Shobdon Food, Drink and Flying Festival----and more...

Cant believe its been a year since Shobdon Food and Drink Festival-- a new venue -at the Airfield...and lovely to see our little grandson Tommy there with his Mummy and Daddy...

happy little soul as usual..

took over 3 hours to set up there..

it was lovely to get home and sit down by the pool with a glass or three of wine....Ludlow festival is on too...so we sat outside on the patio to listen to Jools Holland  and his  Rhythm &
Blues Orchestra featuring GILSON LAVIS
with special guest
ROLAND GIFT -
the voice of Fine Young Cannibals and guest vocalists
RUBY TURNER
& LOUISE MARSHALL Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra will provide a highlight of the Ludlow Arts Festival concerts. Jools’ passion for music has made him a doyen of the music scene, and he was awarded an OBE in 2003 for his services to the British music industry.
His phenomenal success has seen him sell millions of records throughout the course of his career and he holds the unique status of performing with musicians who have achieved success in every decade of the 20th Century.
Roland Gift, the voice of Fine Young Cannibals, will make a very special guest appearance, also featuring the fantastic former Squeeze drummer Gilson Lavis, and guest vocalists Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall. Jools and his incredible Rhythm & Blues Orchestra look set to raise the roof of Ludlow Castle if it had one!  What a great night...hope it is as good tomorrow might when we have The Searchers and the Hollies playing-followed with the usual fireworks display..

We love the new lights we have by the pond and elsewhere in the garden..,.the fibre-optics are just just beautiful..

We put the underwater lights on and it was lovely to see the fish getting excited...it must have been like a real treat for them as they got really frisky! I have loads of pictures of the children who did the encaustic art today-but have left the book with all their names at the show--so will be doing all the photos and names on here tomorrow night!

Summer Day Workshop

We had people come from far and wide again last yesterday..out of 14 students 12 were first time artists..there were quite a few really bad nerves and some who really thought they would 'fail' to produce a great painting-but as usual they were all proved wrong!       We had some wonderful results from everyone- and everyone was amazed to watch how everyones paintings all developed so differently at each stage...    Above you can see Gillian..she came along with her friend Sally,,,they came by the market today and both said they were really amazed at their results and will be back to paint another picture!                                                  

Sally made a beautiful job of her painting...lovely and subtle!

Nicky has used watercolours before but this was a first for her-she found the oils much easier to use and the techniques I teach much looser than she was used to and she loved that!

We met Andy at Kinver show last weekend, he came along with Tanya-- he used the paint quite boldly-and soon had a sky with lots going on in it..the water followed quickly too...

Drew loved his day...and again was amazed with how quickly the painting grew...

Jo has been quite a few times, and will be painting this one again as a Christmas pressie for a very lucky person!

Tanya was at Kinver Fair last weekend...she was quite subtle with her use of paint...and didn't get fazed by any of the stages at all..

 I think that Sharon was one of the most nervous students Ive ever had! I met her on the market last Wednesday and she said she had always wanted to paint but knew she wouldn't be able to do it...after a long conversation with her and her hubby she left a £10 deposit, saying "I'm so scared I wont be able to do it-but I may never have the chance again!"    They were here on holiday for the week...Anyway-when she turned up on Saturday -her hubby said she hadn't slept all night and almost didn't turn up!    However -she loved every minute and felt better that there were so many other first timers there too!    She followed my instructions to the letter and soon the nerves disappeared...she kept saying she couldn't believe she was actually painting the picture!    Its lovely to see nervous students getting more and more confident as the time goes on...and within no time at all they are making decisions about what goes where and how much paint they need etc.. Sharon came by the market this morning and she was still excited about her experience!    She said she had to keep going and having a look to see if its as good as she thought it was and that it was real!   I have a feeling we will be seeing Sharon again!

Julie was painting for the 3rd time...and loved applying the techniques she learnt in the Stormy Poppies workshop to this painting....

Ann used really big,bold strokes for her grasses and it worked so well..and when she added her poppies -it needed just a few to set it off beautifully--unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the finished painting as Ann doesn't like her photo taken and she stayed inside with Bill when I did the line-up!

