Medieval Market

We don't have many more markets this year now--we had one the Sunday before the Medieval Fair which turned out quite busy..

Stormy Poppies went off too a new home as a 30th wedding anniversary present...

It was a record weekend for the medieval fair--well worth the 5am start on Saturday and 6am start on Sunday. I had to come home on the Saturday night and paint some more miniatures as I nearly sold out! Climbed into bed at 1am! So not much sleep-am still catching up in fact.!!. Another early start tomorrow for the usual Wednesday market..but its not long until we finish for the year--17th Dec is our last one of the year..There is a special Christmas market on Sunday 14th Dec  which we are looking forward to-will be lots of lovely craft stalls there.. we will return to the market again at the beginning of April 2015 every Wednesday..and all the usual Sunday ones as well.

Foxgloves And Dragonflies Workshop

Well what a busy workshop we had on Saturday--17 students,, some new ones and some been before! Several due to get their artist brooch for attending 6 workshops next time! Foxgloves and Dragonflies was a new subject-using acrylics and oils to create a pure fantasy scene.We used some beautiful metallic paint to paint the dragonflies--with a touch of glitter paint on top--beautiful effect-shame it does not show up on the photos! Above is Pat adding her trees..

Hardest part of the painting is getting the shape of the pond correct--Jan got hers right straight away!

Natalie has some lovely character trees!

Tracey adding the foxgloves...

Trudy adding some detail.

We found a lovely little bird in one of Beth's trees at the end--of course she added it on purpose ;-)

Rachael and the girls had all been on a midnight charity walk and didn't get in til 4.30am...I'm amazed that they all painted as well as they did bless em!

Helen has been to quite a few workshops with me now--and is painting at home too!

Donna adding some smaller trees before going on to the foxgloves...

First time for Kelly--

and Roland---though you would never know would you?

Pauline's painting is coming alone beautifully here..

Malcolm about to add some more branches to his lovely trees..

Anna travels a long way to paint with me..she loved working with both mediums...

First time for Teressa too--though you would never know from her results...

Jaq bought along her father in law Rick for his first time--she will get her artist brooch next time...she added some lovely poppies to her painting--they worked really well!

First time for Rick using oils and acrylics--he normally uses watercolours--but he got on just fine with them!

As it was a new subject and a larger than normal class we did run on a little over time and Teresa had to leave before the group photo as she had visitors!

Amazing just how different all the paintings are...

and you would never be able to pick out the first timers paintings from the others!

wonderful results!!!

A lovely workshop--am looking forward to teaching this one again next year!

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!

More Cards

My lovely friend Lin has sent the latest in my Winter Wonderland Christmas cards--all of local Ludlow scenes I took with my camera when we had the hard frosts last year....the one above is taken on the Middleton turning just outside Ludlow--the dead oak tree is just begging to be painted......

Sparky Cat has commissioned some Christmas cards of his own this year---to send to his special friends....I love the snow flakes on his back! Isn't he a handsome fella?

this scene is taken on the Millenium Green ,Dinham----you just wouldn't want to park your bum on that seat that day!

Todays Medieval Fair

We were up at what seemed the crack of dawn this morning in order to go down to the medieval fair and get set up.
We had a laugh last night getting Bills outfit done for today!
I had a bought blue throw from a charity shop which I cut up and shaped into a cape, a hood and some gaiters in around 15 mins-some elastic criss -crossed around Bills legs and one of my antique copper artist palette clasp at the front of the cape/hood and he really looked the part!
The weather was much better than forecast-the rain didn't come until we were packing up at 4.30pm
We had a cracking day-the town was heaving with people all day, I didn't get chance to check out who else was on the market other than our near neighbours.
We are back on the market on Wednesday -weather permitting, and then we are doing the market until the week before Christmas and we are then having a break until the end of March-beginning of April-depending on the weather, I will post the dates on the website when I know when we are starting.

Medieval Fair In Ludlow

We are on the Famous Medieval Fair market tomorrow-I'm busy getting my outfit turned up ready!
Ive been loaned a peasant outfit from someone who does renactments-its just a foot too long for me!
It is very warm though so even if the forecast is right and its wet and windy I should be OK!
When we set the stall up we are completely enclosed and its quite snug in there.
Ive just finished making 30 bookmarks as Id sold out over the past few weeks-they make great stocking fillers.
Ive just got a few new price tickets to print out and I'm finished.
I'm quite looking forward to it to be honest. The town was heaving with people today-and there were loads of idiots parked where they shouldn't be making it difficult for everyone else.
There was no excuse for it--there is a free park and ride service--
There were quite a few tickets on the cars when we returned from town-and they only have themselves to blame.