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!

Reeds In Breeze Workshop

First time for Lorretta,,,

Audrey was also a first timer..

Joy was with us for the 4th  time...she bought along her friend Margaret ..

Margaret seemed to find it pretty easy-and no signs of nerves!

Sue was painting for the first time-she came along with her friend Viv who has been 3 times before--

I love the brown and ochre shades,,,a really natural look!

We had a real family affair here--Elaine bought along her 2 daughters and her granddaughter to paint..Elaine had been just once before--

daughter Jessica was painting for the 1st time-though you would never know it to see her painting..

12 year old Amy made a beautiful job of her painting..

And WOW--Rachel's grey version was just stunning... 2 nd time painting--I think everyone was chuffed to bits with their pictures..we had amazing results from them all...

Well Done everyone!

Beautiful Paintings ladies!

Beautiful!

Fantastic pictures--well done!

Glass Fusion Workshop

Me and my Bill spent a very enjoyable afternoon in Leominster at http://www.exemplar-glass.co.uk/#/classes/4556882167  it was an early birthday pressie for Bill and it made a lovely change for me to be on the other side of instruction! I was a bit nervous to say the least but the lovely Jane who runs the workshops soon put us at ease with a lovely cup of coffee and shortbread's. She explained all the different techniques and things that can be done with glass and the photo above shows some of them...

first thing we did was some glass cutting...not as easy as it looks! I tyred a basic little tree to start with....

This is Bills--we had to cut the glass then stick it back onto another piece leaving a small gap so we could fill it with a glass powder to fill in the gaps.....when its fired in the kiln it will change colour..

LOL I struggled to get my glass stuck onto the base glass--couldn't get it very even at all...so I used a stencil to add leaves on top....not a brilliant job but it was my first time!

the glass powder will change colour when its been fired--it may turn out a little bit abstract !

I wanted to do a version of my signature painting "Summer Day as my big piece..it was lovely picking out pieces of glass and arranging them onto a triptych of plain glass,,,,I cut out cloud shapes out of paper to mask them for the sky, then used the glass powder to put colour around them, then I used chunky pieces of turquoise ,blue glass and white  to create the sea, !

Bills pieces in the kiln ready for firing.....he was really creative and imaginative and found the whole session very relaxing....

I used some  glass crystals for the beach, and more chunky glass for the foliage in the foreground.There were some very thin strips of glass that made great grasses and a few red crystals of red made some poppies..the end result may be a bit abstract but I don't mind--it will be recognisable as a Summer Day picture with a bit of luck!

A closer look at the bottom of the picture....we cant wait for Jane to ring and say the pieces are ready to pick up...they will have to be fired and cooled down for a few days then we will pop over and collect them... for anyone wanting to do something different I would recommend Jane's workshops highly--it was great fun to do and the time just flew by so quickly it was unreal.....many thanks Jane xx

Snowmans Winter Wonderland

Way back in the summer I met a lovely chap called Trevor and his son Mark when on Ludlow market..we got chatting and Trevor asked if I could do a commission for him.     He explained that he collected Royal Doulton snowmen and every Christmas he set up a nativity scene with them and wanted a backdrop to put behind them...so I got out my oil paints and a 36in x 14in canvas and got cracking!      Trevor wanted Cotswold stone walls, a 5 bar gate, hills and a distant village, all in shades of blue ,black and white. I was pleased with the result and when Mark bought his Dad to collect it -he loved it but I couldn't quite imagine it in situ with the snowmen!    How chuffed was I tonight to open an email from Mark with the photo of it in situ with the snowmen...Trevor had promised me he would let me see what it looked like...I love it! Thank you both so much for letting me see it---Happy New Year to you both, and I will look forward to seeing you both on the market again in the spring when we are back!

Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

I would like to wish all my family, friends students and future students and very Merry Christmas and a Happy,Healthy New Year....lots to look forward to for me and Bill with our  new baby grandchild expected in May around Bills Birthday....some new shows to attend and new students to meet and teach to paint...an exciting year ahead....

Dotty Mae's Christening

Little Bella (Dotty's big sister) looks like she is wondering whats going on!

