Birch Tree Class July 31st

What a great class we had today--one extra than we expected (the secretary had forgotten to put Pat in the book!)
Elaine and Gary attended their 6th class and received their artist brooch and artist keyring.
Jenny was with me for the 2nd time and everyone else were all newbies!
We had met Karen last weekend at Welland show when she and her hubby bought the 2 "Yesterday" paintings. She wanted to 'loosen' up with her painting and not be bothered by doing too much intricate details--and that is what she found in the workshop today!
Irene stayed overnight last night as she lives some distance away--she had been told at school by her art teacher that she was 'useless' and had carried that all her life.So she was chuffed to bits with her results in class--
we met Sally and Jenny on the market last Wednesday--poor Sally was suffering from concussion after a fall last weekend-and was pretty tired by the end of the session.
But their results were lovely and they really enjoyed it.
Pauline had been recommended to the classes by Adam--and Im sure she will be showing him her lovely painting at work on Monday!
Almost everyone was taking photos of each stage of the painting as we went along--it helps them to remember how they did the painting and also they can prove to their friends that they really did paint the picture!
We had some lovely results-there were a few bits that would be changed next time round-but as I explained to everyone--each painting is a learning curve and there is always somethings that we would do different next time--
but everyone was chuffed with their results and want to come back!
Everyone has gone away with bottles of acrylic varnish to finish off their paintings tomorrow-2 coats with 24 hours in between will make a huge difference to the colour and also protect the paintings as well.

Change of subject for Aug 14th

There has been a change to the subject for August 14th class.We are now painting a new picture called "Reeds In The Breeze". You will have a choice of colours including the two shown here and there has been a request for an orange and brown one as well.
This painting works well in quite a few colour combinations so if you have another preference please just ask.
The class is suitable for all ages and abilities including first timers.
There are 5 places left
please include your phone number when contacting me through the website.
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Birch Trees Sold

I had a call from Barbra who owns the shop I had my paintings in for a couple of months to say someone wanted to buy a couple of paintings.
She gave me the phone number of the lady and I rang her to arrange delivery.
pauline was happy to come over the next day to collect them-when she arrived with her hubby she told us the epic story of it!
She spotted the paintings when in Ludlow for the day a couple of weeks ago, she wrote my number down so she could ring me.
She got home , was rushed into hospital and had lost my nunber when she came out.
So she rang the Ludlow Information Centre and described to them where the 'gallery' was and someone went through town to it only to find it shut! I had removed my work so the new tenants could start getting it ready.
However the estate agents bard was still in the window so she gave the phone number of them to the lady, who rang them and left the message she weanted to buy!
The estate agents rang Barbra, who in turn rang me!
Anyway Pauine and her hubby made a 3 hour each way journey to collect the paintings yesterday!

Tommy's Painting

I had the pleasure of another painting class with Tommy today.
Tommy is quite disabled due to an accident in the army many years ago.
His co-ordination isnt very good and he also suffers from double vision.
So its quite an achievment to produce paintings as good as he does during class.
I have to remind him of which way the brush strokes should be horizontal or vertical as his short term memory isnt good sometimes.
But he gets a great painting done in the end!
He has all the paint to carry on at home and wife Margret who stays with him for his lesson helps him to get it done at home.
He likes to work with acrylic rather than oils and its easier for Margret to clean up after as well.
Im going to work on some new acrylic paintings that will be suitable for Tommy to do in the future--

Sales!

Im a very happy bunny at the moment! I sold 2 of my "Yesterday " paintings at Welland on Sunday-the same chap bought both of them--they will be hung in his home at Upton Upon Severn.

I was stewarding on the door of Church Stretton Arts Festival this morning and arrived to find that 2 out of the 3 paintings I had entered had sold at the private viewing last night!
Both "Brown Birch Tree Walk" and "Tranquil Moment" will be staying in Church Stretton as they were bought by a lady who lives there!
Im working on another painting like Tranquil Moments ready for the Ludlow Art Society exhibition next month.

Busy Times!

Well I must be a glutton for punishment--after a hectic weekend the next few weeks are just as bad!

Im on the door at the Church Stretton Arts and Crafts exhibition tomorrow morning, got a huge poppy commission to finish when I get home in afternoon.
Then on the usual market on Wednesday.
Thursday I have Tommy coming round for a one to one.
Tommy is brain damaged after an accident in the army 3o odd years ago but he has discovered art and is always looking for new ideas.
He has been to me several times for lessons and has been very eager to come back.
Havent decided what we are doing yet...

