was a great sport and we were all in fits of laughter throughout the class!

We do get specific requests  from time to time on things to be added to the paintings--but Amy's made me chuckle--she wanted a butterfly,bumble bee and ladybird in her painting to represent her 2 daughters and a niece -if my memory is correct---so I had a practise on my canvas and off she went--had to do a little correcting here and there at first but the oils are very forgiving and the bugs were all beautiful in the end!

Tina has us in fits--next time shes booked I'm taking the swear box lol-- we joked that little Amber's first word would be B#####ks....but on a serious note she did soon get on and do a brilliant painting!

bless her-she spent most of the workshop fast asleep-didn't hear a peep out of her!

Loved Carole's painting..beautiful dragonflies..

I loved Georges dragonflies-you would never believe she had not painted before!

Wonderful individual results from everyone...

Beautiful---

well done everyone!

Fingers Crossed!!!!!!!!!!!

While its lovely to see the snow and beautiful winter wonderland scenes it isn't good to get a lot of the white stuff the day before I have a workshop where I have people coming from all over to paint with me! The forecast isn't looking good at all for our area.. so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we dont get as much as they say we will and that everyone will manage to get here on Saturday OK... If worst comes to worst I will have to cancel the workshop and sort out another date for it---but hopefully it wont come to that...I will be ringing everyone booked in for The Birches on Friday evening when I can see how its looking....so FINGERS CROSSED EVERYONE!!!!!!!

Grandchildren!!!

Little Tommy enjoyed his first Christmas--so did his bear friend!

Its just amazing how quickly the grandkids are growing up....Ollie is a proper lad--full of beans!

It was lovely to see Callum and Izzy round here over Christmas, Hollie and Lucie enjoyed seeing them too--lovely to have all of the grandchildren together for a picture!

Merry Christmas Everyone

Well Christmas is  almost here again--where has the time gone?           The year has flown by so quickly.   So much has happened too--the main event in my life has been the arrival of our little Christmas Elf---Tommy!!!!           Cant believe he is now 7 months old already!   He will be sitting at our dining table tucking into his first Christmas dinner on the 25th--he has got his 2 front teeth for Christmas so we will save the drumstick for him LOL..                                                                    On the painting side of things--apart from the horrible wet summer that meant that many of the shows we usually do were cancelled-it has been a great year.                                                                                                                                                      The workshops have been busy with lots of new faces as well as  of my regulars! Again we have met some wonderful people and made lifelong friends with many of them. We have created beautiful paintings,given people confidence they didn't have before and unleashed so much creative talent that was hidden away...we have laughed until we cryed as well-with many memorable moments in the workshops!                                                                                                                    I would be lying if I said it had all been easy and a doddle-because it hasn't....the weather has been against us all year--most of the Wednesday and Sunday markets have been wet, and if Bill had a £ for every time he hung the plastic back sheets to dry in the garage this year he would be rich..but we have carried on-and now have just the one this Sunday to do...we are off then  until the beginning of April--we may do the Sunday market in Feb and March weather permitting but that will be it--a lovely break from it and its well deserved!                                                                               The dates for next years workshops are on the website now www.paintingmyway.co.uk                                                         Its coming up to the 9th year of my workshops in April and I'm pleased to say that the price of most of the workshops is still £35 -exactly the same as when I started 9 years ago....there are a couple of exceptions though- workshops using a chunky 12" x  24" canvas have gone up by £2 as these canvas have risen a lot in price this year,,,but that is only a couple of the workshops---Grasses and Mystical Moon.. The Yesterday workshop on the huge 40" x 12" canvas will remain the same at £45 and if you use either of those size canvas in The Birches workshops the price will be the same...  I will be updating the website over the Christmas period with the dates and places I will be during 2013 -markets and shows..well that's it for now folks---don't know if I will get back to do any updates before Christmas--we have family for the big day and Boxing Day and have our 2 lovely granddaughters coming to stay for a couple of nights Christmas week as well so we will be very busy...                                                                                                                                                        So a Huge MERRY, HEALTHY CHRISTMAS from me and Bill...see you all soon xxxxxxx

Photos

I manage to get this photo through the kitchen window yesterday--the little tom tit seems to be looking down at the woodpecker to see when he will be finished on the nuts!
I love to get photos of the sky-it never fails to amaze me just how much the sky can change in minutes.

