Saturdays class

We are painting Winter Wonderland in the next class this Saturday. Nearly everyone who is coming has been before which is nice.We will be working on a black canvas again. This is a very popular painting to do-using a very limited palette of just phatlo blue, black and white paint, with maybe a little purple thrown in here and there!
I am really looking forward to it!

Sarah's Poppy Quartet

I had an email off Sarah who had commissioned Poppy Quartet. I had packed it all up and sent it special delivery on Monday and she recieved it early yesterday!
She said

" I absolutely love the painting,really chuffed with it! Thank you for taking so much trouble wrapping it, it was a real treat unwrapping it and piecing it together(its 4 canvas).
I am a very satisfied customer and I would recomend any one to have a commission. Work permitting we will be coming to your exhibition"

I emailed every stage of the painting to Sarah-from the 4 bare canvas through to the finished article. I explained that the painting was a slightly different colour to what it appears on the computer screen, so she knew everything that was going on.
As always seeing the work of art before your eyes to seeing it on the computer was two differnt things!The screen can only give you an idication of what is really there!

Getting Ready!

Well we havent had a minute spare lately-so much to get ready for the exhibition.

There are picures everywhere today drying after Bill had varnished them!
The house looks like a tip!
I have been busy on the computer making labels to hang on each of them with all the details,name, media and price.
Bill then cut all the strings the same length to fasten them onto the pictures with.
We were sorting and labeling and then bubble-wrap bagging all evening last night! Then today I sorted out which need varnish and Bill has done that for me.
When they have dryed enough they will be bagged up ready to go.
It will give me chance to have a spring clean while they are in the exhibition--the back bedroom where I store them is long over due.
I havent been able to get to all my art books for some time, and my friend Trine is coming over this year from Norway and I have told her I will sort her some out for when she stays with us!So I have got to do it!

Packing

I have had a busy morning packing up the latest commission ready to send by special delivery in the morning.
Its a big job!!
First I protect the surface of the painting with greaseproof paper, then it gets wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap, with extra around the corners, next it gets covered in brown paper, then finaly a box.
I recycle most of the packaging whenever possible, all the bubble wrap is re-used, the brown paper and boxes are what my painting supplies and canvas come in.

I have been told in the past its like a adults game of pass the parcel opening one of my paintings!!!

It will be an even bigger job on Tuesday when Sarah recives her work of art because it consists of 4 canvas's!, each one individualy wrapped up!
I always make a good job of the packing because to have them damaged in the post would be terrible.
I use special delivery because its trackable and insured and delivered the next day.
So far I have had no trouble when posting paintings.touch wood!!

Flowers

The most beautiful smell has been wafting aroung the house for over a week now,the flowers that Bill bought me for Valentines Day have lasted really well, in fact they look as good as the day I received them.
The lillies have opened up and the smell is georgeous,I just had to take these photos of them when I changed the water tonight.
The roses are really different, the inside of the petals are ruby red and the outside are the most beautiful cream colour, I have never seen such beautiful roses--and they smell to, which is unusual these days!
I shall dry the petals of the roses and make pot pouri from them so I have a reminder of a lovely Valentines Day!

Weight Watchers

Been so busy lately I havent updated you with the weight loss! Well I have now lost 14lb since starting the diet!!!!! I have lost 11lb with weight watchers and 3lb the week before I joined.
Lost 4 inches off my waist already.

The big slap up meal for Valentines Night didnt add any on- though Ive got an idea why!!!
My daughter Becki has also lost 14lb at weight watchers, so well done Becki!

It shows that you can still have some treats even when trying to lose weight as long as you are sensible about it and go back to eating sensibly the next day.

We even had a bottle of champers at the weekend( Bills Valentine pressie) and I still lost 2 1/2lb this week.

Nothing like fitting into something that didnt fit a few weeks ago to make you feel better!!!

Complements

I get so much satisfaction when I do a class and see people create a beautiful painting especialy when they thought they were not capable of it, as is the case much of the time! I thought I would share with you a few of the complements that I have recived from last weeks class.It makes my day to read such great things in my guest book on my website www.paintingmyway.co.uk,

"My son Jordan is 9 years old and attended one of Dianes classes.I was more than amazed at the picture he produced.
Diane has lots of patience and LOTS of talent. My son enjoyed every minute of his lesson and I will definatly be booking again in the near future for him and myself. Worth every penny.Thanks Diane .
Debbie.

Thanks for a great class.With your tutoring my finished painting was amazing.I have had some lovely complements. People dont belive I did it and I dont myself!
Susan

What a confidence booster Diane is. At St Audries Bay I achieved a new ability.
I now boast to my friends who visit by showing them the two masterpieces that I created.Yes they are good enough to hang on the wall--thanks Diane
Linda

I think everone who comes to one of my classes is suprised to see what can be achieved with just a few brushes and some oil paint.

