Summer Day class on YouTube

I have got yesterdays class uploaded onto Youtube at last!
Had the same problem again--all the captions appeared in the wrong place so had to re do it!
Not sure why it happens-some blip with the program I use --double checked it all as I was doing it! Any way you can see it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcfjfXb_eB4&feature=channel

Class Of Jan 30th -Summer Day

We had a lovely day today-
The roads were awful-snow and black ice everywhere so was quite surprised the ladies made it to class at all!

Right from the start the paintings were very different-everyone interpreted the way I did the sky and everything else very differently-we had some amazing skies right from the word go.

Claire came for the first time today came along with her mum Cynthia who has been twice before.

Tamara had her class bought her from her hubby for Christmas-and she said it was the best Christmas pressie she had ever had! At the end of class she said she was flabbergasted at her result. She had been looking at the previous students results on my website and had thought she would never be able to achieve the same results!

Celia and Sue who had both been to class together once before had told her she would be delighted with her end results and not to be worried! And they were right of course!

14 year old Sara was back to do her 5th painting. she is joining us again to paint Mellow Moods and Mystical Moon-she will be getting her artist brooch next time .she once again had the prize for the messiest palette--she ended up using mine halfway through! Its an artwork on its own!

Suzanne found the knife work a bit harder than the brushes-being left handed doesn't help there though-but as soon as she found the right pressure to put on it , the waves came along lovely.

It was amazing to see just how quickly the painting came together-with everyone stepping back and admiring each others work as we went along. It never fails to suprise everyone just how the painting comes along so quickly.
We are seeing Celia and Sue again next week for the Birch tree class and Suzanne is coming to paint Yesterday.

The small amount of paint needed to create the picture always suprises everyone-and its lovely at the end of the painting to use a bit more paint than previous to do the poppies!
The ladies all produced some gorgeous textured poppies-they really set off the seascapes-I was trying out some new liner brushes for the grasses-and they worked great-they will be available shortly off my website.

Im really looking forward to seeing everyone again-and we are sending best wishes and hugs to Claire for the future and hope she gets her op soon and all goes well xx

Coming On Nicely!

We were up early to get started on the major shake up of the art supplies/new shelving .

Sparky cat is normally mooching round when anything new is going on here--but he had a night out on the tiles last night so was flat out on the sofa most of the day today!

Its amazing just how many boxes of craft stuff we had in the garage-all in a mucking fuddle! Bill came across some of my painted bottles which sold very well last time we took them to a craft fair(Tenbury show!) Must crack on and do some more soon!

When we get back from shows/demos everything gets piled up in the boxes and does not get found again for a while.
Travis Perkins delivered the wood early today so Bill was able to get cracking with his saw and get most of it done.
It will be lovely to have all the class paintings in one place ready to load into the car on a Saturday.There will be room for most of the blank canvas as well.
I'm hoping that there will be a section for the encaustic supplies for sale as well-just looking forward to not having to move boxes to get to what I need to post!
Ive re-arranged the bottles of acrylic paint in order-wrote on them the colours and if they have been opened!(I'm a bugger for opening a new bottle when there is already one open)
Out of 75 bottles of acrylic paint I only had 2 bottles of green--which means I don't use green very often or when I do- I mix it myself! And thinking about it-I don't use green very often!

Bill intends to do the same thing on the other side of the garage in the near future as well.But we have lots of stuff to get rid of first of all--16 boxes of car boot stuff for a start. Plus we have to leave room for the huge roll of bubble wrap which takes up loads of room at the moment-5ft high by 100mts-but surprising how much we get through a year-2-3 of these rolls.All of the paintings have at least 3 wraps of this before they are posted!
And Bill is always making new bags for the paintings as I paint them.So its never ending!

Class in Bishops Castle

I have been asked if I will go to Bishops Castle to do a class--a suitable room has been found for me-it sounds ideal--some of the local ladies, who are friends with Karen who came to do a one to one a short time ago were so impressed with her painting of "Yesterday" that they want to have a go. We havent set a date yet or have any definate numbers but as soon as I know I will put the details up on here, as there may be some spare spaces.
It will be on either a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday instead of the usual Saturday, as I have bookings in all the classes I have planned for the Ludlow classes already.
Keep and eye on the website for new dates coming up.
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

"Yesterday" new class date July 17th

I had been asked when I would be doing "Yesterday" again in class by Sandra, as she and her friend had both recieved gift vouchers for my classes and wanted to paint this picture.
However they couldnt make the date I had already set for it.
So I asked them to give some dates that they wouldnt be able to do and we went from there!
They sent me a list of dates they could do and July 17 th suited us both.
I expect this class to get booked up pretty quick as it is very popular.
If you would like to join this class please contact me via the website
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Cant Wait!

