Serenity In Green-Jan 31st---FULL

This class is now full--I will be doing it again at a later date in the year-watch this space!

Craft Market Dec 14th

We have the last of the craft markets this Sunday. Im really looking forward to it--we shall have come Christmas lights to decorate the stall and the atmosphere will no doubt be bright and cheery!
Then it will all be packed away until spring time-We may need to have some new stands built if the council live up to its promise of new stalls, so Bill will be kept busy in the shed if thats the case!

Going to Geneva!

Another painting is on its way to Geneva on Monday!

The lady wanted to buy a version of The Birch Tree's painting that was on the www.affordablebritishart.co.uk website. Unfortunately I found that it was the painting I had donated to the British Heart Foundation for their charity auction! I had forgotten to update the website!
However I had this version of it at home and she was happy to have that one.
It will be well packaged for its journey-and should be with Elena midweek or so.

Affordable British Art is a fantastic website--run by my dear friend Ros.
It has gone from strength to strength since she started up and she has some brilliant artists on there-including one of my students Sharleen!

Class of Nov 8th -Stormy Skies

We had a lovely time in class today-there were only 4 of us so it was quite cosy!
Bev on the left of the photo was doing her 3rd painting while Chris and Pauline have been lots of time before!

It was amazing to see just how different each painting was created-as you can see from the photos-right from the start when they did their skies, everyone interpreted what I had shown them differently to each other
.Chris put a volcano in his painting-it doesnt show up to well on the photo but looks great in real life! (By the way Pauline and Chris-let us know what your night out was like! :) )

As usual there were some nerves about using the knife to do the waves-Bev amazed us all by using it as if she had used one for years-when in fact she had only used it once before!
Chris is quite easy on when using it and Pauline is still a bit nervous of it, but quickly got into it!
Everyone is different and some people find things easier than others to do-that is just human nature-if we were all the same it would be a boring old world!

We had lots of laughs as usual throughout the day over different things, and they will all be meeting up again in Dec for the Mellow Moods painting.

latest classes up-dates--Cat In A Tree-Nov 15th

I have 4 places left in this new class.

Using acrylic paint means this painting will be dry for you take home!

A simple but effective painting-suitable for all abilities even first time painters!

If you would like to join this class please get in touch via the website.

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

latest class updates--Winter Wonderland- Oct 18th

I have the ladies of Sundorne Wi coming from Shrewsbury on Oct 18th to paint Winter Wonderland.

Joining them is Carole who is one of my long standing students.
Carole has painted all of the class subjects except for this one.
She currently has an exhibition of her work in the window of the Leominster Information Centre-its lovely to see just how she has developed her own style.

She called by the class yesterday and admitted to having withdrawal symptoms -its ages since she came to a class-though we keep in regular contact via the phone!

So that leaves just one place for this class.
This is just one version of the finished result-we put fences and all sorts of extras in on the day.
Its suitable for first time students as well as more experienced ones.
Please contact me via my website www.paintingmyway.co.uk
if you would like to join us in this class.

Class Of Sept 27th

At last Ive managed to get yesterdays class on here! What a weekend we've had! Straight after yesterdays class we had to go to a family reunion, we didn't get back very early and had so much to do when we did get back! Brushes to clean and a car to load for a craft fair today!

We had a lovely time in class ---

everyone had travelled to get to us-no-one more than Vina and her daughter Tor who were up at 6am to travel from London to do the class!

Kath and Hilary -who we met at the Onslow Park Steam Rally last month came from Shrewsbury, Eileen came from Hereford and Mike came from Wolverhampton.

So they came from far and wide to be with us!

Amazingly everyone arrived on time from all their homes!

Everyone were first timers except for Mike----

Mike has been to a couple of other classes-but he emailed tonight to say that his family thought the painting he did with me was the best one, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again soon!

