Wednesday, November 21, 2007

E BAY

This was posted on ebay today, but has now been taken off--no sense of humour!!!!

Item number 290184203092
This was the listing... bidding was at £72! LOL
Here we have two CD-R's for auction. They are not blank, but seem to have some sort of database written to them. I found them in my local courier firm's sorting office, addressed to
"Her Majesties Audit Office - Child Benefits Section" and marked
"Sensitive HM Government Information - DO NOT LOSE - ENSURE THESE DISKS DO NOT FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE CRIMINAL FRATERNITY"
They were obviously surplus to requirements.
I haven't read the data myself. The database appears to have approximately 25 milion records in it, but is password protected, so it is impossible to read it and it's definitely impossible to extract any bank account data from it.
Any information that you might discover (should you be lucky enough to win the auction for these useful items and read the database thereon) must be kept in the strictest confidence.
0.99p start and no reserve, so grab yourself a bargain. All profit from these items will be donated to Sue Ryder Care.
Cash on collection ONLY please from Portsmouth PO8, since we wouldn't want these to get lost in the post!
PLEASE NOTE: Government departments should contact me by email before bidding, since they will have to be vetted for competence before entrusting such items to them

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY JIM!!!!!!!!!!!!









I cant believe my son Jim is 30 today.

As usual I had some problems for him to sort out on the lap top!!!


He called round last night with his girlfriend Kerry and then my daughter Beckie and her boyfriend Wayne called by too, so it was great to have everyone together and have a chat!

Paddy loved it cos he could terrorise poor Beckie who's scared of him!!
ON A SADDER NOTE------
Today we had another funeral to attend, this time at Hereford crematorium-funny until Rita's cremation just over a week ago I had never been to a cremation, now Ive been to 2 in less than 2 weeks.
Fred the husband of my old friend Gladys passed away suddenly last week, so we went to say our goodbyes.
We called back via Leominster to drop off some posters and invites to the private viewing for Carole who has attended 10 painting sessions along with daughter Hayley.
We met her new puppy, a beautiful pattendale x jack russell puppy.
Sharleen- another of my students had given her some advice about training her and it had worked really well, she no longer nips at Caroles nose!!



Monday, November 19, 2007

Just to let you know!!!!!!!!!!

I know you would want to know this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!http://mysite.verizon.net/vze201j5/countdown.htmhttp://mysite.verizon.net/vze201j5/countdown.htm

Some Inspiration





Can you guess what these pictures are?
I took them all with the digital camera on the way home last night-they are all from car head lights and the snow!!
Its given me some ideas for some future paintings!
The snow was coming down so heavy at one time you couldnt see more than a few yards, we had to make a de-tour because of a fatal accident on our usual route.
we were glad to get home I can tell you!

Wyevale Garden Centre






















I have rarely had the chance to paint in such tropical surroundings as I did yesterday at Wyevale Garden Centre, Hereford.
We had lots of space down by Santa's grotto which will be opening on 24th Nov.
It was very busy there all day, although the weather was absolutely atrocious all day, very heavy rain which later turned to snow.
I sold Winter Wonderland which was very apt!
I have to paint another now because that is one of the class subjects and I need one to take along to the class for people to see what they will be painting!
I may not do the craft fair on thursday on Ludlow market-I will be watching the weather forcast very close on Wednesday.If it looks at all iffy I will stay at home.Its not worth getting cold and wet for if its going to be quiet.
I am in the College on Saturday and Sunday for the medieval fair-always a busy time in Ludlow.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Wyevale Garden Centre

We are going to get everything sorted now for tomorrows new venture at Wyevale Garden Centre.
We will be there all day , I will have all the painting subjects on display and some other extra ones as well.I will also be painting all day in oils and acrylics so people can see just what happens in our classes.
There will also be demonstrations in encaustic wax going on in between.
I am really looking forward to it, at least we will be in the warm and dry.
At the weekend its the 2 day Medieval Fair at Ludlow College--always a busy affair and a lovely venue with plenty of room for us to show off my paintings to their best!! The money raised is for the Air Ambulance so its a great cause to support.

