Poppy Delight

Had some great news when I checked my emails after class today--"Poppy Delight" that was in exhibition at The Art Bay Gallery , Stoke On Trent had been sold.

Oliver's Birthday Party

We had a lovely time today at Olivers birthday party.
We met Oliver a while ago at one of the craft fairs here in Ludlow. He came along to the first oil painting class of the year and is booked in to do the "African Dream" one on March 8th.
All six of the children had great fun using the encaustic irons,wax, and special tools. Their imagination ran riot with all sorts of wonderful things being spotted in the finished pictures.We had polar bears, foxes,dogs, people, fishes--you name it we had it!!
Everyone really enjoyed themselves, and apart from Oliver who had one go at it previously at the craft fair-no one had come accross this unusual way of creating art before!
Oliver was very pleased with his birthday present of a frame big enough to put his big picture into that he created today!

class of April 26th --Encaustic class

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I am holding an encaustic wax class on Saturday April 26th.
You will be able to 'paint' using a special electric iron and special waxes- 2o postcard sized pics and 2 A4 size paintings with full instruction.
Its a fasinating way of producing art-its quite unpredictable to a certain extent--loading the special iron with wax and using it as you would a paint brush can produce some surprising results. The wax dries instantly amd its then polishe dwith some tissue.
Its going to be the most fun you will ever have ironing and polishing you will ever have!
You will see faces and animal's appear as if by magic in the melted wax, if you dont like what you see, its simple -just apply the iron to it and it changes in a flash!

Please get in touch via the website if you would like to join the class.
www.paintingmyway.co.uk
Check out my 'snaps' pages on my site to see all my happy students with their paintings---you will see that many of my students come back time after time--my classes get booked up very quickly and I have a waiting list for some subjects.

The classes are very friendly,laid back and informative at the same time- great fun and beautiful painting's to take home as well!
Take a look at the guest book to see what some of the students have said about the classes as well!
I also supply everything needed for this wonderful ,addictive way of creative art.

Finished at Last!!!!!!

Now for some reason the colour has come out wrong on the 2 close up pictures. The correct colour is the finished 4 canvas but the close up pics will give you some idea of just how much detail is in each canvas.

There is at least 30 layers of paint on each canvas--it has been a long process creating the latest ''Poppy Quartet'' I have spent more than 2 days constantly painting on this project.

I have worked very differently to the previous 'poppy quartet' works.

This one has been created using very thick acrylic paint underneath and then using very thin paint as a glaze , building up layer upon layer of colour, the hair dryer has been used to create movement in the paint, which has been blended and allowed to run as well, making a very interesting background.

I have highlighted some of the most textured places with a special metallic dust that is intended for use with encaustic wax, the gold sheen really adds to the finished piece.

It is difficult working on 4 canvas at the same time, you have to keep checking to see that they are in line with one another, and its a case of on/off/on /off the easel to keep them all the same!

Then the centre of the poppy is created using melted wax using a special encaustic hot pen to melt it and place it in the right place.Then a final polish of soft tissue over the wax and its ready to be varnished tomorrow.It will have 3 coats of high quality artists varnish and it will be ready to go!!

New Work.

I spent most of yesterday working on my latest painting.

It went through several changes during the day!

It started out with more yellow than pink in it, then as each layer of acrylic paint dryed I added more and more shades of cerises and dark pink.

I added some texture with much thicker paint around the centre of the poppy, let it dry and then painted over it again with some thin glazes of acrylic paint.

You cant see it fom the photos but it has taken on a crinkled effect, just like the texture of a real poppy.

I stopped work on it at 10:30 pm last night after starting at lunchtime.

Each canvas is 20in x 16in so it is a dramatic piece.

I still have quite a bit of work to do to it. I can see better in the natural daylight where it needs some more thin glazes of colour putting in.Then when it is completey dry I will get the detail in the centre done with melted wax.This is a very time consuming bit of the painting too, I have to be very careful not to drip wax where I dont want it because once its on there I cant remove it.

I am very pleased with it so far,I decided to use this range of colours for a change-although I may do a the usual red version later.

I have logged each step of the painting onto www.protectmywork.com

Craft Fair

Here is ''Little Ted'' looking after the stall yesterday! It was really warm when we set up yesterday morning but as the day went on it went really cold! I was glad of the heat of the lights and the encaustic iron!

It was fairly quiet, but the encaustic stuff went well, got to get another order in tomorrow.

It was a pleasure to see Jan from the classes again, she was very patient and waited for Bill to fetch the latest batch of painting knives from the sorting office--its sods law that the first day you go out of the house early the delivery you've waited in for over a week turns up!

Good Idea Bill !!!

I always clean the brushes out in the garage sink after a class/one 2 one etc.

It has been getting a little cluttered up out there lately cos Im not the most tidiest of people, and the brushes have been hanging around on the draining board til they have dryed out completely.

Bill has said for a while that we need something to put the brushes into straight away after they have been cleaned, then they can dry out thougherly, then they are ready to put into the individual boxes for the classes.

Simple but effective, he knocked up this storage unit for the brushes this afternoon while I was doing the one 2 one with Penny!

I can put the brushes straight into there as soon as they have been cleaned in the odourless turps and cleaned in the brush cleaning soap and dryed , and they are ready to put into the boxes for the classes. So much easier -thanks Bill xxx

I have just replaced all the scriptliner brushes that we use in the classes with new ones and the old ones I will keep for when we do acrylic classes. The new brushes are also available for sale for just £3.50p including P+P

I also have a new stock of painting knives that will be on sale for just £4.50p including P+P-they sell out as fast as I get them in-once people see just what can be done with them , they all want one!!!

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!

Hen Party Competition Results

As you can see Bill had a very difficult choice to make to decide the winner of the competition, in the end he chose Tina! I think the fact that she made a comic face out of it swung it for her!