Poppy Field Workshop June 18th

Izzy was pretty nervous to start with---

Adam who came to the workshop with Izzy didn't seem nervous at all--

We met Christine on Wednesday night at the demo in Wales---she has never painted before-but soon settled down and enjoyed the experience!

Julie was another lady from the demo the other night--she has painted before and showed me some lovely photos of paintings she has done at home---she has never tryed my technique before though and really enjoyed it--

Margarita came to class last week for the first time and used acrylics---she loved using the oils this week---

Steven soon got the hang of the brushes and paint today---we met Steve when we stayed at The Barons Court Hotel in Wolverhampton last year..

poppies are going in....this is the chance to really express yourself!

we added daisies and cornflowers as well as poppies--

looking great Julie

Izzys painting was quite delicate in the end..

Adams was quite bold with his colours...

I loved Stevens big bold poppies--

What lovely results.....everyone wants to come back-so we will look forward to seeing them again!

Summer Day June 4th

I have a few places left in next Saturdays workshop-due to unforeseen circumstances! Summer Day is a lovely painting to do--you will use oils and a variety of different brushes and a knife to create this lovely tranquil scene.Its suitable for all ages and abilities even first time students..I will show you step by step how to load each brush and how to apply it to the canvas.I will also show you what not to do ...so I can show you how to correct it if you do make a little mistake!If you would like to join me in this workshop the cost is just £35 including all materials,tea,coffee and biscuits.Everything is supplied including aprons-all you need to bring is the ability to stay awake for 4 hours and a sense of humour! Have a look at the website to see the results of all the previous classes you can book online or give me a ring details are on my website.   www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Market

We were up at 6.30am this morning to go down and set up at the market for the green and craft fair--Maureen whose daughter had a stall there came along to say hello-Maureen has been to 7 workshops. I was doing an encaustic demo and Maureen just loved it--she ended up having a go--and bought the last encaustic set I had left. Im sure we will be seeing some of her new encaustic art work when she comes to class next Saturday!

The lull before the storm--it was hectic all day on the market---loads of interest in the workshops-I must get on and do some more dates for them soon.One of my ''must do's''  for this week. I will try and sort out the dates up til September!

I always paint while there--and this little 8in x 10in oil painting was soon done.A passing lady spotted it and fell in love with it-and even though she knew it was wet she had to have it! So Bill disappeared into the back of the van and came out with a cardboard  box to put it in so they could get it home safely!

we went to my brothers and his family for a BBQ after getting packed up.We had a lovely time there--here are my lovely daughter Becki and her partner Wayne enjoying a beer and the sunshine!

this little chap was busy catching a huge worm while we were eating--must have some babies nearby! All in all a lovely -if long day! Tomorrow we are off to Tenbury Boot Sale--its always a good one, then we will be seeing our youngest little grandson Ollie-so another good day in store for us!

Dear Dad

I cant believe its been nearly 6 years since my dear Dad passed away--it would have been his 76 th birthday today...and his presence has been felt all day in one way or another...one of his favorite things was to call by the market and have a chat to us--and his name was brought up more than once today when we were up there.We had an exceptionally good day as well today--I like to think that Dad had a hand in that as well!

Ollie

I cant believe how our little Ollie is growing--he is a happy little chap-always smiling and chuckling. 

He is  real little darling x

First Market This Year!

We had the first market of the year yesterday--it wasn't to cold when we went up there at 7.30am--but colder and windier as the day went on! As a lot of traders had not turned up due to the town being cut off almost due to another bridge into town being closed cos it started to fall down, and the High Street being closed off as well due to Costa Coffee almost falling down as well and needing scaffolding round it for a month! So we were able to spread out over 3 stalls as did a lot of the other traders as well---looks better if the market s full!

I took along a mix of old and new work to display..

The sun was shining lovely most of the day--and there were more folk about than we expected to see---and the ones we saw all seemed interested in learning how to paint!

I was able to put a lot of the small oils out on their own on one of the stalls..

got some of the older stuff out--framed oils that I did years ago---they seem to be popular though!

I demonstrated this one-a 8in x 10in canvas--its more dusky lilac than the grey it appears in the photo---

lovely sunset to finish the day off when we got home!We are up there again a week next Sunday-and will be starting back every Wednesday the first Wednesday in April.

Hollie and Lucie

After a busy day in class yesterday we had the grandchildren decend upon us--It was Callums 4the birthday on Friday so he came round for his pressies--and we didnt see Hollie and Lucie over Christmas as they had been in Florida over the holidays-so their Christmas pressies are still here.So they came down from Sunderland yesterday for a visit.

Callum

Hollie can throw a strop when she wants to--this is her grumpy face!

One grubby ittle Lucie before her bath!

Hollie posing for the camera!

Yummy !

Lovely to see them having fun togther!

the warm bath with lavender oils works wonders---out for the count by 8.30pm and slept all night!

Out for the count!

April 16th "Forest Pool"

We are painting Forest Pool on April 16th--you will use oils on a black canvas and a variety of brushes and techniques--
for more details check out the website www.paintingmyway.co.uk

April 23rd "Birch Trees" acrylic

We are painting "Birch Trees" on April 23rd--you will use acrylics and a variety of brushes and techniques--
you will have a choice of canvas size and colour--and the painting will be dry to take home...
for more details check out the website www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Someones In For A Suprise......

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow--Ive got a lady coming to paint-who doesn't know she is coming to paint!
Ali has brought many unsuspecting friends to me in the past few years--she doesn't do birthday and Christmas pressies-instead she surprises them with a painting one to one!
They have no idea where she is taking them-they are just told to wear old clothes.
The looks on their faces when they walk in and see the easel , paint and canvas is wonderful--then the fear kicks in and they all say "but I cant paint" that's when the photograph albums and comments book come in handy --they can see the results others have achieved straight away and calm down a bit!
Then as soon as we start painting in the small step by steps they relax and enjoy it.

I cant get to much prepared before hand because I don't know what sort of painting she will want to do--so just the brushes will be ready for her.
We can have a cuppa while I get the paint out and canvas prepared.
Bill is going to move the van off the drive in the morning so she doesn't click when they pull up and spoil the surprise!
I will put the photos on here tomorrow.

Hadnall Art Club-"The Friday Painters"

                                                                                                    We had an early start today-away from    home before 8am in order to get to Hadnall "Friday Painters" to do the workshop. Only one of the members had tried oils before -and she had not tryed the wet on wet method. Some of the members have got Parkinsons Disease which makes life difficult to say the least-however we had loads of laughs right from the word go-- the "Painting My Way" unique names for the brushes made life easier for everyone--when we use the bashing brush-everyone knew what we would do with it--the same with the tickling brush --it seemed within no time we had some  beautiful paintings happening.......the knife work didn't seem to faze anyone-we had some fantastic waves in no time at all! Everyone was amazed at how easy it was-its very forgiving medium--any small mistakes were quickly and easily rectified-either with bashing or tickling!

As always it was very interesting to see just how different everyones paintings were---some chose to do just grasses and not poppies--but all of the paintings were just beautiful--- you can see their website www.fridaypainters.com 
We had quite a lot of brushes to clean ready for tomorrows workshop of Summer Day.....still waiting for Bill to invent the perfect brush cleaning machine!