Painting Party

Im looking forward to Thursday evening--we are off to do a 30th birthday painting party in town! There will be 9 or 10 people in the British Legion Club painting either Yesterday, Grasses or Mystical Moon!They can make up their minds on the night!
Should be a good laugh---Trina whose party it is has been to me twice so knows what it entails--but everyone else has no experience at all!
I will add the photos the next day!

www.dianetheartist.com

I have 300 paintings over on my other website www.dianetheartist.com  there is now the facility to leave comments about the paintings--if you want to do so that would be great!

Meet 'Bunty'

Well we have finally got the van for "Painting My Way".
Meet 'Bunty' she got her name from the letters in her registration number!
She will make life a lot easier for us-loads of room in there for all the easels, paintings and everything else we need for the classes and craft fairs.
Next step is getting the sign writing done--have got some ideas for how it will look, but have to get it worked out properly now we have her here!

Grasses class -June 5th--acrylic-places left

There are still some places left in this Saturdays class-we will be using acrylic paint on a chunky 12in x 24in box canvas.
The painting will be dry to take home as the acrylic paint drys very quickly.
It is suitable for all ages and abilities including first timers.

For more details please contact me via the website
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

September 26th--Birch Trees

Back again by popular demand--Birch Trees is one of my most popular subjects to date.
There is a choice of monochrome, sepia tones and the new green version, which Im sure will prove to be popular.
The class is suitable for all ages and abilities from children as young as 7 upwards.
if you would like to join this class please get in touch--but it does get full very quickly!
please get in touch via the website
www.paintingmyway.co.uk
THERE ARE 3 PLACES LEFT FOR THIS CLASS

Hollie and Lucie

we have had Hollie and Lucie tonight-our little grandaughters.First time we have seen Lucie-she is a little darling bless her! Had her bottle and went straight to sleep! Hollie wasnt far after her!

Class of Feb 14th -Summer Day

This painting is the most popular class subject that I teach.
Its always bright and cheerful, and the students always produce excellent results even first timers!

You will learn composition,perspective,colour and how to use several different brushes and what they will do, as well as a painting knife.

The painting is suitable for all ages and abilities from 6 years upwards
If you would like to join us for this workshop please get in touch via the website
www.paintingmyway.co.uk
or ringing me on 01584 872013
3 PLACES LEFT IN THIS WORKSHOP

Medieval Fair in Ludlow

We were up early to go down and finish setting up this morning at the college for the Medieval fair, we had done most of it last night, but there were one or two things that needed doing today.

Here we have Joseph and Mateusz having a go at the encaustic art.

Joseph made a beautiful painting with a dog in it!

We sold out pretty well of the encaustic art materials, have got just 2 complete sets left and a few waxes and cards.

We saw some of our students , Chris and Pauline who called by with some of their friends. We had all met for the first time last year at the same craft fair, when Chris and Pauline had decided to join us to start learning to paint,the friends had come back to visit them and were gobsmacked at their results!

Class of March 7th--Perfect Evening

Perfect Evening is suitable for all abilities and age groups.
Bright and vibrant , it is created using acrylic paint.

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

More Scotland

Yesterday we left Inverbervie and travelled to Dumbarton via a beautiful scenic route as you can see. The mountains had snow on the tops of them.We stopped at several places en route to admire the scenery.

The waterfalls were breathtaking-the roar of the water was un-real.

The colours of the trees was changing more as we drove from the east coast to the west coast. We had great weather until we almost reached our destination. We stopped at a lovely little cafe next to Loch Lomand and it started to rain a little there, but instead of being miserable it cheered us up to see just how the colours of autumn were brightened up and became much more vivid!

Our room at the travel lodge-just £19 was situated in a lovely setting with a view from our window, and a fantastic pub over the road that did the most amazing carvery meal for just £3.50p

Bill had the roast beef and I went for the turkey.

Our expectations were not high at those prices but we were very pleasantly surprised-both meats were delicious and the selection of veg was excellent and well cooked.

After a couple of large glasses of white wine I was ready for bed and we both slept like logs.

We were up bright and early this morning to start the next leg of our journey to Dumpries.

The weather has changed and it is wet and windy-not that that has made any difference really!

We have still been able to see the beautiful scenery. We stopped several times again, We had a wander around Glasgow and found some lovely shops there.

