Todays Class-Summer Day

We had a mix of first timers and some who had been before in today's class.
Sam, Gemma, Helen B, and Lyndsey had all been 4 times before.

Will aged 13 came along with his Aunty Sam for the first time, Jeannette I met at the market on Wednesday , Mercedes had been bought a gift voucher by her daughter Sara-Jane who also decided to join us and Helen lives in Normandy France and had found my website!

None of the first timers had ever painted before-and Mercedes said after the class that she hadn't expected to be able to paint anything any good!
Sara-Jane had a t-shirt on saying "I survived swine flu" which we all thought was just a joke -however it turns out that she HAD in fact been in intensive care on a ventilator for 11 days last November after catching swine flu.
Everyone was a bit nervous-there are a lot of brushes and techniques in this painting--8 brushes, 1 silicon tool and a knife to be precise.
However as I went through each stage in small bite sized bits no-one was left wondering what to do next.
Hardest part was the knife work on the waves-getting the pressure and angle right is quite difficult and all the first timers really came in at the deep end with the first painting they tackled.
We soon progressed with it though and by the time we stopped at 12pm for lunch we were nearly finished.
Its very handy having the cafe at the venue--the students were able to order what they wanted for lunch before the class started and it was all ready for them when we stopped. They do a beautiful melted cheese baghette for just £2 which went down well, as did the bacon butties.There is a lovely patio area for us to sit in the sun and eat as well which was nice as the sun was shining and warm.
We had a wide variety of poppies going in at the end-big ones, small ones-and everything in between-the time seemed to fly by.
We are seeing everyone again--Sam and Gem are coming to do the Birches and bringing her Mum and stepdad so it will be a real family affair!
Helen is going to coincide another trip to the UK with another class she wants to do--Bill made her a box to keep her painting safe en route back to France on Monday!
All in all a great class all round-everyone went away happy and with a lovely painting!