Saturday I have the Birch Tree class-still have a few places left-get in touch via the website if you would like to join us!
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

The following week we have the usual market on Wednesday, followed by Burwarton show on the Thursday 5th Aug--we are in the demonstration building-and will be busy painting all day there.
Its a new venue for us--but its a very big event--and thousands of people attend it,so hopefully the weather will be kind to us!

I have a much needed day off on the Friday before attending Tenbury show on Saturday August 7th--we had a great time there last year-and again I will be painting in oils, acrylic and encaustic while there.
We pack up after the show and are on the Book and Craft fair the next day-Sunday 8th Aug in our usual space!
So a busy busy time for me!

Must say Im really looking forward to it though-we meet so many great people at these events both customers and other traders--as long as the weather is better than last year at Tenbury--when we were in a mud bath........

Welland Steam Rally, Nr Malvern

Well we are back from a very hectic 3 days at Welland Steam Fair.We went on Thursday to set up and checked into the Abby Hotel first before heading for the showground to set up our stall.
I soon discovered that the Internet access at the hotel wasn't great so have to try and catch up now we are back home!
We had a corner spot in the marquee and we soon had the pictures hung and everything set up on the tables.
We headed back to the hotel for the 3 course meal that was included in the deal we had.
The food was just beautiful--couldn't fault it at all. But boy it took some eating!
Our room overlooked the Abby and we had beautiful views from the windows.
We were up early for breakfast on Friday morning and down to the showground for 8.30 to uncover and straighten up everything!
Its quieter on Friday so we had chance to chat to fellow exhibitors a bit in between chatting to the public!
We had Nettie and Leanne next to us who had been at the show last year selling Netties beautiful hand made cards--they came to 2 classes after watching me paint at Welland last year-it was lovely to see them again-and we had a great laugh with them over the 3 days!
Alan and Zoe who had the stall on the other side of us have both booked up for 3 classes each starting with The Waterfall .
We were both completely knackered by the end of the 3 days-the weather stayed hot and sunny-and we were glad of the tower fan we took with us-it was running constantly and helped keep us cool!

Katie and Adam stopped by for a go on the encaustic art-and created some beautiful pictures.
Bill was able to escape now and again and go and have a look at the events going on in the ring and around the site.
I managed to get out for a few minutes on Sunday and watched a couple of motorbikes going round in a circular dome which was very impressive!
It was great to be back home last night--we have been laughing our heads of at all the new stuff Jake the parrot has learned off my sister , her hubby and the kids--there are no secrets when you have had Jake for a few days!

Welland Steam Rally, Nr Malvern

I cant believe how quickly the year has gone by since we were at Welland Steam Rally .
We are off there again on Thursday-the show runs on Fri, Sat and Sunday. There will be lots going on there for all of the family.

I will be in the craft marquee on all 3 days painting in oils, acrylic and encaustic wax.

I have stocked up with my new greetings cards ready for this busy event--Lin who does them for me got 100 in the post to me--she has done some lovely new ones that sold out last week on Ludlow market.
I must get some photos on here of them.Lin makes a beautiful job of them for me.
We are staying in The Abby hotel in nearby Malvern instead of taking the caravan--I thought it was a better idea after having my operation so recently.

There is no electric hook up for the caravan at the show , and the hotel has a great deal on with a 'body and soul break' so we will combine the work and holiday.

Take a look at the steam rally website for more details of whats going on there.
www.wellandsteamrally.co.uk

Todays Class "Yesterday" July 17th

We had a lovely day painting in acrylic!
Beautiful results all round.
out of the 11 who came 5 had been before.
We had a lovely mix of colours-and they all worked really well.
Very atmospheric results--all the students will see the results of the special metallic paint that was applied to the water and also to highlight bushes etc, tonight when the light changes and the metallic paint starts to glow and shimmer.
Its quite magical!

This Saturdays Class "Yesterday" FULL

Ive now got the class full for this Saturdays class.I love doing this painting in class-there is a wide choice of colours-blues/purples, browns/creams and reds/oranges.
There will be a change in this class on Saturday as well-Karen has asked if she can paint her canvas the other way round-so it will be 14in wide and 36in long--Im sure it will work well-she has gained loads of confidence since she has started painting with me-and is getting some canvas from me to carry on painting at home!
I will be setting a date for this class in the new year--probably January I think!.
I am about to start to get next years classes organised-I'm getting enquiries already about what classes will be run next year.