Well after the sorting out we did yesterday with the paints etc-Bill is now going to build me some shelving to house most of my paintings and craft fair stuff!

I cant wait to get everything sorted out and in its proper place at last.
It will make life so much easier when it comes to loading the car for craft fairs and demonstrations.
The wood will be delivered tomorrow and hopefully it wont take too long to get it put up.Bill is great at DIY !
There will be spaces for the 16in x 20in up to the 36in x 36in pictures-and room for the blank ones as well.
I will be on hand to make the endless cups of tea--its about the only thing I can help with really-and I will be finishing off a few more paintings Ive sorted out and decided they need a few more little touches to complete them.

Busy Day Tidying Up !

We have had a busy day today doing a lot of tidying up different things that have needed doing for ages!

Ive managed to finish off 2 paintings that were not quite complete-and started a new background for another.
Bill in the meantime had started in the garage--blimey I didn't realise just how much acrylic paint I had!! There is bottles and bottles of it!
Trouble was they got put into various boxes when we were going to do demos,craft fairs and shows and when it came to ordering more supplies I wouldn't remember just what I did have!
Some shelves have been cleared and all the bottles are out where I can see them now--easy for me to grab and take along for the students to buy when we have a class.

I also have a big box of acrylic in tubes and a box of smaller tubes of my special effect paint.
The cupboard that some of the acrylic bottles lived in is now home to all the mediums,varnish, texturisers and other bits and bobs-all together so I can find them easily again.

The one thing that didn't need sorting today was the brushes-they are always cleaned properly and put away carefully after each painting class into the pigeon holes that Bill made for me hanging underneath the cupboard next to the sink where they are cleaned--its amazing really to think I'm still using the same brushes as when I first started my classes 6 years ago-and they are still as good as new today.I have added to them as the classes have grown in numbers but it goes to show that looked after and cleaned properly they will last many many years!

Another job that I had put off for ages was cleaning the tops of all my oil paint tubes-they don't get wiped of excess paint when I'm doing a class and it builds up on them until they get hard to unscrew!
I spent an afternoon in the dining room watching daytime telly and cleaning the tubes up-quite a therapeutic job to be honest.
They are all nice and clean and tidy and in order of colours in my work box ready for the next session!
Its been a long day but very satisfying--looking forward to more painting tomorrow!

Latest YouTube Video

Yesterdays class "Emerald Woods" is now uploaded to Youtube. Im hoping to have some more guitar off my friend Phil soon to use as backing track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8GvNcUcUFU&feature=channel

Ludlow Slow Food

Well its not often you get something for nothing-but today we had a full english breakfast free of charge!
It was organised by the local group of Slow Food-its aims are
protecting agriculture and food biodiversity,developing food and taste education,connecting producers and consumers and developing networks. for more information you can see their website
www.slowfoodludlow.org.uk


All of the food was locally sourced-and delicious and they catered for 100 people-all free of charge to promote the worthy cause--

the strawberry and vanilla muesli was from The Ludlow Nut Company
milk was from Mawley town Farm, Cleobury Mortimer,
Bread made with flour from Bacheldre Watermill, Powys-Ludlow Food Centre

then we had beautiful
free range bacon from Tudges Butchers, Orleton, Ludlow,
Free range pork sausages from DW Walls and Sons, Ludlow,
Free Range eggs from Country Flavours, Madely, Herefordshire
Handmade black pudding from the Ludlow Food centre
home made sauces-including damson ketchup which was beautiful came from
Ludlow Jam Pan

then to follow we had some toast and a range of jams including
lemon curd,raspberry jam, lime marmalade,grapefruit and cranberry marmalade.

Everyone enjoyed it and it has certainly encouraged us to go and take a look at the Ludlow Food Centre, just out of the town--its been open a while now but we haven't made a visit there yet--we will be dropping in there this week--I must get some of the damson ketchup among other things--I don't mind paying a bit extra for quality!

Todays Class "Emerald Woods"

We started the class minus Gerry-bit worried because she would normally let me know she isn't attending.Rhada travelled from Birmingham
Kevin came from Dudley,Roger and James came from Kidderminster,Bev travelled from Clun -now the snow has gone-Bevs son Tim had come all the way from Banbury Oxfordshire as had Sue.
So they came from miles around today!
Sue stayed in Ludlow at De-Grays in Town last night and said it was absolutely first class and recommends it to anyone wanting to visit the town.

