Onslow Park Steam Rally

The time came round so quickly -it didn't seem a year since we were last there-
this year was much easier now we have Bunty Van !
The caravan had hardly any weight in it this year-usually its full of paintings and paints as well as the usual stuff we need in it!
We did look a bit like new age travellers towing behind Bunty!

We had our usual space in the marquee and were able to park next to it with the caravan.
We got everything set up on Saturday so we just had to go in and take off all the cloths and sheets covering it all for the start of the show on Sunday morning.
I always get my class subjects hung first and then see what space there is after to hang the other paintings.
I had loads of room to put out everything on the tables as well and sales of art materials/encaustic art went very well.

The weather didn't seem to bad at first then all of a sudden it went very warm and there was some huge gusts of wind -it felt like the whole marquee was going to come down on us--it really was scary.
Fortunately Bill always fastens the metal stands with cable ties to every post-so they cant move however much the canvas moves.
We heard after that we had a mini hurricane and it had blown a huge branch off one of the trees and onto some cars-writing them off completely. We watched it on the news that night-and it was front page news in the paper as well.
Luckily nobody was hurt-it could have been a lot worse.
The organisers had to go round bashing in all the pegs afterwards,as the huge gusts has moved them quite a bit. The weather was great after that, and it was heaving with people in there.
As I have an L shaped stall it means people can stand and watch/chat when I'm painting and not get in the way of everyone else's stalls!

A great time was had by us all--and big thanks to Ros who organised the event for the first time--she did a brilliant job of it-some great new ideas this year and more for next year as well.
We have the Bishops Castle Michaelmas fair next in September.

The Waterfall-this saturday

We are painting The waterfall this Saturday--we will be using a black canvas and working with oils.
Its a great picture to do , we use lots of different brushes to create it.
Its suitable for all ages and abilities-we have Katlin joining us again -she is just 9 years old an painted for the first time last week.

if you would like to join us please get in touch via the website
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

NEW VENUE FOR THIS SATURDAY

As of this Saturday we will be at our new venue Helena Lane Day Centre, off Hamlet Road , Ludlow, SY8 2NR.

Its a lovely room, lots of good light and parking right outside the door.
Looking forward to using this lovely new venue--for details on how to find it please get in touch-though its literaly just round the corner from our previous room!

NEW Encaustic Class--May 8th

When Ann brought her granddaughter Hannah to class today she also bought along her friend- we got chatting and they had a look at some of the encaustic bookmarks I had on display there.
They were all curious as to how they were created and want to come to a class and learn how to do it themselves.
I have set a date for this class on May 8th. I only have room for 8 students and 3 are booked already.
You will be painting 20 postcard sized paintings and one A4.
I will show you how to do landscapes and abstract pictures using the special iron and the coloured beeswax.
Its great fun to do and is very addictive.The effects you can get in seconds are quite amazing-the wax dries in seconds and can be re-worked as often as you want until you are happy with it.
all sorts of little creatures appear in the wax as if by magic and its great fun spotting them.
Please get in touch with me if you want to join us in this class via the website-Im sure th places will go quite quickly!
www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Poppy Fields Class

We had a smashing time in class today-some very different results from everyone.
Katlin was our youngest student at just 9 years old, while Hannah is 11.

Hannah
was painting her 4 th painting with me, she settled down quickly today and listened and watched me carefully.

Nancy was bought a gift voucher by her son for Christmas after she told him all about the classes-she had been at one of my WI demos last year.
Nacy has done watercolour for some time and found the looseness of the technique very different to watercolours. She wants to come and do the birch trees next!

Gwen and her daughter Julie live in our road and had never touched a brush before today-both were very nervous to say the least!

Lester was told about his surprise present last night before going to the pub--he arrived first in class today and made himself very useful helping to unload the car and getting set up.
He had never painted before and I think he surprised himself with his results.

Keith has been painting on and off for 50 years or so --he told us--dont think he had ever come across anything like the wet on wet technique before and slipped back into what he was used to doing a bit!
Its quite specific 'painting my way' with' bashing' brushes and' tickling' brushes so takes a bit of getting used to!

Katlin was a little star-she really seemed to find each stage easy--children do not have the fears that adults walk into the class with--they just accept that this is a tickling brush and this is a poppy brush etc -she was very bold with her grasses and poppies-and she had lots of confidence.
her parents were very pleased when they came to fetch her. She is booked into another 5 classes and we will see her next week for the Waterfall Class.

Birch Trees class April 25th

I have just one place left in the Birch Tree class on April 25th.
As you can see there is a variety of different ways of creating this painting-you have the choice of the monochrome, the sepia tones or if you are feeling adventurous the pop art style in bright colours of your choice!

Then there are the add ons-foxgloves or bluebells that can be added after using the melted wax.
We always get fantastic results using this method-take a look at the website to see some more of the results.
www.paintingmyway.co.uk