Birch Tree Workshop

We had a brilliant time last Saturday painting the Birches..12 lovely ladies and 9 year old George!

First time for Charlotte and 9 year old George-- they came along with Sarah who has been quite a few times now--Charlotte is Sarah's sister and George is their nephew. Both did really well with the painting , and  George was also great help to me and Bill, taking out the brushes, kitchen towel etc and generally being a good boy! Lovely bright,vibrant colours from George, while Charlotte chose the soft sage green and cream---a lovely restful combination..They all had a lovely time and were very pleased with what they achieved in the workshop..

Chris and Pat have also been quite a few times before and have done different sizes and colours this time--- there is so much choice in this subject--there is something to suit everyone! Chris used silver paint on her trees, which catches the light beautifully but does not show up in the photos!

Pauline ,Annette and Cathy have all been before--wonderful results from them all...

Liz and Margaret have been once before but did oils last time...both loved the acrylics and used them well to create these monochrome paintings!

Teresa, Caroline and Caron with their beautiful results! First time for Caroline who couldn't believe how easy it was to do and has booked up to come and paint Serenity soon.. I love teaching this workshop--I can watch the confidence grow as we go through each small step..and the masterpiece happens before their very eyes...well done everyone and I will look forward to seeing you all again!

Grasses Workshop

Only Judy on the left had painted before--and just once with me..everyone else were first timers... as to be expected there were quite a few nerves going on and pretty much everyone thought they wouldnt be able to do it!  This painting is one that does not quite come together until almost at the end...so getting everyone convinced it will be fine can be quite demanding for me LOL...Vivien on the right is in England on holiday from New Zealand and she had a lovely photo on her phone of a sunset where she lived and asked if she could use those colours..as you can see it worked out beautifully,,We used a narrow edge canvas  that will fit in her suitcase to take back, and gave her plenty of bubblewrap to protect it...We added some diaisies as well as poppies . Kate who had also travelled a long way from Northamptonshire  to paint, used some of Viviens blue paint to add some poppies...They looked stunning--the colour worked very well.  All in all, some stunning results from everyone..I have in stock small bottles of varnish so students can add the finishing touch to their paintings after a couple of days.Im sure they will all get brilliant feedback when they got their paintings back home,,,and hopefully we will see them again in the future!

Winter Wonderland Workshop

Winter Wonderland is one of the hardest subjects I teach..lots of different element's to it..but everyone was up to the challenge yesterday! Great fun working in oils on a black canvas. 5 of the ladies were first timers, though you wouldn't know it to see the end results ..will look forward to seeing the ladies again soon!

Louiza on the left came along with her mum Sue on the far right for the first time..Pat and Chris have been a few times before..

Summer Day Workshop Feb 21st

First of all apologies to the 15 ladies who came to last weeks workshop-the photos are only just going on tonight--I have not been very well since the workshop--coughing and spluttering..and then managed I to fall down the stairs on Thursday night and hurt my foot quite badly...Thankfully it was a very small group this Saturday due to some students having last minute things come up,,so not much walking involved -although I had to do the workshop in my slippers!  Anyway--the Summer Day workshop went really well--with ladies from all over the country attending-they came from far and wide! Ive managed to misplace my list of names of everyone as well...we had lots of first timers-though you would never know from looking at the results at all...

Some of the ladies wanted to do other flowers instead of poppies and sea thrift was the flower of choice--it worked very, very well , much softer end result..

Beautiful results ladies--well done all of you!

Denise on the left travelled from Bath and Pamela lives very near the venue--  both first timers--Pamela was very nervous bless her--but she enjoyed it so much she booked another workshop for her and her daughter the next day!

I hope Ive got this right !--Ro on the left was painting with me for the first time...Sarah and Kari have been several times!

Beautiful pics from The Gigglers--

Fantastic pics first time..well done girls!

Dru has been once before and Julie came along with her for the first time--love the sea thrift..

Feb 7th Workshop ''Poppies and Daisies''

We had a small workshop on Saturday so we used the small room at St Peters Church, lovely cosy room, just big enough to fit 6 students in ! We started off in this room 11 years ago..It was lovely to see Helen again!

It looks quite a simple subject matter but its amazing at how different the results can be! It can be quite hard to be random when painting the grasses, and at first Sarah thought hers were a bit to the same--she mixed a little Payne's grey with some of the greens and it made a huge difference! Sarah is coming on in leaps and bounds each time she comes..confidence grows every time..

Paul came along for the 3rd time with his sister Elaine..I loved his more formal arrangement of the grasses---it worked really well ..

Cathy was with us for the 4th time--having first met us while on a trip from London a few years ago! She made the trip from London to do her first painting but has since moved nearby so has been able to attend 3 more workshops since!

Elaine adding her daisies here...its quite a 'free' type of painting that works whatever flowers you decide to put in--students learned to do poppies,daisies and cornflowers..then we had fun doing dragonflies,snails and ladybirds!

When we were finished, everyone went into the church to have a quick look--to say it was cold in there was an understatement--so it was a very ,very quick look at the beautiful blue  dome ceiling and the stained  glass window !

