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!

Summer Day Workshop

sorry I'm late getting the blog done--but better late than never! We had 9 first timers in the Summer Day workshop--all of whom were all convinced as usual they would not be able to create anything worthy of hanging up on a wall! Lots of nervous laughs all round as I explained the first stage of  using the bashing brush followed by the tickling brush!!  Several of them stood there brush in hand for several minutes before starting to bash--then it was hard to stop some of them!! Here you can see Kathryn who was one of the nervous ones! What a great job she made of her painting!

Margaret adding the finishing touches to her poppies--I met the two of them several years running at Burwarton Show and they kept saying they wanted to come--both are happy they finally did! You would never know they were first timers would you?

Jill was another first timer..she had a happy accident and used the 'wrong' green when doing the water-it turned out just beautiful and I will be nicking the idea next time myself! Well done Jill...lovely end results!

Hannah was another first timer...and again great results!

Sara  and her mum Margaret were painting with me for the 4th time--both seemed to find this one quite easy and got on really quickly with each stage--its amazing how quickly people get their confidence when painting..and make decisions really quick on their own..I love to watch the progress...

Some of my photos are a bit blurry for some reason....grrrrr...    here you can just about see Margaret putting in her poppies..

Annette was another first timer--she left a pathway through her grasses and used purple paint for her flowers which worked well..a lovely finished result--well done!

Janie was  quite scared to be fair when she first arrived ! She came along with John and Eileen who had been once before and painted the Birches..But once she got going she was fine..and is looking forward to coming back again--as are all the other students! Had a lovely email from her today saying how much she enjoyed herself!

John had some lovely waves--the paint created a shadow underneath which made the water very realistic.

Eileen nearly finished here--she had a good eye for the sizes of the poppies--a good mix and great perspective..

I think Sue was one of the most nervous students of the day,,we are friends on face book , and I have been winding her up a bit calling the students 'victims' etc! Her friend Angela had bought her a gift voucher for her birthday--Angela also came along to paint with her-and was also a bit nervous..both did so well....and we had lots of laughs during the class.it just shows though even if you are nervous--everyone is capable of creating a beautiful painting first time just by following my simple-one step instructions.

Angela -nearly finished-lovely bright painting--look forward to seeing you and Sue again !

Jenny is an old hand now having more than 20 paintings under her belt--she has done this painting 3 times now-and each one is completely different!

Jane's 3rd time-- she comes with Tony and Carrie-they have done the Waterfall -oils on black canvas--the Birches--acrylic and today oils on a white canvas--so have tried most of the different options I teach...they all do really well and follow my instructions easily!

I'm friends with Carrie on FB and she shows me what she paints at home--its very interesting to see how she adapts my techniques to the materials she has at home--she did the birches onto a cabinet after attending the workshop and it looked stunning! She tried using water based oils to recreate Summer Day today--and while the end result was good I don't think it was as easy as using my techniques..but if you don't try you will never know!

Tony is nearly finished here--he was really good at using the knife to do the waves--I only showed him once and he had the angle and pressure on the knife just perfect!

Its a good job the room at St Peters is so big--we can accommodate 16 or 17 students in there with ease...

beautiful results everyone--they all look quite impressive!

John, Eileen and Janie with their lovely results!

Carrie, Jane and Tony with their beautiful Summer Day pictures

Sara and Margaret with their bright cheerful Summer Days..

Annette, Angela, Jenny and Sue-well done girls!

Margaret, Kathryn and Hannah--beautiful results girls!

155 brushes were used during the workshop...

Bill was a star and cleaned they off using odourless turps as we had used Liquin and also brown oil paint--which does tend to dry really quickly on the brushes....a glass of white wine helped !!!

Today we finished the cleaning process --after the brushes have been cleaned of the oil paint using the turps, they have to be soaped and rinsed-twice.. then they have to be wrapped in kitchen towel to keep their shape--all in all a long drawn out process --but worth it--I'm still using some of the original brushes I started out with 10 years ago--

so its well worth looking after your brushes-if you do they will last you for years! I'm looking forward to seeing all of today's students again in the future--I loved every minute of it!!!

Buxton and High Peaks Art Society Demo

We are away at the moment, Ive been at Buxton High Peaks Art Society today doing a demo--its been booked for nearly 2 years after meeting one of their members on Ludlow market in 2011. We are staying at a lovely Premier Inn in Newcastle Under Lyme and are treating it as a little break, next door is a Taybarn restaurant--wow what an experience that is-- a good job there isn't one near to home or we would both be very very overweight! Pay a set price and eat what you want-choose from salad, soups, carvery, chip shop, Italian,,Chinese,,Indian and pudding section-there is even a Mr Whippy ice cream to help yourself to..also never ending soft drinks too...we would recommend it highly! Its also one of the cleanest restaurants we have been to--the tables are not 'sticky' and the staff  are continually cleaning up and clearing tables--

some stunning views on the way to the demo today..

loved the rocks up on the hills..

A mixed audience of artists-some have tried oils, many had not---

having a good look at the Waterfall painting that I did first..I always take the paintings round so the audience can have a close look--there is lots of detail in them that is hard to see when I'm actually doing the painting..

There were lots of 'ooohs' and 'ahhhhs' as they watched me...they couldn't believe the speed at which the paintings developed--and what was funny--was the fact I did them a lot slower than usual as I had over 2  hours in which to paint them instead of the usual 1 hour I get as a rule!

We were able to put up a display of some of the paintings I teach..

Winners of the raffle John with the Waterfall and David with his Summer Day painting.. I actually pulled out both of Johns tickets....but he kindly put the one back to give someone else the chance  . It sounds like we will be coming back here to do a workshop--there were many of the members interested in having a go..I will look forward to hearing from them again!

What a beautiful scene on the way home--will be painting this one for sure!

There was hell of a hail storm on the way up today--white over!