Class Dates for Rest of 2010

I have just added the dates of classes for rest of 2010--the last one will be on Dec 11th--and I will be starting up again in early Jan 2011
I have added 2 new class subjects for Nov and Dec take a look at the site
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Im sure the new class subjects will be popular-- so please book early to ensure a place.
They have been logged onto www.protectmywork.com

The last 2 workshops of the year are both acrylic so will be dry to take home and give as Christmas presents if you so wish!

Todays Class--Poppy Field

I had a cancellation yesterday for the class taking us down to 9-then as we were about to leave for class this morning I had a call from Lyn who had seen us a couple of weeks ago on the market--she wanted to know if I could fit her and Pete in the class today--they live just over an hour away-and fair enough they made it on time! Neither had ever painted before- and they both suprised themselves with the results!
Neil had seen my work in the shop and contacted me--he made a smashing job of his poppies--using violet instead of the usual reds which worked well.
Heather had never had a go before and painted with ease.
Elizabeth and her hubby Alan made beautiful jobs of their paintings--Alan was quite suprised with what he did--he used his inititive and added some blue flowers to the corner of his painting!
We met the other Alan on the market a couple of weeks ago, and we have been booked up to go to his art group and di a demo in November--he really enjoyed his workshop today-and painted easily-a very subtle result-and he knew when to stop-something that can be hard to do sometimes!
Elaine traveled quite a long way from Wales and arrived earlier than expected-she was a great help-she helped us to unload the van and put the kettle on and made drinks for everyone as they arrived.
She was pleasently suprised with how easy it was and how quickly she had created her masterpiece.
Karen and Jan have been quite a few times before and Gill just twice before-so we had a wide variety of abilities today-and lovely results from everyone.
We are looking forward to seeing everyone again -some sooner than others!

It was a lovely day for all concerned--I felt almost 100% and as I am minus a few stitches that have come out, I hardly noticed my op wound at all!

Bunty

Well we used Bunty for the first time on Wednesday to do the regular market.
The difference it has made to us is incredible.
Everything is to hand and I no longer have to pack the boxes and paintings in a certain order to get them squeezed into the car!

It was also quite funny to see all the fellow market traders swarming round the van admiring her and the fittings inside her!

There is a place for everything in there-special sections for diffrent sized paintings, sections for boxes-even a space for the cooker , kettle and fan!
We seemed to get set up quicker than normal and Bill can be seen relaxing with the paper after we finished!

Recovery

Well after an up and down sort of week I'm at last feeling something like normal again.
I'm on a new stronger antibiotic which seemed to be doing the trick until Wednesday when after being on the market (which in hindsight I wasn't ready to do!) the wound swelled up again and looked quite nasty.
However after using some great iodine cream the wound has made a great recovery and today I was able to drive the car for the first time and we also went for quite a walk round the town.

I have now only got 9 coming to class as Jackie has to take her mum to hospital for an uclerated eye.

I'm really looking forward to class -they are all newbies except Karen and Gill-but Poppy Fields is a nice easy one to start with-
the results will be on here and the website tomorrow.

Winter Wonderland

I had a phone call this morning from Alan who lives in Scotland.
Alan had commissioned a Winter Wonderland painting from me a few weeks ago. I posted it to him yesterday after Bill had framed it into a simple black frame that set it off beautifully.
Alan rang to say it had arrived and it was in pride of place on his living room wall.
He has also posted the photos of it in situ onto facebook!

Gardening!

Ive been unable to get up and down the steps in the garden to see whats happening in the greenhouse but Bill took these pics of his cucumbers and tomatoes for me to see--he has never had such a good crop of cucumbers-there will be more than we can use by the look of it! Wont be long until the tomatoes are ready either!

The Mount B+B, 61 Gravel Hill, Ludlow

Places to stay in Ludlow! www.themountludlow.co.uk

Although I'm not 100% fit by a long way yet ,when we were asked by Mandy and Ray if we wanted to check out the guest house for ourselves we jumped at the chance!

The reviews on Trip Advisor are excellent--and after out guided tour we can understand why!