Everyone had great fun with the first part of the painting. We had a great variety of bushes and ponds-after some drying with the hairdryer we did a bit of re-shaping of the ponds as one or two were rather rude when we stepped back for a better look!
Everyone was suprised at the effect when we started using the oil paint to add the background, sunbeams and water etc--Tim decided he would use blue instead of the usual green-and it really worked well. I think Tim ,Kevin Sue, Roger and James had really not expected to achieve the standard they did for the first time today.
Every stage of the painting 14 year old James said -"I cant believe Ive done that-someone else must have when my back was turned!" He was chuffed to bits and cant wait to come again!
All in All another great class

Sue has booked up for the next Birch Tree on Feb 6th class-she is bringing a friend with her-that will make the class full.

Grasses class full

Ive just booked the last 2 places up for the Grasses class on Feb 20th-- i will be making a new date for this later in the year as it seems like a popular subject.

To see what other classes are coming up and how many places are left please take a look at the website www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Birch Tree Video on Youtube

Well Im about finished for the day--uploaded some of my popular Birch Tree pics onto Youtube.

Something went wrong with the titles and they ar appearing on the wrong paintings or some reason--but it will have to do for now!
Will change it tomorrow maybe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jspiYBSsq8k&feature=channel

More YouTube

Im having a great day today going through my photos on the computer and putting together some videos for youtube. This one features some of my Bills encaustic art work as well as some of mine!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMFvQ8LOKzM

More Youtube!

Ive been busy putting some more stuff on Youtube-this time some of my paintings.
The backing music is being played by my good friend Phil Bishop--he is a very talented guitarist as you will hear !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2FRGJoJ8Rw&feature=channel

Youtube

Well after a lot of faffing about Ive managed to get Saturdays class onto Youtube.
One of the students suggested putting The Doors "Riders On The Storm " as a backing track to it--which I did-only to find that youtube had muted it because of the copyright rules which I hadn't thought about!
Loaded it again only to find that the sub-titles had come up in wrong places--ggggrrrrrrr
anyway think its OK now--the music is the only thing that is already on the computer but will have to do while I research some copyright free or ask my friend Phil to record some of his guitar music for me to use!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh9h9qU7JN8&feature=channel

Ive got some great video of Jake talking on my phone but when I upload it to the computer there is no sound-so when I get that problem sorted out I will add that to youtube as well!

Todays Class-Stormy Skies

Well the first day back doing the classes in 2010.
We had a few less than expected turn up--the snow stopped Sue-who had to catch up with work as she had been unable to get into work because of the snow!
Val missed the bus and she lives out in the sticks so couldn't get here,
Cath got in a muddle with the trains and phone numbers and Sybila had to go into hospital and her partner John didn't want to come without her!
So that left us with 8 students!
Jan has been quite a few times before
and doesn't seem to get any nerves now-we had Linda come for the first time-her hubby Patrick came to me last October for the first time and made such a stunning painting of Forest Pool that he treated Linda to a gift voucher for her birthday!
All the others, Vikki (Jans daughter) Sam, Gemma ,Lin, Elaine and Gary were all with me for the second time!
We had great fun as usual-everyone got stuck in very quickly with their skies--Elaine chose to do hers in Van Dyke brown so it would be different to Garys--and it worked really well too.
Everyone was amazed by how different they all turned out at each stage--all completly different-but all very stormy!
We had a bit of cussing going on under the breath when it came to using the knife to do the waves!! There is a definate technique with it and until you get the pressure in the right place its hard to get the correct result! Linda seemed to pick it up right away -no problems but some of the others found it a bit harder to start with but all got there in the end!

We took along some of the chocolates and mince pies left over from Christmas as well as the usual biscuits -hoping the students would help eat them-Sam loved the maltesers and Bill helped her find all of those out of the tin-and quite a few of the others went as well during the day, I think after a few classes we will have used them all up!

Elaine and Gary were telling me how they had been painting at home-they have been and bought easels, oils and acrylics and have painted lots of different versions of Mystical Moon-including a daytime one which sounded great!
We will see them again for Winter Wonderland on Feb 13th and Mellow Moods on March 27th
We will see Jan, Vicki and Lin for the new painting subject "Grasses" on Feb 20th
Gemma and Sam are coming to the Birches on May 15th.

Snow Again!

Well just when it was starting to go away we woke up to another 6 inches of snow again this morning!

Its all very pretty but its causing havoc with the roads all around here.

Lets hope they are cleared for Saturday -I have students coming from all directions to paint Stormy Skies!