Poppy Field Workshop

Apologies to start---Ive got no idea on some of the names again--the Young At Art  group from Kidderminster--the photos showing me the order you were in have not come out---so I'm sorry no names on the pics--but you know who you are LOL... We had a full class on Saturday with 15 students who came from far and wide..here we have 6 year old Beth who made a grand job of her picture..she came along with her nanny -Debbie and cousins (I think!) 11 year old Nathan and 11 year old Aleya

Aleya made a great job--lovely colours in the grasses..

Debbie adding the poppies-watched closely by Nathan!

Nathan used big bold strokes on his grasses which worked well!

Its quite a amazing just how different the paintings turn out-even when they all use the same colour palette

None of the ladies had tried oils before so it was quite an eye opener for them to see just how easy it was to use--and no mess or smell either...

Everyone was amazed at how easy the painting came along..

The ladies have booked me to go and do a demo for the rest of the Young At Art group they belong to.so we are looking forward to that very much in June..

adding more detail to the grasses before the barley gets painted in..

Lots of movement in the grasses here..

Holly came along with her grandad Brian and her brother Jack...she had not painted like this before..and really enjoyed it!

Brian has been once before to paint Summer Day...he usually uses watercolours..

Jack adding his grasses in the foreground.

Barbara was bought a gift voucher by her sister Veronica who also attended the workshop-- she absolutely loved it--

Veronica starting her barley grasses....Shame my camera is still playing up--loads of photos just gone into thin air again....saving up for a new one now!

The children added some birds to their pictures at the end--don't they all look happy?

3 Happy artists

wonderful results everyone!

lovely bold results!

bit blurry-sorry

Fantastic paintings-will look forward to seeing you again!

New Venues....

We have a couple of new things going on at the moment--we delivered some paintings to be displayed in a recently opened pub/restaurant on Wednesday. Neil and Tasha are the new landlords of The FForest Inn , Llanfihangel-Nant-Melan, New Radnor, LD8 2TN.
They are holding their first annual Burns Night tomorrow as Neil is Scottish..
 The menu sounds beautiful-its such a shame we live so far away  or we would be there joining in!
They have got a variety of artwork on show in their restaurant, and we will look forward to seeing some photos of it all in situ soon.
We wish them all the success in the world...and will no doubt be popping over to try their lovely food soon...

We are going over to the Severn Valley Country Park,nr Bridgnorth tomorrow to meet up with the manager re holding a workshop there in the near future..Im going to be doing a demo there on Thursday May 15th for the general public..more details will be announced as and when they are decided!
Its a beautiful part of the country-with beautiful views from the  building where we will be painting-so plenty of inspiration for everyone..

No workshop tomorrow as the room was not available , so its going to be a lovely day off...I'm feeling much better again recently--the stronger Tumeric tablets have kicked in and I'm pretty much pain free again...
Ive been catching up on little jobs around the house that have been waiting to be done--sorted out the food cupboards in the kitchen yesterday-- quite scary how out of date some of the stuff was!
And how come there was 3 boxes of stuff to take up the tip and yet the cupboards are still choc-a -block full?
One of life's little mysteries!

Wednesday Club, Clee Hill

We had a lovely afternoon up on Clee Hill doing a demo for the Wednesday Club.There was a good turn out of 30 people, some of whom had seen me before at other local clubs.

I painted The Waterfall quicker than normal--10 mins to be exact! Everyone was a bit gobsmacked--and when it was passed around the room for people to see close up-they were amazed at how much detail I had managed to get in there in such a short time..Summer Day took a little longer at 15 mins!!! They were very interested in the workshops and Im sure we will be seeing some of them later in the year..

Two of the members have been married for 60 years.....so they were presented with a bottle and some flowers...

Stella and 'Spider' won the paintings--

Bluebell Woods and Other Things!

I had to go to Hereford hospital today for a MRI scan on my head to see if there is an underlying reason for the tinnitus Ive had since last September..ironically the past 2 weeks its been much better for the first time....but that doesn't mean that its gone/going away as its happened before..the scan itself was pretty horrible...30 mins in the scanner with my head fixed into a cage to stop any movement...the noise in there is horrendous but its got to be done! I'm still convinced that it was one of the drugs prescribed by the Dr last Sept, but we will see what the scan says...On the way back  from the hospital me and my daughter Becki stopped by Queenswood Country park to see the bluebells again.They are open properly now and are a real treat to see....

Becki baby is due in 2 weeks time but her bump had dropped noticeably this morning so maybe we will see the new baby before then...