We were greeted by Mandy who showed us into the beautiful breakfast room-which has wonderful views all over Whitcliffe and lower end of Ludlow.
One thing that impressed us was the fact that all the tables have salt and pepper grinders on them instead of the usual shakers-a small but important touch!
The house has a very relaxed feel to it, right from when you enter the front door--we were shown round all of the bedrooms-all of which are bright and airy and spotlessly clean.
There is loads of room even in the smallest single bedroom-which makes a refreshing change-we have stayed in some really tiny rooms different times!
All of the room have a large ensuite as well.
I can understand why they are booked up so far in advance after seeing the place for ourselves!
Ray is happy to pick you up from the station if you arrive by train, and he has offered to bring Doreen, one of my students who is staying with them in Sept to the painting class as well, so that will be a help for her!
I have left Mandy and Ray with some leaflets and one of my Summer Day paintings as well-so people will be able to see exactly what sort of pictures they can create during my workshops!

It was lovely to meet them both and see their beautiful guest house--if you are thinking of coming to Ludlow to paint with me I recommend you try and get booked into The Mount-you wont be disappointed I'm sure!

Recovery

Well Im getting over my op a bit now--Im still qute sore-but thats to be expected I suppose.
The stitches are dissolvable so at least I havent got to have them out!
Im on antibiotics now so should stay infection free and will be back to normal in no time!
I will be running the classes as normal-and cant wait to be back next weekend doing the Poppy Field class!

Few Places Left in "Poppy Fields" July 10th

I have just 2 places left in next Saturdays class
"Poppy Fields"
Its a lovely painting to do-we will use oils which are lovely to blend!
I have a mix of first timers and more experienced people coming to this class.
Its a nice easy one to do though-and you will get to use several different techniques and brushes.
If you would like to join me in this class please get in touch via the website
www.paintingmyway.co.uk or give me a ring on 01584 872013 or 07800902488

Few Places left in "Yesterday" class July 17th

I have just a few places left in this bright sunset class on July 17th. You will have the choice of reds/oranges, blues/purples, or browns and creams for this workshop.
You will be using acrylic paint on a 36in x 14in canvas, so it will be dry for you to take home.

A lovely painting to do-and the results are always stunning even from first timers.
If you would like to join this workshop please get in touch via the website
www.paintingmyway.co.uk or give me a ring on 01584 872013 or 07800902488

Few Places left in Birch Tree class July 31st

I have just a few places left in this class on July 31st. You will have a choice of canvas size 16in x 20in 20in x 16in or 36in x 14in .
if you use the larger canvas the class is just an extra £10 to cover the cost of the bigger canvas.
You will have the choice of painting in the monochrome shades or the browns and creams.
Both look great when they are finished!

If you would like to join us for this class please get in touch for more details by ringing me on 01584 872013 or 07800902488
or via the website www.paintingmyway.co.uk

New Place To Stay In Ludlow

Ive had an email from a lady Doreen who lives in Wales--she was in Ludlow at the weekend and saw my display in Windlight shop.
She has always wanted to paint and is treating herself to a class in October for her 74th birthday.

As she lives so far away she wants to come down on the Friday previous and wanted me to recommend somewhere for her to stay.
I have found the perfect place for her--The Mount, 61 Gravel Hill, Ludlow, Shropshire , Sy8 1qs
phone 01584 874048
It comes highly recommended on Trip Advisor prices start at just £27.50 for twins, doubles and £30 for singles.
www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186367-d654323-Reviews-The_Mount_Guest_House-Ludlow_Ludlow_Union_Shropshire_England.html
I already have a few campsite recommendations on my website so have added the B+B details as well.
When I spoke to the owner earlier she admitted she had always wanted to learn to paint-so she may well be coming along to a class as well.
We are calling round to see them next week and drop off some of my leaflets-they are going to show us round the rooms-they have a ground floor room as well which is handy if you are not so able bodied.They do a great breakfast and cater for all diets-nothing is too much trouble and it sounds like a lovely place to stay!

Recovery

Well I'm quite surprised how I'm getting over my operation I had yesterday.
I had no sickness after I came round after the anaesthetic-which was good-as the last experience (a good few years ago mind) was pretty horrendous.
Ive now got 5 stitches in where the abscess used to be in a rather delicate area of the body! As long as I can keep infection free recovery should be fairly quick-so I'm off work until a week on Saturday in order to rest as much as possible.
Bill is waiting on me hand and foot bless him.
Many thanks for all the good wishes from everyone-Ive been inundated via phone, texts and facebook xxxxxx