Holidays and Sales

Funny how its worked out... 7 years today we bought our Van ''Bunty'' ..and today Bill was busy peeling off the plastic sign writing ready for her to be sold on to a home that will use her instead of her being stuck on the drive doing nothing.... We will be sad to see her go-- she has served us faithfully, never let us down once.. Will make a great camper van conversion or horse box conversion.. Will post up more photos  when she is cleaned right off and 12 months MOT on her...

We  are off in the morning on holiday down to Bude  Cornwall.. we are mixing business with pleasure as we will also be delivering  4 paintings to Angela, a collector of my work in nearby St Ives..  It will be the first time we have met, having always sent the paintings via courier previously, so we are looking forward to it very much.. We are spending 4 nights in Bude then travelling back up to Weston Super Mare for 2 nights there.. Looking forward to a relaxing time away with our friends... Lol, it can't be anything other than relaxing as I can't bloody walk anywhere..so lots of sitting on benches people watching for me..and looking forward to chilling with a glass off wine or two back at the caravan in the evening.

I can see why she has chosen the paintings she has... most  have a coastal theme to them!

It will be lovely to see where my paintings will be 'living'

Brown birches-one of my favourites!

Sue and Richards Workshop

After having 6 months rest I decided I would try a small workshop at home.. I had my perching stool to sit on  and lowered my easel to try and help my arms.. Extra steroids, Tramadol and a liberal coating of Volterol on arms and legs and I thought I was well prepared for it..!   Sue had never painted before and hubby Richard had painted with me once a few years ago..

Although Sue insisted she wasn't in the slightest 'artistic' she followed my instructions and soon had a lovely painting.. Richard had used acrylic last time so this was completely different for him.He too soon had a lovely painting on his easel.. The time went very quickly...but I soon realised that I wasn't yet well enough to teach.

Richard adding the finishing touches to his painting here..

Well done both of you! Lovely results!   It was lovely to be teaching again ,but there is no way I can carry on teaching this year anyway..           I was in agony   afterwards and could hardly move the next day--even with taking extra tablets. The specialist has tried me on Amitriptyline and now Pregabalin, neither of them have done much at all, except knock me out cold which is not good..so I am now looking at going back to teaching perhaps next year-- fingers crossed... In the mean time I will continue to put my work on my websites, and I will be starting some new works soon-- completely different to what I have been doing but will be easier on my arms,, watch this space..

Getting Ready....

The time is flying by so quickly... only just over 2 weeks until we erect the marquee outside the house ready for the sale of paintings. I have been busy getting the paintings ready, have been adding bits to them and tidying up edges etc..

As well as being on display here I am trying to get them all onto my website www.paintingmyway.co.uk 

Bills been busy varnishing some of them too...

There will be a mix of acrylic, oils and melted wax paintings..

All of the paintings will  be a little cheaper if you come to the house and buy them as I do not have any postage to add...

There are many bargains to be had... and 25% will be going to the O'Connor Haematology /Cancer Unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital where my son is being treated.

Sunshine After The Rain ll

I am well behind with my blog these days,,my health has been pretty awful of late..  But it was lovely to meet up with all these lovely people in the 2nd Sunshine After The Rain workshop.. and they insisted I join them in the final lineup!  It was a very emotional day for me and Bill.. and we were quite overcome when we were presented with cards and gifts after the workshop..

The Sunshine After The Rain

Sorry about the delay doing the blog... We had a full house to paint the Sunshine After The Rain painting...7 who had been before and 8 first timers.. I think this is the hardest subject to do--lots of different techniques to learn !

Jane was bought along by 6 of her friends--she had no idea at all where she was going to or what she would be doing! Slightly scared was a bit of an under statement ! But as usual as soon as the paint was going onto the canvas the nerves pretty much disappeared for everyone..

The puddles of water seem to be the hardest part of the painting, have to be very careful not to use too much white paint.. Everyone enjoyed using the knife to apply thick paint to create texture on the trees..

Beautiful results from everyone..

Wonderful masterpieces everyone...

Well done everyone... I will be teaching this subject again on Oct 1st,,,

The End Of An Era......

It is with great regret that I have to announce that I will no longer be running my workshops after Dec 10th 2016 due to health reasons.
It has been a very,very hard decision to make ....

We have met many lovely people and made many friends over the 12 years the workshops have been running..
Its been a wonderful journey for all concerned--so many laughs along the way, as well as the beautiful masterpieces that were created in my workshops.

I know, because you have told me , that I have changed lives, made you feel confident and opened up a whole new world to you--not many people can say that and I feel privileged to have been part of that..



I have just 6 workshops left to run as I have had to cancel some . My last workshop will be on Sat Dec 10th--''Summer Day''... fitting as it is my signature painting.. so a huge ''Thank You'' to everyone who has made ''Painting My Way'' what it is today. 

I still intend to paint --I will not be hanging up my brushes entirely, but I will be painting pictures to sell, maybe trying some different techniques..but I will be able to paint when I feel able to and rest when I need to.

The website will take on a new look in the new year, and all the pictures of my students can be found here on my blog too..

  The copyright of all my painting subjects will remain mine ....

Bill and I will miss the Saturday workshops so much...Saturdays just won't be the same without the 'bashing and tickling' and all the banter that goes on...


I have been quite overwhelmed by all the messages that we have received since I announced the news..thank you everyone 

Diane and Bill xxxx
 

 

Grasses Workshop April 9th

Ken came along for the first time to paint with Amanda who has been once before to paint Serenity a few weeks ago..there were a few nerves to start with-that is completely normal! Ken soon got the hang of blending the paints, and had a lovely atmospheric sky pretty quickly..

Amanda achieved the most subtle results , so soft-and quite hard to do I find myself when using acrylics!