Karens Painting

I first met Karen over a year ago when she bought a poppy painting from me-since then Ive done commissions for her and she is one of my biggest collectors of my work!
As a result we have become close friends with both Karen and her partner Steve.
Karen fancied having a go at her own painting and decided on Yesterday-a bright , vibrant painting on a large 36in x 14in canvas.

We had a lovely relaxing day , Karen got the hang of it very quickly and before long the painting was finished!

We had a lovely time chatting and putting the world to rights, we only stopped to enjoy a salad roll and of course a mince pie as its that time of year!

Updates of things and Classes for 2009 !!!

At last I have found time to start to update next years classes, as you will see I have made a start and got as far as March.
I have listed them all below, there are a few new ones in among them with some more new ones to follow.

I have got lots of painting to catch up on--a new gallery opening up in Ludlow this weekend wants a lot of my most popular paintings-which means I will have to do some more in time for the Medieval Fair at the end of the month in town.It also means that I have a lot of websites to update as I will no longer be able to sell them off my sites!
We are also going to discuss having some workshops in the gallery as well--I will post some photos at the weekend.


Things have been hectic with 3 trips to Hereford hospital in 3 days!
Still none the wiser on the results of the scan because the computer wasn't working when I saw the consultant today!

I want to say a big thank you to everyone for all their phone calls, messages and emails wishing me well--I will let you all know what the outcome is as soon as I know.
Ive got to go for some more tests soon, so will know more after Ive had them done as well.

Class of Jan 31st-Serenity In Green

Serenity In Green is a peaceful, restful painting.It can be painted in arange of other colours too-
This painting is suitable for all ages and abilities
If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website www.paintingmywy.co.uk

or give me a ring on 01584 872013 if you have any questions about this class- it would look great in shades of browns or blues.
I will try and get some other options painted and shown on here so you can see.

Shobdon Food And Drink Festival

Well the weather held out today and it was a lovely day-nice and sunny and not too hot in the craft marquee-pictured are the little stars of today--I forgot to bring the piece of paper home with all of their names on but I'm sure they will all recognise themselves!

The encaustic art was very very popular with young and old alike and we had a lot of interesting pictures-including some angel fish and a standard poodle!

I'm sorry I didn't get the pics on here before but the computer played up --had a big black square in corner of screen and couldnt get on to put pics on! (I didn't fall asleep like Bill told everyone I might!)

Christmas Eve

Well its been a busy week, as you can see we were busy in the kitchen on Christmas Eve, Bill made some of his beautiful quiches and after we had a go at some ginger flavour shortbread biscuits.

I got on with getting the table set ready for the next days fesivities.

I love doing the Christmas table, this year we had some new floating candles which looked great when lit on Christmas Day.

Billies Christmas Cakes!!!!

You can see what we were busy doing last night!!!! Bill gave them all a last feed of brandy yesterday morning and we marzipaned and iced them all last night--long job, but they look lovely-and if the one we took to the exhibition is anything to go by-will taste every bit as good as they look!!!

Bills Christmas Cakes

Its that time of year again--Bills Christmas cake time!

As you can see from the bottom pic, Bill has already made 2 cakes yesterday- they are all wrapped up in greaseproof paper, ready for the first feeding of brandy in a couple of weeks time!The smell of brandy soaked fruit fills the house, and the clock is being watched very carefully while the latest cakes are baked very slowly in the oven! The latest will be cooked at 11.30 pm tonight, so hope we stay awake til then!