Room In Class This Saturday "Forest Pool"

I still have room in the class for this Saturday-its been organised at the last minute after the encaustic class had to be cancelled.

This is a lovely painting to paint as its done on a black background rather than a white one. Its suitable for first time students and more experienced ones.

If you are interested in joining in this class please get in touch via http://www.paintingmyway.co.uk

The Poppy

The Poppy
This is my latest Poppy Painting. As usual the photos do not do this art work justice! Red is notoriously difficult to phograph and with this one being so glossy due to the finishing varnish it has proved immpossible to get a decent picture of it!You can see the reflection of the light on this photo Im afraid.It is brilliant shades of reds and the centre is really black. This a is a very big piece of art-- each canvas measures 16 in x 20in. It needs to be hung around an inch or so apart for best effect. It has been created using many , many layers of acrylic paint.All shades of red-- Crimson, virmillion , flame red and deep hue cadium red have been used to start, ive buit up the layers and I have then mixed each colour with each other plus added some black to darken them so the reds are endless in shades.I have also used a special textured medium under the paint to create the crinkled texture that poppies have. The centres of the poppy is what grabs most people when they view it in the flesh--I have used melted wax to texturise the centre of the poppy-with larger dots in the very centre, moving on to smaller ones around the outside of those-then around the very edges I have used a new paint called Lava Rock, which consists of tiny weeny little black dots-they look just like pollen.It is then coated with coats of gloss artists varnish which brings the painting to life. Everyone wants to touch the painting because of the texture in it. This series of paintings has been very popular-each one has been completly different to the others, Im really pleased with the effect the new lava paint has had on this work-it really adds a new dimension to the work.Shame it dosent show up in these photos!! If you would like some close ups of the painting please get in touch with me and I will send you some.
Te cost of this painting is £300
This work is copyrighted with ww.protectmywork.com

Class of June 14th "Poppy Field"

Again back by popular demand 'Poppy Field'
This popular painting subject always has amazing results -even with first time students.
If you would like to join this class please get in touch via the website
www.pantingmyway.co.uk

Changes In the Garden

There are going to be some big changes to the garden.Bill has decided that its not worth trying to grow vegetables on the bottom level of the garden.Its such a lot of work and the results were quite disappointing last year.So he is going to turn it into a flower garden instead.We have been and bought a lovely weeping willow tree and loads of plants to put in, but the first major job is to make some new steps down to the level, like the ones we have from the first level to the second.The original steps are very steep and I didn't like going up and down them.So Bill is going to make some new ones.The bricks and concrete have been delivered and its just a matter of getting it done now.Its not a quick job but it will be lovely when its done.

Birthday

I had a lovely birthday yesterday, I received lots of lovely cards (and emails) and pressies from family and friends.
Bill bought me some Armani Code perfume and I also had a lovely surprise when I opened the front door to find a beautiful bouquet being delivered from him too, they are absolutely beautiful.
I had more lovely flowers off my sister and daughter too, so have run out of vases now!
I have been thoroughly spoiled by everyone.!!!
Bill cooked a delicious meal in the evening for us to round off the perfect day!

Foxgloves

I have completed the second in my "Foxgloves" series. This time on 3 Loxley Gold canvas each measuring 10in x 24in.

The photographs don't do this art work justice.Its much more vibrant in real life.!!

I have included a close up of one of the canvas here.

I have painted all the sides and they all have a lot of detail on them.They need to be hung around 2in apart in order to see this detail properly.

They are very effective, the foxgloves in the foreground really jump out against the blurry background..

This art work will be ready to post in time for St Valentines Day.

The price of this work is £350 including special delivery in the UK.

If you are outside UK please get in touch,

please note that this artwork is copyrighted and logged with www.protectmywork.com

Cancer Research Donation

I have had an enjoyable few days-apart from having a streaming cold---painting some variations on Caroles picture that she painted at the weekend at the Advanced class.

I have painted this picture in order to raise money for Cancer Research.
Cancer has touched many peoples lives in one way or another, and I hope that this painting will raise at least £180 for the cause.
This oil painting called "Foxglove Dream"is done onto a high quality Loxley Gold deep edge canvas measuring 10in wide x 24in long.
The painting continues on all 4 sides of the canvas so it does not require framing.
The photographs do not do this picture justice, it is much brighter in real life.
The foxgloves are quite detailed, and lighter than they appear in the pics.
I will take some more close up pictures tomorrow when the light is better!!