Tor had some great ideas of her own for her painting-right from the start-she wanted to know if she could add some turquoise colour to her sky-instead of just blue-of course I said yes-the idea of the classes is not to end up with a carbon copy of my painting-but to learn how to use the materials, and how to learn to develop your own style.

Nothing is set in stone-and hopefully I can advise you on any changes YOU would like to make to your painting to make it completely unique

Tors painting ended up very dramatic-with a lovely old twisted tree coming in from the left hand side.

The painting that I show you is just a guide-its always very interesting to see how quickly people learn to add things to their painting -all their own ideas, sometimes with a little help from other students too!!!

.I love to watch people develop as the time goes on-and it happens so quickly too.

Kath wanted to put a pathway down to her beach, with grasses and poppies growing alongside it.

I didnt realise til the end, when she showed me, that Mike had suggested to her to put a little gate at the bottom of the path-it worked really well!

Vina's husband came to pick her and Tor up and he was gobsmacked at their results-he really couldn't believe they had achieved the results in just 4 hours!

I woke during the night feeling ill-there is a sickness bug going around the area and it looks like Ive picked it up.

I was in two minds as to whether we did the craft market today or not-I felt lousy when the alarm went off at 6am this morning.

But after a hot shower I felt a little better, and we got on with loading the paintings into the car.

We had quite a busy day--I wasn't up to normal speed, but did my best.! Haven't felt right since I got up this morning and am looking forward to not getting up early tomorrow.

Lots of interest in the classes-will update the places left and the new classes tomorrow all being well.

The commissioned paintings were picked up from my stall as arranged , and Karen loved the Poppy Delight one--she hadn't seen any recent pics of it--trusting me to get it right!

I had a guide of the colours she wanted in it-but after the bare beginning-she hadnt any idea of what it looked like!

I signed it on the side and Bill strung it so it can be hung any way she fancies.

The Trio Of Sunflowers can only be hung the way intended because of the stalks!

Its late now so will update the new classes tomorrow.

A quick break!!

Having a quick 5 mins away from the hustle and bustle of the christmas preperations .

We have been busy all day, making the Christmas quiches , stuffings and are now making brandy snaps for the first time-the smell in our house is delicious!!!!!

We popped out to the shops this afternoon and picked up all the last minute things, salad and stuff so we should not need to go out tomorrow and can take things easy!!

We have cracked open a bottle of bubbly stuff and are now in the festive mood-just tryed one of the brandy snaps and dont think they will last till Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!
So if I dont get back on here-which I probley wont-Bills insisting on having a computer free Christmas, so have a
very very merry christmas and a happy new year from Diane and Bill xx

Rachaels Poppy Quartet

We waited with baited breath last night for Rachael to come from Wales to pick up her Poppy Quartet poppy painting.

Its really difficult to photograph red paintings and get a true colour.I have been emailing her each stage of her commission as I have painted it, but have never been completely happy with the image Ive sent--I have always had to say to her that the pic isnt as orange as it looks-its really dark red!!!---- ironic that a few minutes before she arrived last night, I took this pic of her painting and the colours came out as near as dam it!

Anyway she walked in with her friend and exclaimed "I love It"" brilliant , just what I wanted and you were right about the colour, its just what I wanted to match my kitchen!"

After some advice about how exactly to hang all 4 canvas ,we had a lift off them up to The Squirrel pub, next to the travel lodge where they were staying.

Its only just up the road from us-real handy for the classes , but it was freezing really hard and didnt want to drive so we could relax and have a drink!!!!

This painting along with all my others is logged with http://www.protectmywork.com/

Getting Ready

We are off to Leominster tomorrow to take down the exhibition of students paintings.

It will be a quicker job than putting them up for sure.!

We have got some of the students coming to help pack everything away, and most people are collecting their paintings from there, so the car wont be as full as this coming home!!!!

We had Sharleens van to take them to Leominster as well as some in our car!

Its been pretty hectic here getting pressies to respective families, last minute shopping in Kidderminster yesterday-it was really quiet there, was able to get round the shops no trouble-it was lovely!!