Dotty Mae

Beautiful cake

the balloons were wonderful

my lovely Becki was godmother again--

Becki and Dotty Mae--we had as lovely time at the christening of Dotty Mae--the pig roast at the Bowling Club afterwards was just great--pork,stuffing, apple sauce followed by chocolate lumpy bumpy and trifle--diet starts again tomorrow!

Busy Week Ahead

No peace for the wicked! I have a busy week ahead again--after the usual market on Wednesday we are heading for Alverly WI where we are doing a demo-we will be late back from there by the time we have packed up and driven home..but its quite a big WI and Im sure we will have a few of the ladies joining us for classes in the future after watching me paint 2 paintings from start to finish in my demo!
Then on Friday morning we are off to an art club at Hadnall nr Shrewsbury where the members will all be having a go at oil painting--looking forward to meeting them all...
On Saturday we are at Craven Arms Art Walk-doing 3 workshops--not sure how busy that will be-we will wait and see!

Then on Sunday we will be at the huge Food and Drink Festival outside Ludlow Collage in a big gazebo --its usualy busy but the weather forcast isnt great at the moment so we will see nearer the time--I wont risk my paintings getting spoiled by rain--

We are at Bishops Castle Michaelmas Fair the following weekend in a huge marquee--so it will be all go--Bunty Van is going in to have the sign writing done on the 16th September-so will be ready for the Michaelmas fair--so we have got to get her washed off by then!
So busy busy times ahead- got a couple of commissions to finish off before Bishops castle as well--

Busy Times!

We are starting back on the regular Wednesday market tomorrow. We have got everything ready for an early start. We have done a couple of Sunday ones which were quite busy , but are not expecting to be rushed off our feet on the Wednesday one just yet!
There may be some visitors still around though-you never know what the day will bring!
We will be packing up a bit earlier than usual because I have a demo to do tomorrow night in Telford for a ladies club. Its one of the biggest so far with 100 members--I'm sure it wont be much different to doing one in front of 30 !
I have spent an hour getting my bags ready--its surprising how many bags we get through with sales of cards etc when we do these events!
Ive also got my photograph album up to date with all the students photos--people love to see just what is achieved in the classes and it gives them the encouragement to join up for a class themselves when they can actualy see the the paintings done in class.
Ive got a full class on saturday and we are on the market again on Sunday, so a busy week for us.

2 places left in Grasses class

I have unexpectedly got two spaces for this Saturdays class because Liz and Vikki have both been called in to work at last minute.
Its a lovely painting to do and suitable for all ages and abilities--we are using a chunky canvas 12in x 24in and using acrylic so it will be dry for you to take home.
Price as always is just £35 including all materials and refreshments. Take a look at the link to see more details

www.art-galleries-online.co.uk/a1-gallery3.asp?roomID=1488&pictureID=12166

Our Last Day On Market

Well yesterday was our last day on the market--as it is now!
At the weekend the stalls are being take down and the new ones erected-we will be the first to try them out on Wednesday.
They are bigger with more overhang so the customers and us will be more protected from the elements.
We were able to spread out over to the next stall because Heather who is normally next to us was away.
We had a quite a busy day, the weather was better than forecast, though it was chilly than I first thought. We had the plastic sheets up at the back and side to protect us just in case of rain!
I sent Bill up home to pick up my tracksuit and I was soon snug as a bug.
We always have a laugh up there-you can see Paula , Chris and Jean on the photo! The cards have proven very popular and I'm in process of writing a list for Lin to print me a load more!

TODAYS CLASS-PERFECT EVENING

After a couple of last minute cancellations due to illness we were down to just 3 students today! Bill and Tony had been before , and today Tony had bought along his 10 year old grandson George.
The class went very well-George was very attentive and asked all the right questions about the method! The hairdryer came in handy to dry each stage of the painting before going on.
As expected we finished before time although we had several tea breaks,sit downs and chats during the class!
Bill and Tony will be receiving their artists badges next time they come (long service awards my Bill calls them!)
The painting were bright and vibrant in reds, oranges and yellow.The meatallic paint we used on the water works so well, as the light changes so does the painting.
We added a couple more trees to the right hand side of the painting today which worked really well.