I truly belive that you do not need to be talented in order to paint--painting is a skill and skills are learnt in much the same way as you learn to play the piano or learn to knit.
The hardest part of this job is convincing someone who has always yearned to paint but thought they wouldnt be able to, that they CAN paint if shown how to!!!
If I had a £ for every time I heard 'but I cant draw a stright line' and so on I would be rich!

Last Night's WI

We had a lovely time last night at Stottesdon and District WI.The usual venue couldnt be used due to the kitchens being done, so we had a bit of a wild goose chase around the country lanes to find the new venue!
We got there on time thanks to Bill making sure we were ready early and loading the car up-boy is he organised--thank goodness!!!
Any way we had a great night, a lot of laughs and a lot of ooooohhh's and aaaahhhh's as the paintings developed in front of their eyes!It always makes me smile the way people react to it! It gives me a great buzz every time I do it!
Several of them were interested in doing a class so I will look forward to hearing from them and meeting them again!

Another Booking!

I have had another booking for NEXT year! I have been highly recomended by all accounts and the lady was advised to book me early! So we are off to Marden WI 10th April 2008.So we have lots to look forward to next year as well as this!
The way the time is flying by it will soon be here!

Off To Ireland!

Had a suprise phone call last night from a lady came came and had an oil painting class and also an encaustic class.
Monica came all the way from Ireland nearly 2 years ago but we lost touch shortly after when she moved house and lost my details.
Well she has tracked us down and invited us over to Ireland to stay with her and do a class or 2!

We are going to have another chat later today and sort out some dates, she lives near Dublin so we will be in that area some time later this year!

I have never been to Ireland but Bill has and he loves it there,so I cant wait to make arrangements and meet Monica again!

Great Fun!!!!

Well we had a great time today in the class. I had 2 children in the class Amy who has been once before last year and painted Winter Wonderland and Jordan who we met in Telford last week.
Amy is 11 and Jordan is only 9 years old! We also had Pat and Sue with us.
The time flew by and everyone produced beautiful paintings.
Jordan was a keen as mustard and told us that he wants to be an artist when he grows up. He loved the class and will be coming back again by the sound of it.

Sue was back for her 3rd time,hers son had begged her last 2 paintings off her for his flat, so she wants to paint them again!
And Pat who had tryed watercolour classes and ended up screwing up what she had done there in to a ball and throwing it away was chuffed to bits with her painting.

When we have our first break its not to hard to get people away from their paintings,but by the time BIll puts the kettle on the 2nd time its VERY difficult to get them away.I like to get everyone away so they cannot see what they have done so far, then when they return to it-the looks on their faces is great-they see it through fresh eyes--I cant belive Ive painted that said a happy Pat! Its amazing said Sue!

Getting Ready!

Well a busy day today getting everything ready for tomorrows class.Bill is better at it than me, he is very organised!!
He has got all the sets of brushes sorted in to their boxes ready.

I have found some great brushes that suit this style of painting brilliantly and for a fantastic price-- They are from The Works and cost just £1.00 each. They do a 1 1/2in flat brush and an oval brush same size for just £1:00 I have been using them for the past 6 months for both oil and acrylic paints,and have found them just brilliant.
I supply them at that price in my classes for anyone who wants to carry on at home with the method.
I will also be selling some information sheets for a nominal price-just to cover costs --that I have prepared with all the information needed for people to carry on at home.
I have found that people come with note pad and paper to make notes but get so engrossed in the painting that they forget to make the notes!!.
The sheets cover everything from preparing the canvas to making clouds and trees through to cleaning brushes.They are laminated so will be wipe clean for when you are painting!

We are having a treat in the breaks in class tomorrow, I have found a box of cadbury's chocolate bicsuits left over from Christmas that will be finding their way to the class, and also when shopping tonight I picked up some organic,free range chicken drumsticks and thighs which I have cooked, and will be scrummy to nibble at tomorrow!

Class on Saturday

I have 2 places left for the next class on Saturday. It is a change to the one on my website, we will be painting 'The Waterfall' instead of 'Summer Day'.
I have 2 children in the class as this is an easy subject to do.
So if you fancy a go please get in touch

Cat Out Of The Tree!!!!

Well thanks to the lady whose tree Lila was stuck up and her very brave friend- Lila is now back on firm ground!
He climbed right up the tree and managed to carry her half way down before she struggled too much and he had to throw her down the Sandra who caught her!!!!
A great big thank you to them both!

Cat still up tree!

