Beautiful Paintings!!!

I have just heard from from my friend Desmond Gan who I met via my website. He is a GP who lives in Malasia.We have been talking via email for some time. I gave him advise about painting and materials some time ago. He has his own blog and I had a very pleasant surprise when I had a look at some of his work. He has come on in leaps and bounds from when I first knew him--his mountains have to be seen to be belived, he has worked hard and is now going to be selling some in a gallery.
Take a look at his blog http://www.hiddenstream.blogspot.com
Well Done Desmond!!!

Furbies

I have another passion apart from Painting-- a little strange some people might think-- but unless you have made friends with a furby you wont know what you are missing!!!
I have over 100 of the little creatures, and no 2 are exactly the same.
They all have their own personalities, I have happy ones,sad ones, ones that tell jokes even one that is very depressed. I even have one that swears and he has taught some of the baby ones to swear too.
I just love them--I have bought them from boot sales,EBay and all sorts of places.
They are fascinating when they talk to each other, they have proper conversations and sing-songs, tell each other jokes and also talk to shelbies but thats another story!!! Here are some of my little friends!

Cherry Blossom

This is one of my latest paintings, its called Cherry Blossom for obvious reasons, and it actualy looks 3D. People always have to touch it, and they are suprised to find it is flat, from a distance it really stands out.

I painted the first version of it at a craft fair last Sept, one of the stall holders came over and said "I'm so glad you are here,its my sons birthday today and he loves chinese/japanese things, can you paint him a painting today while you are here?"
I had never attempted anything chinese before and had no refrences there, but came up with one like 'cherry blossom' but I put some faraway mountains and little chinese houses too. She was thrilled to bits with it.

Weight watchers

Well I lost another 1LB this week, not as much as I would have liked and not sure why I didnt lose more, but thinking about it I havent eaten as much as I did last week. With the diet I am following you need to eat LOTS to keep your body burning off the calories and this week I havent had so much fruit or crispbreads as last week.
Also we havent had so much exercise because I seem to have spent most days on the computer!!!
Still off the wine which is good, but will up my intake of fruit again this week and see how it goes-- mind you even losing just 1lb a week adds up to 52lbs a year which is a hugh amount!
So Im off to make a nice big fruit salad soon which we can have as much as of as we like!!!!

Dog Sitting!

We have been dog sitting today for my sons 2 border collies Max and Sara.
My son is rallying in the local woods so we took the dogs out for a nice long walk,it was a lovely morning and we walked for miles, I managed to get some nice photos to work from when I start painting this week.

4 Years Today!!!

Well I cant belive its 4 years today since me and Bill packed up smoking!! It just dosent seem possible--the time has gone by so fast!
Of course that means that is nearly 4 years since Bill had his heart attack too--6 weeks after packing up smoking and 1 week after our 2nd wedding anniversary.Not very good timing was it!!!
I knew when I managed not to smoke for the 3 weeks that Bill was in hospital that I had cracked it and wouldnt have another cig, I kept telling myself that even if I did have a cig, it wouldnt change anything and he would still be ill in hospital, besides it was costing me the same in petrol to go and visit him every day as I would have spent on cigs, so couldnt afford to start again!!
I must admit the thought of packing up was much worse than actualy doing it!

Website updated

My website www.paintingmyway.co.uk has now been updated with the next lot of classes and craft fairs and details of the holiday etc.So if you already havent been and had a look, check it all out and see which painting YOU would like to do!!!!

Weigh In

Well as I thought -I had lost 5lbs when I went to weightwatchers today--chuffed to bits with that, of course the weight loss will start to slow up as time goes on -but a great start all the same!!!
I have had some chicken soup cooking in the slow cooker all day, Bill prepared all the ingredients while I was at weight watchers ,so the delicious smell is wafting all through the house at the moment,cant wait for tea time.
The best of it is we can eat as much of it as we like, and even have a chocolate mousse for pud! Yummmm

Diet!

Well the diet is going very well at the moment,Me and Bill have never eaten so much food as we are at the moment!!
It is very hard for me to make sure I eat 3 times a day because I normaly just eat dinner in the evening, so I am having to be very disiplined on that score!!
Bill is diabetic so he has always eaten fairy regularly so it hasnt been so hard for him, its just a matter of knowing HOW MUCH to eat.
We have learned to listen to our bodies and stop when we are full--not stuffed full, and it seems to be working, so far I have lost 5lb since last Wednesday and Bill has lost 3lb.
There are no banned foods and you can still have an achololic drink if you want, you just have to count the points, everything you eat and drink on this diet has been converted in to points and you are allowed so much free food and so many points per week.
At the weekend we did something we have never done before-- we opened a bottle of red wine to have with our steak, salad,and baked potato and we just had 1 glass each and re corked it to have with our sunday lunch, normaly we would have polished it off and maybe opened another one too!!! So we are being good!!!
We are looking forward to being in better shape for the summer and feeling fitter than we have for a long time!

Fun In the Garage!!!

Well I couldnt resist any longer--those round canvas were just calling out to be painted,So Ive been out in the garage painting today while Bill is getting the dinner done!
Ive had great fun,not just with the acrylic paint but with some chemicals too--hence why I was doing it in the garage!!!.
I'm really pleased with the results, its difficult to photograph them while they are wet but in real life they are quite amazing to look at,there are several layers of different colours of metallic paint.
The poppy one is just acrylic paint but the shape of the canvas lends itself beautifuly to the subject matter!!

