Lots Going On!

Had a busy day today with one thing and another--lots of phone calls -- took some paintings to swap round at Alltogther Unique Gallery in town.

Had a call from a new gallery in Shrewsbury wanting some of my work, so will be sorting that out over the weekend--Its a new venture for Nikki who already has a photographic studio-I'm really looking forward to being involved in his journey into the art world as well.

The class for this Saturday is now full-had a call off my 'manager' Pauline this morning to ask if I could fit in her friend.
Pauline is always referred to as my manager now , every time she calls up to see us on the market with hubby Chris there is someone at the stall considering doing a class-within 2 minutes of Pauline and Chris chatting to them they have booked up for a class-

We are off to Dilwyn show on Bank holiday Monday-really looking forward to it-sounds a lovely one to do. Lots going on there for all to see.

I have a demo to do next month for the Vintage club at Leominster--its a big group of around 80 members-so that will be great fun--they sound a lovely group of people-we will be meeting some of them at Dilwyn show, that will be nice!

Todays Market

The sun was shining and everyone was in a happy mood when we arrived to set up the market stall today! We were in a different place than usual because the annual May Fair was arriving in town this afternoon, so we had to be off the square for 3.30pm. A lot of the stalls had already been taken down to make room.
I hung to big paintings on the end of the stall as it was a lovely dry day and the "By The Light " painting caught every ones eye-the metallic paint on the water caught the sun and the effect was lovely!
We had noticed the delivery van on the square earlier and recognised the driver as the one who used to deliver my canvases-he came over and had a closer look at it--he loved it-am waiting to hear off him if hes going to buy it-so fingers crossed!
Had a lovely day all in all-- its certainly busier than the monthly thursday craft market. We are not going to do those anymore -we are finding this one a lot better.
We are doing it again on Monday at Dilwyn Show-havent been there before but have been told its a good one to do so we are looking forward to it. Hope the weather is as nice as today!

Internet and other things!

I'm busy catching up with all my computing after being off line for a while.Turns out it was a fault on the phone line and not our providers fault as previously thought!

The nice man from BT came and sorted us today and now everything seems to be working ok.

I asked my sister to check my emails last night for me and she called me to say that someone wanted to buy "Serenity In Green" off the Affordable British Art site.

We got Sunshiney Day and Fantasia packed up and off to their new owner Claire this morning--its amazing just how long it takes to pack up paintings to post--Ive been told its like a adult game of pass the parcel when the painting arrives-there are so many layers to peel off -each one getting a little nearer to the prize!
Claire will certainly have fun in the morning-there is a lot of cardboard, bubble wrap, brown paper and parcel tape to get through!

May 9th- Poppy Fields

Poppy Fields

is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and oil paints.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website
4 places left
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

May 16th -- Emerald Woods

Emerald Woods

is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and acrylic and oil paints.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website

www.paintingmyway.co.uk
4 places left

May 23rd-- African Dream

African Dream

is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and acrylic paints.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website
4 places left
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

May 30th --Tropical Sunset

Tropical Sunset

is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and acrylic and oil paints.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website

4 places left
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

June 6th ---Summer Day

Summer Day is my signature painting and has been one of my most popular classes.
It is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and oil paints.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website
4 spaces left
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

June 13th " Mystical Moon"

Mystical Moon
is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and acrylic paints.
You will have the option of using a rich purple or grey to create this painting.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website
2 places left in this class
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

June 20th "Stormy Skies"

Stormy Skies
is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and oil paints.Its amazing what can be produced using just 2 colours of paint-black and white.
There will be the option of using brown or blue paint to do this class.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website

3 places left in this class
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Publish Post

July 4th " Birch Trees"

Birch Trees is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and acrylic paints.Its great fun to do and fantastic results every time.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

July 11th "Poppies and Daisies"

Poppies and Daisies
is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and acrylic paints.It will be dry for you to take home.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

July 18th " Sernity in Green"

Serenity in Green
is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and oil paints.
You will have the option of using breen , brown or blue paint

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

August 8th "Winter Wonderland"

Winter Wonderland
is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and oil paints.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

AUGUST 15TH" MELLOW MOODS"

Mellow Moods is suitable for all ages and abilities-it is painted using a variety of brushes and acrylic and oil paints.

If you are interested in joining this class please get in touch with me via the website

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Todays Class-Birch Trees

We had a great class today as usual.
There were some hard choices to be made as there was a wide choice of canvas sizes to choose from.Carole had requested a large canvas, Bev had called by the market and seen me painting my latest Birch tree painting on the wide narrow canvas and wanted to do that one and there was also the standard 16in x 20in ones.
After they had to decided which size canvas to do it on it was then a matter of choosing which colours they wanted-monochrome or sepia!

We had a later than normal start due to a misunderstanding about one of the bookings, but once we started there was no looking back.
It was very quiet at times- Wayne was defiantly holding his breath longer than anyone else when doing the background trees!

Caroles canvas was almost as big as her and of course it took that bit longer for her to do things on it.She made a brilliant job of it and it will be hanging in her bedroom. Carole also received her special trophy for attending over 10 classes! It got left behind , as she had to rush off so we will be dropping it off for her at her home tomorrow when we go over to Leominster Boot sale.

Becky and Wayne wanted to do a diptych with their 2 paintings following on from each others so they could be hung side by side-it worked really well.