Helen's painting was very tranquil and subtle too... she loved her experience and said she will be back!

Helen seemed to find it easy--and before she knew it-her painting was done...she couldn't believe how quickly it happened...

Hazel loved every minute of the workshop...and says she will be back with granddaughter Chloe....

12 year old Chloe came along with her Nan Hazel,,,she was so confident bless her--I think she was the least nervous of the 14 students!

We had students sitting, standing and even kneeling at times during the workshop!

It was blowing a gale outside when we had the photos done! Everyone had to hang on tight to the paintings!

lovely results everyone...

some very happy students!

getting blown away!

Brilliant results--well done everyone--

Just Because...

I love my Bill!  I have never seen such long ,big lilies as these!  they are nearly as tall as me!  He bought them me to cheer me up as its been a sh***y few weeks . Ive been quite poorly lately with a bad chest infection for past 3 + weeks...its been pretty miserable for both of us--Ive been coughing my heart up day after day...Because I'm on steroids my immune system is not up to much ,so catch infections easily and worse than normal...the specialist has put me on another new drug to help try and get the steroids reduced....trouble is the side effects are not great. I will wait and see how I get on with them -if they work it will be a good thing as I hate being on the steroids... Anyway--my house is filled with the beautiful perfume coming from these beautiful flowers--how can I possibly feel down when I have my lovely Bill beside me-- Thank you my Darling-loves you millions xx

The  smell from these is just unreal. The flowers are as big as dinner plates!

Kinver Show

We were up early yesterday morning to go to Kinver Country Fair,,,they gave us a lovely double gazebo with loads of room to set up everything nicely...it only took us 2 hours to get it all sorted which is a record for us!

and some space for folk to come in and speak to us too...it was non-stop all day long with interest in the paintings and workshops..met some lovely interesting people too! Im looking forward to seeing a lot of them in my workshops in the future!

We were able to use one end for encaustic demos and the other end for painting in oils..

plenty of room to hang the big paintings!

The food marquee was next to us....and Bill quite fancied a pie for his dinner LOL...

Chloe had a go at encaustic art...and created a lovely picture with all sorts of little creatures in it! Well done Chloe

I painted this large Stormy Poppies while I was there-and a lovely couple bought it wet off the easel..I do hope they got it home safely!

As we set off for home we saw a huge black plume of smoke in the distance--turns out it was a huge recycling plant on fire in Kidderminster....

Well that pint is very well deserved--we didn't stop all day long...so we called at The Running Horse, Callow Hill, Nr Bewdley..As it was Fathers day they were doing a special offer of having the third course free...how could we resist?

I had the chicken satay and Bill had the garlic mushrooms and Stilton...

Bills starter looked and smelt lovely---didn't leave me any to taste though!

The main course was -well--spectacular to say the least--roast rib of beef-slow cooked with veg......it was delicious and came out on the bone--the meat fell off and melted in your mouth-the fresh veg were cooked to perfection and  the Yorkshire pud was huge--didn't manage to finish it all as wanted to leave room for the pud--

Poppy Field Workshop

We had 7 in on Saturday to paint the Poppy Fields workshop...this is a lovely simple painting to do-- we had 2 newbies Sandra and Gillian...

Carol joined her Dad Tony and niece Abbie..

Tony,,nearly finished!

Abbie came along last week with her grandad for the first time-she used acrylic to create Squirrels Eye View--she has oil paints at home already so was keen to have a go with them. Well as I expected she loved the oils-and she cant wait to have a go at home with her own paints...I gave her one of my helpful 'how to' leaflets to help jog her memory when she has a go...

Cynthia made a cracking job of her painting--the background was quite delicate which worked well with her bold poppies..

Sandra came along with Cynthia and Lorretta for her first time.. she didnt seem at all nervous and got on with each stage easily...

Lorretta adding the final few poppies

=

First time for Gillian-she found it easier than she expected and  loved the way that the oils moved on the canvas!

Well done everyone! Your all looking very serious!!!!!

Tony and Abbie went before the pics were taken last week...so they bought their paintings back this week!