We arrived early afternoon at our guest house--beautiful place, very homely and comfortable, settled in very quickly, we ahve been advised where to go for our evening meal by Derek our host! He actualy knows Ludlow very well!

Im off for a nice hot shower now, will be going out for a meal shortly after that.

We are making our way down to Kendal in the Lake District tomorrow ,we have 2 nights there,so will be making quite an early start--its a good job Bill loves driving!

Class of Oct 4th -Poppy Fields

We had a lovely class today-right from the word go-we were having a laugh!

Pauline and Chris have been lots of times before and Doreen and Bev were here for the 2nd time.

As you can see from the photos all of the paintings turn out different right from the start-it never fails to amaze me or the students just how different they can be,the skies all have lots of different things going on in them although we all used the same colours and same brushes to do them with!

This is a very 'easy on 'painting to do-it encourages students to be free with their brush strokes.

Doreen and Bev found it easier to get on their knees to do the little daisies at the end of the class!!!

Everyone enjoyed creating the lovely poppies using very thick paint--for once Im not telling students to ''watch they have no blobs on their brushes!'' The blobbier the better for this one!

After the class while we clearing up I spotted Chris's palette-what a work of art in itself--we were all having fun spotting what had appeared in it-we could all see sky, trees, and water-Im not sure what he was most proud of-his painting or his palette-which he took home!

As you can see the paintings were all beautiful and they are all coming to classes again.

Jake

Well we have been sat outside today enjoying the beautiful sunshine and if we closed our eyes we could have been on Brighton beach!

Jake the african grey has learned from somewhere to make a noise like a seagull--we haven't a clue where hes got it from-but then he does a good chicken impression as well and we don't know who's taught him that either!

There is never a dull moment with him. We bought a clicker that is used for training dogs -you click and give them a treat-we used it very successfully with out other bird Paddy the orange tipped amazon.

However Jake now makes the clicking noise and says Good Boy Jake-which is sooo funny!

As you can see they are both outside in the shade where they can watch the fish in the pond--Jake also takes off all the wild birds and has blackbirds, sparrows and lots of other birds song from being outside. When the phone rings he says hello before we have chance to.And you have no hope of talking on the phone near him-he thinks its time for him to show off all of his vocabulary and talks his head off, so you have to take the phone into the other room!

I dont think we have watched an tv program all the way through-we end up watching Jake instead--

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

Ive been very busy over the past few weeks painting a couple of commissions.

I am working from photographs sent to me by the commissioners

The painting on the top is of Nylon Pool in Tobago (named by Princess Anne when on her honeymoon) and the one on the bottom is of Swallow Falls in Wales.

Neither of them are finished yet--Swallow Falls isn't far off--Ive done some more bits to it since these pictures have been taken--the foliage has been darkened up quite a bit.

Ive still got quite bit to do to the Nylon Pool one--the gold triangle in the foreground is actually going to be the front of a glass bottomed boat, there is quite a lot of detail to do yet--coils of rope on the front of the boat!

They have been commissioned by a husband and wife who come from Wales and Tobago respectively.

They both wanted a painting to remind them of home!!.

The paintings are going to hang in their home in Tobago, we keep in touch constantly with me emailing them photographs of how the paintings are coming along, and their feedback on what has been done.

The painting of Nylon Pool has now been hung on my dining room wall for now to dry off a bit--its been on the easel all week and so far Bill, Becky and me have all walked by it and got caught on it--we have all been covered in blue paint-both paintings are on big ,deep edge box canvas and they take up loads of room.

I will finish off the rope detail at the weekend, also got to do some waves coming over the coral reef on the horizon.

Ive really enjoyed doing both paintings, Swallow Falls has been an inspirational place for me ever since I first visited it with Bill a few years ago.

Jake

Here is the latest addition to the Jennings family.

Meet Jake the african grey parrot who came to live with us today.

He is 18 months old and talks ,sings and whistles tunes.

Its funny how things come about-I happened to see him mentioned last night on one of the forums that I go on --his owners have had a change in their circumstances and can no longer keep him.

After an email and a few phone calls Rich said he would bring him all the way from Southampton to make sure he settled in.

We had to do some furniture moving in the front room to fit his cage in, but got everything sorted just in time as they all arrived.

Paddy didn't think much of being kept in his cage while we settled Jake in , but I'm sure he will soon get to be friends given time.