Janet has painted before and seemed to find the acrylic paint quite easy to handle..

Her friend Lindsey has only done a little painting before but again seemed to find the process quite easy too.

First time painting for Christine..no poppies for her as they wouldn't match the room where she wants to hang it,,instead she painted lots of lovely daisies--very pretty!

Jenny painted Cats In Trees a while back with me the first time, and this time around wanted to add some flowers to her painting that would match her bed linen , she bought along a pillow case so she could copy some onto her painting...they turned out very good too!

Some very happy artists!

Serenity Workshop March 5th

Apologies to the lovely ladies who came to paint Serenity on March 5th.... life has got in the way of updating my blog!  I got bursitis in my right Achilles tendon just after the workshop and ended up on crutches for nearly a week! Its much better now thank goodness but I have to be careful for a while,,its connected with the polymyalgia, and may have happened because I have cut down on my daily steroid dose!

I got the hang of the crutches quite quickly but getting up and down stairs was interesting to say the least!

The Waterfall Workshop

We had wonderful results from Saturdays students..its always interesting working in oils on a black canvas.. It was Marks first time painting, he traveled down from Mansfield with Karen and loved it! Looking forward to seeing them again soon! 2nd time for Ana and Anna 3rd time for Caroline and I think 7th or 8th time for Karen... it was a laugh a minute all through the class...''bashing'' brushes, ''tickling'' brushes and ''bush '' brushes had everyone in fits!

Happy New Year....2016

I cant believe where the year has gone...but in another way its been the longest year of my life...we started the year with my son Jim being very ,very ill with Hodgkins Lymphona and Haemophagocytic syndrome--a very rare condition, that saw his ferretin levels reach over 21,000 instead of the normal 196. He has had a gruelling regime of chemotherapy through the year , ending up with a stem cell transplant just 3 weeks ago in  the QE hopsital , Birmingham. I'm pleased to say he came out yesterday-- very tired, after being in isolation for 3 weeks and having the heaviest chemo thrown at him..he needs too stay infection free now and fingers crossed he has turned the corner..

My lovely daughter and her little family Wayne and Tommy have bought Jim's house off him as it was far too big for him--it was our family home when the kids were growing up-- so it has gone full circle now with a young family once again growing up in there.. It was a manic few weeks though-- they managed to move in in about 4 days  after the mortgage was approved after a cock up with the building society! In ,but not straight yet... looking forward to helping them decorate it as they want!

Little Tommy has kept us all sane through the year-- always smiling, happy and cheerful- he adores his grandad Bill..

Bless him...

Of course we had Becki and Wayne's wedding in March... it gave us something else to focus on and take our minds on what poor Jim was coping with...and he managed to come and have some photos taken with us too...it was a wonderful day from start to finish and   I couldn't have picked a better husband for my daughter...

Family

And before we know it ,its time to put up the tree again..

It does make you feel festive once the decorations come out..

and of course the fireplace Santa's... I have another week off work- and will be updating the website  www.paintingmyway.co.uk with more dates asap..places for the workshops are going very quickly , with one or two having very few spaces left in them..I will be introducng a couple of new subjects too at some point!  It just remains for me to wish all our family ,friends and students, past, present and future a very Happy, Healthy New Year 2016

Blackpool Break

We had a lovely 4 night break in Blackpool last week,,,a bargain price too--just £78 Wowcher deal  for both of us for 4 nights B+B ...the reviews on Tripadvisor were all brilliant-except for someone complaining that there was orange squash on the table instead of fresh orange! Our room was large--and spotless clean--had 2 double beds and a single one in it! Lovely huge shower all newly refurbished-couldn't fault it!

It doesn't take us long to make the place untidy! The weather forecast had been awful so we packed loads of cold weather clothes--and didn't need any of them in the end! It rained a couple of nights but not when we were out and about--it was lovely and sunny!

I used £7 worth of Tesco vouchers in exchange for 2 tickets to the Tower circus-- we went last year and it was brilliant, but quite expensive--so this was a real bargain! Some fantastic acts-- no animals, breath-taking trapeze acts etc...well worth a visit!

Bill admiring the view of the pier..

Most of the scaffolding is down from round the tower now..

As we had a such a good deal with the digs and circus I thought we could splash out on a visit to see Michael Jacksons Thriller show that was on for just  5 days in the Grand Theatre --it was good but didn't feel it was worth the £60 compared to all the other things we did..

We don't normally have fish and chips-- but fancied some as we walked back down the prom...they looked OK but didn't taste great--the fish was thin and a bit greasy--as were the chips-so we ended up leaving most of it...

The breakfast at the LLanryn Guest house was lovely-- no complaints at all..Choice of cereals, toast and a full English--not a trace of grease to be found...

View from the Tower

If you do nothing else when you go to Blackpool, you must take a visit to The Funny Girls Show-- we laughed all night !!! Zoe and her 'girls are just brilliant! 7pm -12pm and only £12.50 each what great value!

There are so many different bits to it-always different!

Their version of Abba lol

We were crying at The Sound Of Music!!

PMSL at this!

Brulee was our 'waitress' for the night

Even Amy Whinhouse made an appearance!

This act hanging on the ribbons made my eyes water at times...

amazing!

The finale...well done ladies--we will be back to see you again next year!  And we came back to some wonderful news about my son Jim...he is in remmission with just a few residual cells left--they have also found a perfect match bone marrow donor ! He is having another weeks chemo to clear up the cells left and seeing the specialists in Birmingham later today to sort out the donation.Its by no means going to be a walk in the park for him but things are looking far more hopeful than they were..somewhere out there is a selfless lady who made the desion to be a donor--I thank her with all my heart for that xxx