Its a beautiful building!

Finished results--well done everyone!

Happy , Healthy 2015

Well its that time of year again--does not seem 5 mins since I was doing this for 2014..a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then.....We have met more lovely people than ever--and welcomed them into the world of painting...old friends have been back to paint more paintings, and we  have had so much pleasure from seeing the nervous ,convinced they cant ever paint , grow in self confidence and huge smiles adorn their faces in just a few hours when they see their paintings develop. We  will never tire of that happening I can assure you!    2014 was our busiest year to date with this years diary already filling up.I will adding more dates over the next week or so..

It does not start to even feel like Christmas until the Santa's and snowmen come out and the tree goes up....this year we have a huge 7ft tree that fills one end of the room! Its a beauty and even better its a £170 tree reduced to £30 and then bought using £15 worth of Tesco vouchers that were doubled up! So a free tree really! I love a bargain!

I had an Ipad off  Bill as well as loads of other things--have not had time to set it all up yet,,,

This little munchkin has been a blessing this Christmas, Cant believe he is coming 3 years old..he loved his Peppa Pig train and other stuff he had off Nanny Di

Not a great photo---but Bill loved his main pressie off me-- I commissioned a model of our Sparky cat from a very talented lady I met on the craft market in Ludlow.She worked from photos I sent her, and did him begging as he always did--complete with his one fang showing  and the nick in his ear..He came complete with a black rabbit as he always caught the black bunnies and bought them home from the field behind the house!

Table set for dinner....

I love this photo of Tommy and his Daddy taken on Christmas day...the look on that little face says it all I think!  Loved to bits

Dinner cooked by Bill was delish as usual...

The Christmas Elf!

A lesson to be learned here---do not make the custard for the custard for the boxing day trifle when you have had too much to drink! It was solid next day lol-- a slice of custard on the trifle wouldn't have been right!

Usually the star of Christmas food is the turkey--however this year it was this beautiful whole leg of ham..

It was really lovely--and there was so much meat on there-- a bit like parma ham--Bill soon had the knack of cutting it wafer thin! I tried it dry fried yesterday and it was really scrummy xx

We had al the family around on Boxing day...did far too much food as usual !

The ham seemed to get more tasty the more we cut off it!!

Now this pressie from my friend made us laugh a bit....but is also very apt.....while I have been making light of things-this Christmas has had a very sad side..my lovely son Jim has been poorly for a while now on and off... well 2 weeks before Christmas he had blood tests and its all been happening very quickly from there... We  have been told he will be needing some chemotherapy.....its been a bit manic with trips to Shrewsbury Hospital to see the lovely specialist Dr O'Connor who is the very best in his field...bone marrow tests, an op on Christmas Eve to remove Lymph nodes from his neck, and now awaiting a special scan at Stoke On Trent next Tuesday.. We will see Dr O'Connor on Monday for an update..and possibly he will start his treatment too... Trust my Jim to be different--specialist thinks he has Hodgkin's Lymphoma and also he has a very very rare condition that has actually started to go into remission on its own which he has never seen before called haemophagocytic syndrome...but Jim has been feeling loads better the past 10 days or so and his latest results at the hospital show its nearly gone away..which is great news! So hopefully he will start his chemo on Monday and we will go from there...
So on that note we will wish all friends, family, students and students to be a very Happy, Healthy, 2015..

"Yesterday" Workshop

Caron came down from Shrewsbury by train and I picked her up from the station--all part of the Painting My Way service! She wanted to do the blues and purples theme..first time for her painting with me though she has been to some classes elsewhere..She loved the techniques I showed her and cant wait to come again...

Phillip and his wife Pauline met me at Onslow Park Steam Rally in August..neither have ever painted before and were a little dubious as to if they could produce anything any good--as you can see Phillip got off to a great start using the browns and creams..A wonderful stormy sky is developing here...

I have to say I just loved the colours in Pauline's painting.bright and vibrant-she used the brush well and blended the colours well- you would never know she had never painted before would you?

Drying the bottoms of their paintings before the next stage..

nearly done...

Loved Sarah's painting--right from the start it took on a cold icy feel--and everyone thought it reminded them of Iceland! We saw glaciers,and the water lapping around the base of them! The moon in the finished painting peeping out around the cloud lit everything up--just beautiful!

hard at it...just adding the grasses and bunnies here..

Phillip made a great job of his painting-as did all 4 first time students--who would ever know they had not done this before?

Pauline is doing the scary bit--adding the tree!

How cute is Caron's bunny with his heart shaped tail?

Because we thought that Sarah's painting resembled Iceland she didn't really want to add a tree to her painting as there are not any trees in Iceland really--so Bill found her a small canvas in the van so she could have a go at painting a tree..

Beautiful results everyone--and thank you to Phillip and Pauline for giving Caron a lift home--turned out they lived just around the corner from each other!

Brilliant results Phillip and Pauline--

Well done ladies--beautiful paintings! Look forward to meeting you all again x

Please take a look at t My workshops coming up