Blooming!

My bathroom smells beautiful....mum has had some beautiful matinee coats knitted for the new baby, so I have rinsed them out in Comfort Pure ready for the new baby....no pink or blue coats as they haven't found out what sex it is.....they will find out when its born....I cant wait !        Im going to be with Becki when the baby is born  along with her partner Wayne and I'm looking forward to it so much...and also looking forward to buying pink or blue baby clothes too-much as I love white,lemon and pale green on little ones!

What A Day !!!!!

Bev has been to quite a few workshops in the past--but when she knew her cousin Marianne was coming to stay she booked them both onto the Mystical Moon class today.She didn't say a word to Marianne until they walked through the door--shock,scared and dis-belief all showed in her face when Bev broke the news! But she was a great student who did what I had shown in my demonstration of each part of the painting....Bryan was also a first timer as well--he had seen me on the market and checked out the website. Chris has been once before--we met her after I did a demo for her WI in Wales.

We had lots of laughs in class as usual--the moon caused a lot of them....its a very hard thing to do--paint a circle--and the moons usually get bigger and bigger as they try and correct it... but today's were not to bad...and they didn't grow huge as they can sometimes! We had fun deciding which finish they were going to have on the moon and we all decided to use the opalescence one which catches the light beautifully.

Bryan decided to use the blue paint with just a hint of mauve as well-while all of the rest of us did the grey version.

Marianne adding her special effect paint to her moon.

Bev finishing off her moon....my batteries were failing fast at this point so I didn't get anymore photos until we had finished  as I was worried I wouldn't have enough to take the end results!

the photo really doesn't do the paintings justice.....they were all stunning.well done everyone!

we had a very early start today--I had the chance of a market stall at last minute, so Bill said he  could manage that on his own while I did the workshop by myself! So that's what happened....I helped Bill set up early this morning and then joined Bill at 3pm after finishing the workshop and clearing off home to get changed into something smarter than my painting clothes! Many thanks to Bev and Marianne for helping me clear the room and load the car after the class-it was a great help! Bill had been quite busy and sold some of the small paintings ,greetings cards etc and I think he was trying to tell me he was knackered -when Paula who sells scarfs and wraps parked her car ready to load Bill jumped in the back for a quick lie down!

We arrived home at 6pm -Bill opened the front room door to say hello to the birds--and I heard him shout--"Wheres Jake--his cage is wide open" I almost had a heart attack...and feared that he had been pinched! Then we heard a little voice from down the bottom of the room "You What" "come on" and there was Jake on the display cabinet!  He must have been out all day--I gave them both a grape at 6.45 am and couldn't have closed the cage properly. Judging by the little piles of poops on the carpet he had sat on the cage door for a while before going walk-about! It makes me go cold thinking about what could have happened...all he has done all night is call Sparky cat---if Sparky had come in to the room while he was out I'm not sure what would have happened...and if Jake had flown onto Paddy's cage he could have had his toes bitten off.I had also left the front door open when i got back from the class-while I fetched the boxes out of the car and went and got changed...didn't check on the birds just shouted hello to them while running round like a blue arsed fly to get ready to go down to Bill.He could easily have got outside.....I will be more careful in future that's for sure!We are on the Food Festival again tomorrow--this time in our gazebo outside the college..hopefully the weather wont be too bad....

Jake is one lucky little parrot!

More From Jake

There is never a dull moment in our house --Jake our african grey makes sure of that! I still have to balance the phone to record on top of the fishtank and leave him to get on with it...he has us crying with laughter bless him! Enjoy!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LvyCbeKCCE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mknZ6F_s7r8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt_PxMD5XaU

Three Years Today----Our Jake!

Its 3 years today since Jake joined our family--in that time he has bought so much enjoyment and happiness you wouldn't believe.He is so happy bless him-from the moment the cover is taken off his cage in the morning until he is covered up for bed he is chattering away and never fails to amaze us with his understanding of our human language! He now has his own facebook page and numerous videos of him on Youtube   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=400L0u-STQs! His latest new word at the moment is Tickle Tickle so he is saying that  lot-- along with calling the cat and singing bits of Twinkle Twinkle little star. and Half a pound of Tuppeny rice! He doent say 2 when he is counting though my sister thinks he may have said it when she looked after him! His favorite game at the moment is to get beakfuls of food and throw it out of his cage-usualy over poor Bill who sits on the sofas by the cage-while he is throwing it he is shouting "stop it you naughty boy" which of course makes us laugh which makes him worse! The wild birds do well out of it though as it gets swept up and thrown out for them! Our other parrot Paddy still dosent talk bless him-we have had him 8 years now so dont think he is going to now.but Jake more than makes up for him!Each day we end up creased at things Jake comes out with--as I type away upstairs I can hear him shouting my Mum -Hazel and nephews Rhys and Charlie--and laughing hystericaly-very hard to concentrate!