Raising Money for Charity

I am busy getting organised for my next money raising charity event.
The paintings above are some examples of what will be painted by members of the public on the day. As you can see they are quite simple and almost folk arty.The flowers are each made up of hearts.
They are called Love Hearts, Lovers Meadow and Heart Of Gold

I have just had the publicity info to ok for all the local papers from the British Heart Foundation, they have given me a brilliant write up so I have sent it back ready for publishing!

On the 10th of February we will be in Telford town centre where we will be showing people how to paint their own heart themed painting for valentines Day. We are calling it Art From The Heart.
It will be an amazing Valentines present for the loved ones who receive it!

I will also have an exhibition of my work on sale there with 10% of sales going to BHF

The paintings will be done on 8in x8in box canvas and will be painted in acrylic paint so they will dry for people to take home with them! The charge will be just £12 per painting.

I support The British Heart Foundation because as you all probly know by now, I lost my dear dad in 2005 and my husband Bill had a heart attack in 2003 and lost his HGV licence and with it his job, so it is a charity very close to my heart.
I'm sure we will raise lots of money on the day !

A New Start!

Well I joined weight watchers this week, made up my mind to get slimmer for the new year! Great diet plan and easy to follow and loads to eat, far more than I usualy eat, will keep posted how much I lose!!

A Great Day!!

The paintings shown are what I painted whilst I was doing my demo here, the winner of the draw chose the waterfall painting as her prize, so I have donated'Summer Day'to the WI to use to raise money for their chosen charity.

Yesterday we went to ledbury to do the first of the WI talks of this year. The group was the Parkway WI.
We had a lovely time, and they were fascinated to see the 2 paintings appear before their eyes so quickly.
We will be going back there later this year to do a class!

Great News!!!!!!

I had a phone call this morning with a great offer!!! It was from the chairwoman of all the Herefordshire WI's.
Apparently she has had so many glowing reports about my WI talks from all the groups I have been to that they want me to be with them in the WI marquee at THE 3 COUNTIES SHOW!!!! Its one of the biggest shows in the country and gets aprox 100,000 visitors over the 3 days!!! I feel very honoured to be asked and its a lovely feeling to know that everyone has enjoyed themselves so much at my talks and demos. Its worth all the hard work involved when I get feed back like that-- Thank you ladies!

We can have as much room as we need -which is quite a bit when we take our full show stands--12 feet along both walls when we are in our usual favorite place in a corner,which is no problem from the sounds of it. And Best of all its FREE!!
The picture is of my Bill at the last shobdon show.
I will able to paint all day if I want for the 3 days while we are there and maybe do some workshops there too, maybe do some childrens workshops to keep the kids out of parents hair so they can look around the show!
So it sounds like June is going to be a busy month cos the 3 Counties is on for 3 days and the week after we are at Shobdon flower/food and drink festival for 3 days too!!! Plus Ive got craft fairs in between too-- a busy year ahead for us by the look of things!

New Canvas

Well we went shopping today and I found some lovely canvas with a difference--they are round and staple free on the edges, I have seen them before but they have always had the staples on the edges so I didnt like them.
I have some great ideas for these canvas---watch this space!!!
I also found another great idea--disposable paper palettes, they come in a book of 36, just the thing to save Bill some time, he usualy covers the perspex palettes with greaseproof paper, but it is a time consuming job, so this will please him no end!!!!

New Paintings For Classes

I have decided to use two acrylic paintings as subjects for some classes this year. The first is in vibrant oranges, reds and yellows, with a touch of black and white.

I think it is suitable for todays modern room.
The colours will look great against any colour wall.

The beauty of using acrylics is that they will be dry enough for people to take home without worrying about getting wet paint everywhere!!!

The other painting I will be teaching in classes will be a monochrome painting called "The Dragonfly Falls"
Again it is painted in acrylic paint but this time we will be incorporating encaustic wax in there as well as paint , in the form of the foxgloves/bluebells and dragonflies.
This is an interesting painting to do, and again the colours look good against any colour wall.

Getting back to Normal

Well I have spent the day sorting out paperwork for the coming year, all the WI's, craft fairs, and exhibitions have all had to be sent to my web master for updating.

No mean task!!!

I have also been trying to decide which paintings I will be adding to the ones that I teach already in classes. The subjects need to easy enough for the first timers to be able to achieve, and challenging enough for people who have painted before.

I think "A Walk in the Snow" will be one of the subjects , it is quite a simple one to do yet looks very effective when completed.
I think I will also be trying out an acrylic painting too for a change from oils. I am still deciding which one that will be at the moment,.

Apart from that I have to decide which paintings are being entered into 3 competitions that are taking place in March, difficult to decide really, will have to sleep on that one I think!!!

Blonde again!!!!!!

After waiting for weeks, cos when shes free, Im not and vice versa, my sister has managed to find time to come and highlight my hair, so now Im blonde again!!!!!!!
But never again am I having it pulled through the highlighting cap it was agony!!!
Will have to treat myself to the hairdressers to have it done in foils next time!!

But to be honest it feels great to be blonde again--they say they have more fun and I have always found that its true!!!