It will (or should be) dry enough to post in around 3 weeks, it can be delivered in time for St Valentines Day-I only use special delivery for paintings.
It is next day delivery,insured and trackable.
Please note that this work is copyrighted and logged with www.protectmywork.com

Reminiscence

We had a lovely day on Sunday with Wendy and Gil-my old friend Rita's daughter and son in law.

Over several bottles of wine and a lovely roast dinner, we laughed and reminisced and told each other stories of Rita--she was such a character.

She has left a big hole in all our lives.

It turned out to be a late night, but I have the feeling that Rita would have approved!!!

I know she would have enjoyed the lemon and lime cheesecake!

Hen Party

We had such a laugh today at the hen party, you wouldnt belive some of the conversations we had aroung the table! Make your hair curl!

As with the best hen parties we had to have a real giggle and this took the form of a wax willie painting competition!!!!

I showed the girls the best 'tool' to do this and there was no stopping them! We had willies coming in all shapes , colours and sizes!

We decided to let Bill judge the contest when he re-appeared to help clear up after all the fun!

Home again!

Well we are starting to get back to normal again after our painting holiday at St Audries.

All the washing is done and everything packed away again!

I have to get back into the swing of things soon, I have a talk and demo at Ledbury Art Society on Tuesday and a full class next Saturday.

Must say I am looking forward to meeting my ladies again plus one of their husbands as well for the Poppy Field painting!!

I have spent 30 mins updating the latest paintings onto http://www.protectmywork.com/

and I have some time left then to try and understand the new computer!!! Ive lost loads of photos on there somewhere-very frustrating when I have so much to update here on my blog--things may be a little muddled for a while cos I will post the pictures on as I find them, so they may not be in order!

Busy Weekend Again!"

This is the subject of this Saturdays Class. I have 5 people coming to it so far.

Its one of the most popular painting classes that I do

It is a busy weekend--my daughter is moving home on Saturday--we wont be much use to her cos I wont be free until 3ish but my son Jim will be on hand with a big van to help her move the big stuff.
Then we are going out in the evening to wet the babies head-Lyndsey and Darren and little Holly are coming all the way down from Sunderland on Saturday.
Cant have too much to drink cos we are on the craft market on Sunday!!!!!!!


The childrens class is almost fully booked, just 2 places left--the local paper is coming to take some more pics at the class on Saturday--after we came back on Wednesday night and found that the local paper had dug up an ancient pic of me with short hair(YUK) and 2 stone heavier for a otherwise brilliant review of me and my demos at the WI's in Mondays paper.

I am working on some other ideas at the moment-re the kids classes-I have a lot of enquires about other dates for the classes-will keep you posted via email for those interested.

Meet Holly

Meet Holly,our 1st grandaughter born on Monday 16th July at 10:10pm in Sunderland.She is the daughter of Bills middle son Darren and his partner Lyndsey.

She weighed 7 lb 1 oz and she is absolutely beautiful.

We left the caravan at home on Monday and went up there when we heard she was in labour.They have moved into a new big house so we stayed with them.We will have to try and get away again soon in the van!

Clifford WI

We went to Clifford WI last night to do a talk/demo.

The evening was great-a lovely bunch of ladies they were! We had hoots of laughter all night as I told them all about my life as an artist!
Some of the ladies are going to do a class later in the year,end of September/early Oct time-its pretty manic til then for me.

Silvia won the raffle and chose Summer Day as her prize. The other painting shown ''The Waterfall'' was donated to the WI to use for fundraising.

Wild life In The Garden

We decided that the small pond that we had let go 'wild' had got a little too wild and the 4 fish that we had put in earlier in the year hadnt been seen since! So Bill started to pull some of the reeds that had taken over when the little frog appeared out of the water.!He seemed very quiet concidering what was happening and hung around til Bill had finished! You wouldnt belive how much stuff was in the pond-the fish will be much happier now they have room to swim more freely!

I was tempted to move the fish and put them into our big pond, but the fish in there are getting so big I think they had better stay where they are!

Craft Fair

We are going to take a chance on the weather and do the craft market tomorrow.We have loaded the car and trailer so we can have an early start in the morning.

We are taking some different paintings to the ones shown--the poppies have sold and I have painted some more but using silver wax for the centres instead of gold!

My sister-in -law Jan is on the next stall to us , she will be selling her quilling work,she makes fantastic cards and pictures with very thin strips of paper-she has more patience than me!!!

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!!!

Birds

Bill spent an hour in the garden yesterday filling up the various bird feeders and tying some fat balls to the washing line.We were rewarded this morning by this woodpecker who loves the fat ball!

We alos have a family of bull finches who come down to feed at the one bird table-its beautiful to see the more unusual birds here.