Jake the nutty parrot!

There is never a dull moment in our house with Jake our african grey parrot.He is still just a baby at 4 years old but talks really well! He spent a few days at my sisters home last week while we  were away and he has come home with a new favorite word-----potato!
Keith lemon says it on his show--and the kids must have said it to Jake---he has had us in stitches here--Ive recorded him on my phone and put it on youtube---http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHAAbr54kiU
He is coming out with all sorts on here--shouting Rhys and charlie-my nephews among other things-including potato lots of times!

Coincidence!

We bought a new TV recently and I put the old one on Freecycle as there was nothing wrong with it really.
It was snapped up  by a lady who lived in Ludlow--in fact she came from the small street where we had bought it from a few years ago--we bought it from a lady who had 2 parrots--at either end of her sofa-at the time we didn't have any parrots--but we ended up with 2 of them and they ended up at either end of the sofa as well!
That is a bit of a coincidence isn't it?

Button Oak Art Club

Im off to do a demo tomorrow for Button Oak art club--Im really looking forward to it--I will paint 2 paintings while there as usual-- and explain why Im doing what--
I think I will paint a Winter Wonderland insead of the waterfall one tomorrow for a change!
On the way home we will call and collect PIP my daughters african grey parrot--we are looking after here while she is on holiday--her pet/house sitter isnt used to parrots so is going to look after the cat and house and leave Pip to us! Looking forward to it--though the house is going to feel very small with 3 huge cages in our front room!

Two Years Today

I cant believe that its 2 years today since we had our Jake.
We have had such fun with him.
The house is always filled with laughter as the little monster copies and makes things up all day long!
We have been entertained for the past couple of days with Jake singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, laughing like the pet sitter Jeannie, making sounds like playing the drums that our friend Phil has taught him and making farting noises ( don't know where hes got that from!)
As soon as he gets a reaction from us he remembers and keeps doing it-sometimes he changes a bit-but it always makes sense.
They are complex creatures-African greys- they defiantly cant be called bird brain at all !
Jake also has the most incredible hearing-I can pick up the phone in the kitchen and start to dial the number and he is shouting "Hello" "Hello".And as soon as Bill mentions going into town he says "Bye-see you later"
Its so funny when one of us comes into the front room first thing in the morning to uncover the birds and open the curtains you hear a little voice say "Who's come?"
When he spots Sparky cat outside the patio window he shouts "come on Sparky, come on , quick quick" Poor Sparky has got used to it now but at first you could see the puzzlement on his face when he realised the bird was calling him!
Jake copies all the wild birds songs-and when he is outside on the patio he starts coo cooing like the doves when they land on the birdtable.
Our other bird Paddy who is an Orange tipped amazon dosent talk as such but he does respond back to us using the same noises-sometimes it sounds likes he is trying to talk but he will never be a as good a talker as our Jake.We dont love him any less though!

Bevs Painting day

Ive spent a lovely few hours with one of my students Bev. Bev has been to a few classes with me now and has carried on painting at home as well--even going on to teach her son Tim (who has been to 2 classes) a few new paintings.
Bev wanted some advice on how best to tackle a painting she wanted to paint from a photograph of one of her favorite places Lake Vyrnwy.
She bought along the photos today and we discussed the pros and cons of different methods-
in the end she did some under painting with black acrylic paint and used oils on the top.
It didn't take long before the picture took shape.
She made a beautiful job of blending the paint on the hills-she captured the light and shadows easily.
The dark trees came about after using a 'bashing' brush to create texture and she used a small brush to add detail.
It was a first for me today as I opted not to actually paint a canvas myself--I didn't feel there was any need for me to do so--I knew Bev knew all the strokes we used in class-and really only needed a bit of back up of her own confidence as much as tuition.

She made most of the decisions herself and needed little prompting from me.
The water tower in the lake was properly the hardest part of the pic,and that turned out ok after a bit of careful blending and darkening of the shadows.
After she had finished I showed her the wonders of encaustic art--she loved it! As do most people who have a go at it!
She couldn't believe how quickly it came together.
When she had a go she soon created an undersea scene complete with moray eel peeping out of the seaweed.