Todays Class-Tropical Sunset

We had 2 newbies in class today and also Hannah who had been once before.
Tropical Sunset uses both oil and acrylic paint and it proved to be an interesting painting subject.
To start we did some under painting using acrylic paint,put the canvas outside in the sunshine for a few minutes to dry and then covered that with some white oil paint medium.
Then came the interesting part-putting some colour into the painting-
Each painting gives the artist the chance for their own personality to come out in their picture.You soon find out who is the boldest and who is the more subtle ones!
Pattie lives over the road from us and was painting for the first time-she seemed quite calm and not very nervous at all, Paul had travelled from Shrewsbury as had Hannah and her Nan.
Hannah had been once before to do the Forest Pool painting.
Everyone one laughed when I said we had to turn the paintings upside down to do the reflections of the palm trees , but soon realised it was the easiest way of doing them!
We are seeing them all again soon, Pattie and Paul are coming to do the Birch Trees and Hannah is coming to paint Mellow Moods with either her mum or her Nan.

Wedding Gift Paintings

A while ago all the artists on the site had a note off www.affordablebritishart.co.uk where I have some of my paintings
to say that a gift voucher for £250 had been bought by someone as a wedding present for a couple to choose their own art work.
I was chuffed to bits to be the lucky artist whose art was chosen by the newly weds! As the paintings were a little more than the voucher the price was made up by the couple.

Tranquility In Green and The Funky Birches were chosen and they were recieved by the couple yesterday, who sent me the following message--

"Hi Diane,
The paintings have arrived safe and sound thank you very much. We absolutely love them and are really pleased with them. Thank you also for the other pictures and bookmarks which are great!"
Tony & Nichola

I had put in some encaustic wax paintings as a thank-you, along with some encaustic art bookmarks .
It did amuse me that the 2 paintings chosen were so different to each other--more different you couldnt get really--I assume that they both have completly different tastes in paintings!
That would explain the saying ''opposites attract''I suppose!

Summer Evenings

We had a lovely evening last night with Carl and Marcel. The weather was hot and sunny-just right for a BBQ.
We gave it a clean over after it being packed away for the winter and got it fired up-the salad was soon done, the chicken put in the marinade's, the steak peppered and the wine flowing!
We bought Jake out on the patio and he had us in fits of laughter with his constant chatter!
He also enjoyed a bit of sausage too!
Plenty of food left over so having another tonight when it cools off a bit!
Bill put the sun canopy up over the patio door last night so that means that summer will probably end soon-as it has seemed to jinx the weather the past 2 years he put it up!

Jakes First Year.

It was a year yesterday since we had our Jake.What a year its been-he has made such a difference to our lives!
He never fails to mkae us laugh a thousand times a day with the stuff he comes out with.

Our Trip To Eden.

we had a lovely time looking round the Eden Project while on holiday.There was so much to see there.
Got lots of good snaps to use in paintings too!

The Western Wheel-BIG MISTAKE!

While in Weston on holiday we were able to watch the Weston Wheel going round from our hotel room.
Now Ive always had a really really morbid fear of heights from a child-a step ladder is too high for me most of the time!
I convinced myself and Bill that I would conquer the fear by going on the new attraction at Weston-the 40 metre high Weston Wheel!! We walked along the seafront watching it go round-convinced myself it would be ok and I would handle it-paid at kiosk and waited for the posh air-conditioned pod to come round! There was seats for 4 people inside-We sat down and the door closed. I got my phone out and set it to video--then we started moving---------OMG before we had got 15 ft off the ground I started a panic attack! The pods were clear glass down to the floor-- I think maybe if they were like a car with solid pieces at the sides all round and just glass at the top I may have been better-but every time I opened my eyes to look at Bill I could see below him and it was bloody horrible!
I got on there with a full face of make up and got off there with non--Bill was laughing cos I had tissue stuck all over my face-it was the longest 10 mins of my life!
I have never been so scared-I cant describe the feeling-my legs were wobbling when we got off and I really was scared I would have a heart attack on there-my heart was beating so fast!
Never again-have to accept that I have a fear of heights and thats it!

New Tattoo

Ive been toying with the idea of a new tattoo for some time now.
I foolishly ,when a youngster had a small home done one which Ive hated ever since then-
While on holiday I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.
I decided I wanted an artists palette as that is most apt for me-being an artist!
We checked out the Internet this morning for tattooists in Weston and came up with The Dark Arts Studio in Orchard Place , Weston Super Mare.
I had a chat with Ady who was going to do the tattoo for me.I showed him one of my artist palette brooches as an idea for the design.He went off with his paper and pen and came back with the end result.
A palette design was a first for the studio-there must have been thousands of designs there to choose from but no artist palettes!
I must admit being completly suprised at how less painful it was compared to over 20 years ago when I had my bird of paradise tattoo done!
It took Ady around 30 mins to complete-and Im chuffed to bits with it-you cant see the original one through it either!
I love the way he even made it look like the paint had mixed together on the palette!
Im going back at some point to have my bird of paradise redone as its faded over time--I think its 23 years since I had it done-Ady said he will make it brighter for me. The colours are much better these days then they were!

Weston Super Mare-Sunset Last Night

Well what can I say--how beautiful is this? We went for a walk around the seafront of Weston last night and watched the sun setting down over the sea.
Its given me lots of inspiration for new class subjects-will get cracking on them asap!

Class of 16th May-African Dream

Diane drove from Liverpool to join us on Saturday!

We had a lovely time .Diane has been doing watercolours and found the freeness this method brings a refreshing change!
Sandra had never painted anything before and was looking forward to her first painting session.

Jan has been once before and was looking forward to trying acrylics after already trying the oils.She preferred the acrylics and is coming again to paint Mystical Moon.
As usual we had 3 completely different paintings as everyone personality's came out on the canvas!
As soon as the class was finished we rushed home to get ready for the next few days of our holiday at Weston Super Mare!