The little cat is still up the tree, both the RSPCA and fire service have refused to come out until tomorrow. Will let you know what happens later.

Cat Up A Tree!!!!!!

We recieved a call from a very upset daughter this morning, her cat Lila went up to top of 50ft fir tree yesterday and is stuck up there!
RSPCA came,called out fire sevice who came and said we can put up ladders but we are not allowed to climb up and rescue cat because of health and safety regs!
They told RSPCA girl to go up, she couldnt go cos she isnt trained in ladder work, so the ladders were put up and left for 1 hour in the hope that the cat would climb down herself!
Poor Lila is still up there, and the fire service have offered to come back and hose her out of the tree tomorrow!!!!!!
Seems a bit over the top to me, but dont know what else to do. We have left a bowl of tuna at bottom in the hope she will smell it and come down herself!
I will fill you all in tomorrow with what happens!

As Promised

Here are 4 of the paintings that I painted while in Telford yesterday.I like doing the waterfall painting because it uses some different brushes and different techniques so people get to see the sort of thing we will do in the class!
I must have painted 100's of the waterfall painting but each one turns out different!
We are painting the waterfall painting next weekend in the class, I have 2 children in the class next week and it is a nice easy painting for them to do.

Telford

Here are some of the paintings that I had on display yesterday. The waterfall painting is an example of the sort of thing I do in 4 minutes.
I will take some pics of the 4 wet ones that I bought home and post them on here later. I have to post them off in a weeks time when they are dry enough.
One brave man took his painting away while it was wet yesterday-hope he didnt smudge it!

FANTASTIC DAY!!!!!!

Well I am so glad we braved the snow yesterday, we had a fantstic day.
I sold my Poppy Quartet painting and have been commissioned to paint it again for someone else!

I always demonstrate when I am doing shows, and my party trick is to paint a landscape from start to finish in just 4 minutes, there are gasps from people watching as the picture forms before their eyes ! I love to show people just how easy oil painting can be, and it pays dividends reallly because they book up to come to my classes after. It sounds as if I will have some demonstrations to do for an art club and another ladies group too, so all in all a great day, and a nice cheque for the Heart Foundation!

We are going to Telford!!!!!

The snow started to turn to rain slightly tonight so we decided we were going to go to Telford whatever!!!!!!
The picture above shows what Bill had been doing this evening as well as organising me and all my stuff to go to Telford!
Bill has been painting black acrylic paint on to my canvas paper ready for me to use when I demonstrate my 4 minute oil paintings. They are hanging up to dry in the garage in the photo!It has been a mad rush as usual to get everything sorted, but we are up at 6am to get packing, I am really looking forward to it, just know it will be a good day!

Snow

Well it is snowing heavens hard here. as you can see from the pictures taken earlier on today,very pretty but not good when you live in a dip like we do! I have spoken to Colin from the Heart Foundation and it looks as if we might not be doing the Valentines appeal in Telford town centre tomorrow.The roads are awlful and there wont be many people around the shops!
We have had a at least 8 ins of snow today and it does not look like it is letting up.We will have to wait and see if it turns to rain, if it does we will be there,so fingers crossed!

Busy Time

I have got so much to do at the moment its unreal!!
Have to get labels done for 100+ paintings for exhibition next month, got everything to sort out for charity event in Telford at the weekend and of course new little grandson to go and cuddle!

Im also on another new website and I have loads of paintings to load onto there too!

So I am not going to have much time here on my blog for a few days, so to all my regular readers -please except my appologies for my absence for the next couple of days!
The painting I have put on this post is called ' The light at the End of the Tunnel' very apt I thought!!!!

ITS A BOY!!!!!!

Born at 6am this morning weighing 7lb10oz a little baby boy called Callum, both mum and baby are doing well.Here is the proud Grandad with his first grandchild!
Isnt Callum beautiful!!!

Nanny!!!!!!!!

Well things have been hectic the past couple of days--I have had to cancel the class that was due to take place due to cicumstances beyond my control.

My husbands Bill's youngest son's wife has been in labour with the first grandchild for the past 2 days, poor girl has been to maternity hospital 30 miles away 3 times since thursday and they kept sending her home saying she wasnt ready to give birth.

However her waters have now broken and she should have her baby tonight, cant wait, we have had a little bet on it--I say shes having a girl and Bill says it wil be a boy!!
Poor things wil be shattered, no sleep since wednesday night
As long as everthings ok it does not matter, I will post the end result tomorow!!!!!!!

Lost another lb

We had our weigh in yesterday at weight watchers and I have lost another lb.
I am pleased with that, we have been eating very well,we are never hungry in fact some days we are struggling to eat all our points!