He really is a character and whistles the Mcdonalds tune.

I know Rich and Nat will miss him a lot, but Im going to keep them informed of how he is with emails and phone calls.

He will be spoiled rotton like Paddy Bird is-as I speak he is tucking in to grapes and red peppers!

Craft Fair

We are on the monthly craft fair tomorrow on the square in Ludlow.
As usual I will be demonstrating the technique I use in class as well as doing encaustic work too!
Lets hope the weather holds out-sounds a bit iffy by the forcast!

Sundays Craft Market/ Transport Exhibition

It was an early start to the day yesterday-we were up at 6am to get ready to go down to the craft market.The sun was shining and the birds were singing as we set up.

Each time we do a craft fair it works out different as we take different paintings.Bill is very good at hanging them all-I would not be able to do it as neat as he does!

We were next to the hand made soap stall and the smell all day was great-lavender and lemongrass oil amongst other lovely smells.

The other side was the 'hat man' who sells hats and sunglasses etc -he used to play with The Mavericks and throughout the day he was playing his guitar, gave a great atmosphere to the day!

There were lots of people around all day, and at around mid-day there was a noise that got louder and louder-it echoed through the narrow streets of Ludlow and then we saw them coming up the road--an endless stream of moped's --the mods had arrived in their droves-it was estimated that around 5oo mods had come to the transport exhibition.As you can see from the pics above there were some beautiful bikes , made you wonder how they managed with all those mirrors on them!

Bill had a good walk around in the castle and was able to see some of the other things on show there

Todays class

We had a great time today in class! It was laughs from the word go!

As you can see from the photos, we had one unruly student who kept playing up!!

Ron was the only first time student today and he soon settled down after reassurances from everyone else that he would be fine!

Jane managed to join us again-and was really happy with her pic until she put in the suns rays, I showed her how to get rid of them and all was well.

I stocked her up with painting materials when she had her one to one on Wednesday--the few things I didn't have I gave her a list to go shopping at The Range in Kidderminster,just a couple of brushes and an easel were what she was short of.

She phoned this afternoon while she was there at The Range to check she was getting the right things --all my students know that if they are in any doubt about anything they can ring me anytime and ask! Whether its about technique or materials I am always here to answer their queries.

Michelle had to leave a bit earlier than everyone else-she had a new grandchild to go and see in Northampton, so she is not in the final photograph.!

Bill from Shrewsbury was using his 3rd gift voucher that he received from his wife--he loves the different techniques that he has learnt in each class.

Kay recieved her advanced artists brooch for attending 6 classes-she was thrilled with it!

I will finish the update tomorrow because we have little Holly her for the weekend and she is fast asleep in the room I have the computer in!

My Painting Buddy!!!

I was stood painting in the kitchen last night minding my own business when I heard a flutter of wings behind me and in flew Paddy Bird onto my head!

Bill and I were both shocked as he as never been brave enough to leave the front room before in the 4 years we have had him!! He had to navigate the turns into the hall and into the kitchen, he was puffing a bit when he landed on my head!

He has never been that keen on me until a few months ago, he always seemed to like Bill the most. He simply tolerated me-what has made him change I dont know.

Most parrots take to just one of their owners, Bill can still do more with him-mainly because Im still scared of him-he has bitten me down to the bone on my fingers several times in the early days and it has always gone septic. But Im getting braver now hes being nicer to me.

He was very interested in what I was doing, he seemed to enjoy watching me paint.

He thought all his birthdays had come at once when Bill gave him a clean brush to hold as we are always taking pens and lipsticks off him as his beak goes through them like butter!!

I might get him some paint and a little canvas soon and see if hes picked up any tips!

Serenity In Green

After finding that the limeted palette of sap green and black worked well I decided to continue the theme onto another painting.

This time the canvas is 50 cm wide and 100 cm long.

The colour has not come out well on the photograph-its actualy more muted like the previous painting Tranquility In Green.

I have shown a close up of the detail in the bottom of the painting.

I went back to it several times and adjusted it.The grasses were left very simple to start, but It didnt quite work, so i added some heads to them and it worked a treat.

Im really pleased with the result.

The price is £180 including P+P in Uk.

please get in touch if you are interested in reserving this work.

Please note this is an oil painting and it will not be dry enough to post for several weeks.