Sara's painting turned out really soft again like last week -almost out of focus- a beautiful effect.

Joyce had never painted before-she had bought her husband Gordon a gift voucher for Christmas, he came earlier in the year, she was so astonished at his results she wanted to try it herself. Brilliant results Joyce!

Jane also received her trophy for coming to 10 classes-- she made a lovely job of her monochrome painting.
All in all a great fun day!

SOLD

Sunshiney Day and Fantasia will be going to their new home on Monday.
Claire from Norfolk had emailed me late on Tuesday asking if she could purchase them.
We had already loaded Sunshiney Day into the car for its first outing on the market so decided to leave it and show it anyway!
It had lots of admiration from people all day, Im working on a new version of this tomorrow.
''Fantasia'' was in the Alltogther Unique Gallery in town so we popped into fetch that this afternoon.
Claire is happy to get the painting re-glazed when it arrives.
Its a very large framed painting and glass isnt insured in the post so I take the glass out and post the paintings without it-much safer and less weight too.
They will be delivered to her on Tuesday at her convinience--along with a few little extras I will include as a surprise for her!

Anthea's Poppys

Anthea was in for a big surprise today when her friend Ally bought her to my home. She had no idea what was in store! Then she spotted the 2 easels and canvas set up ready for her--
Straight away she said ''surely you don't think I can paint anything like that!?''
After convincing her that she could , we settled down to paint-with some interruptions from Jake who had us all in fits of laughter from time to time.
Anthea's painting took shape very quickly--and after just over 2 hours and 2 cups of coffee she was finished!
She was well chuffed with her results.

Todays Market-and surprise for someone

We had a busy day on the market today--there were lots of people about and a couple of coaches in as well.
Some stall holders didn't turn up so we spread out over 3 stalls.
In between chatting to people about things I managed to get some more done to my latest birch tree painting.
Got some more to do to it tomorrow if I get chance----
Someone is in for a great big surprise in the morning--Ally is bringing another of her friends to have a painting session as a surprise gift.
Ally has done this to quite a few of her friends now-she just tells them to wear something old-that she is treating them to something!
They haven't known a thing until they turn up on the doorstep--its great fun for both Ally and me--not so sure about her 'victims'! One of her friends had it in her head she was going to help out at the local dog rescue home for some reason! Quite a shock to find she was going to be painting a picture instead!
So far they have always enjoyed themselves and created beautiful paintings--I will have the computer switched on ready for her to choose from my website which painting they want to do, and then we will be all go for an enjoyable mornings painting.
I will post the pictures up here tomorrow as usual for you all to see!

Tonight in the Garden

Bill got lots of jobs done out in the garden today -cleaning the pond filter out -a horrible dirty job was the worst of them, but so worth it-the water is getting so clear now.He also replaced the old green netting over the top of it with some black which doesn't show up as much.The heron has been seen around the fields behind us recently and we wont take the chance of loosing any of our precious fish again as we did when the pond was first set up.
We bought the wooden dolphin sculpture at the boot sale yesterday-it was a real bargain!
We have got the table and chairs set up on the patio so it will be lovely to have breakfast outside in the mornings in the sunshine.
The magnolia tree that our friends Jan and John bought Bill last year for his birthday has flowered beautifully-got some more tidying up to do still in places.
We will be able to get on and do some now-we had been avoiding the bottom 2 levels of the garden because a pair of blackbirds had nested and hatched 4 babies-however they were in a very open space exposed to the elements-tonight Bill found the nest empty-we think the magpies probably saw them and killed them.
There was a great sunset while we were out there enjoying a glass of wine!

Encaustic Demo

I was asked by the Ludlow Craft Club if I would go and do a demo of the encaustic art for their members .
They meet in the same room that we use for the painting my way workshops.
Bill dropped me off and set up the irons, special tools etc and then came back home to prepare a lovely roast pork dinner!
I realised after had he had left that I had left the camera in the car , so only got this photo just before we cleared up!
The members had a lovely time playing with the wax-some beautiful pictures were produced and we all had fun trying to spot the strange animals and faces that you always get in the wax.
Ive been asked to go back and do another demo soon as everyone enjoyed themselves so much, and there were a few members missing due to other commitments.
Im going to sort out my off cuts of encaustic cards that I get when making my bookmarkers and drop off for Chris to use in her card making,it will be interesting to see how they get used! Chris raises money for the local Air Ambulance and is a regular on the Ludlow market selling her beautiful cards.

Todays Class-Forest Pool

From the left Dave (1st) Brian (3rd) Karen(1st) Sophie(1st) Sara(3rd) Hannah(1st) and Kim (1st)
We had 5 newbies in the class today-there were a lot of nerves before we started!
Brian came to me a couple of years ago and did 2 paintings,he bought along his daughter Karen and her daughter Sophie today-the second week running I have had 3 generations in class!
We also had 3 left handed students today as well! There is usually one but never had 3 in the same class before!
Forest Pool is a great painting to do first time-we learn to use a lot of different brushes,a wiping out tool and lots of different colours of paint!
It gives a big opportunity for students to express their own personality, which comes through in the finished painting.
10 year old Hannah added some little red toadstools to hers, which added to the mystical theme they all seemed to create today.
We had great fun as usual and everyone is coming back to paint again.
Sara is back next week to do the Birch Trees,and we are seeing Kim for the Summer Day in June, maybe before as she fancies doing the' poppy field' as well!