St Laurences Church


I happened to have the camera in my bag as we went to Tescos after the class today, St Laurence's church was standing out beautifully against the dramatic sky behind it.
Almost certainly a future painting subject!

Waterfall class


We had a lovely relaxed class today.
Everyone had been before to my classes and some had met each other at previous classes.
We didn't get started painting right a way-as usual in the classes we all have to put the world to rights first-then Jan finished preparing the canvas with linseed oil for me while I checked that we all had the correct colours on the palette!
We had some beautiful waterfall's , each one different to the rest-its always amazing just how different they can be-just a little more pressure on the brush when putting in the waterfall can completely change the finished effect.
The sky's were very dramatic , some did not need a moon adding in at the end-they already looked like there was a moon behind the clouds!!!
Jan's and Jacks were really striking skies!
Everyone is getting excited about the forth coming exhibition--many thanks to Sharleen for offering to pick up Jan and bring her to the opening night-
I have ordered the extra frames that students want for their paintings and they will be ready for the exhibition.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Tomorrows Class


All of tomorrows students have been to me before, so have some knowledge of the techniques used to create this painting.
I'm looking forward to the class-waterfall paintings always turn out fantastically different from one another in class,as each student shapes his or her waterfall different from the next person!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Finished at Last!!!!!!




Now for some reason the colour has come out wrong on the 2 close up pictures. The correct colour is the finished 4 canvas but the close up pics will give you some idea of just how much detail is in each canvas.
There is at least 30 layers of paint on each canvas--it has been a long process creating the latest ''Poppy Quartet'' I have spent more than 2 days constantly painting on this project.
I have worked very differently to the previous 'poppy quartet' works.
This one has been created using very thick acrylic paint underneath and then using very thin paint as a glaze , building up layer upon layer of colour, the hair dryer has been used to create movement in the paint, which has been blended and allowed to run as well, making a very interesting background.
I have highlighted some of the most textured places with a special metallic dust that is intended for use with encaustic wax, the gold sheen really adds to the finished piece.
It is difficult working on 4 canvas at the same time, you have to keep checking to see that they are in line with one another, and its a case of on/off/on /off the easel to keep them all the same!
Then the centre of the poppy is created using melted wax using a special encaustic hot pen to melt it and place it in the right place.Then a final polish of soft tissue over the wax and its ready to be varnished tomorrow.It will have 3 coats of high quality artists varnish and it will be ready to go!!


Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Beautiful Day




We woke up to a beautiful sunrise this morning--more pictures for inspiring my students, shot out of the bedroom window-good job the neighbours were not around-if they had seen me hanging out of the window at 7:30 I dont know what they would have thought!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Work.







I spent most of yesterday working on my latest painting.
It went through several changes during the day!
It started out with more yellow than pink in it, then as each layer of acrylic paint dryed I added more and more shades of cerises and dark pink.
I added some texture with much thicker paint around the centre of the poppy, let it dry and then painted over it again with some thin glazes of acrylic paint.
You cant see it fom the photos but it has taken on a crinkled effect, just like the texture of a real poppy.
I stopped work on it at 10:30 pm last night after starting at lunchtime.
Each canvas is 20in x 16in so it is a dramatic piece.
I still have quite a bit of work to do to it. I can see better in the natural daylight where it needs some more thin glazes of colour putting in.Then when it is completey dry I will get the detail in the centre done with melted wax.This is a very time consuming bit of the painting too, I have to be very careful not to drip wax where I dont want it because once its on there I cant remove it.
I am very pleased with it so far,I decided to use this range of colours for a change-although I may do a the usual red version later.
I have logged each step of the painting onto www.protectmywork.com

Monday, November 12, 2007

Some More Pics For Jan!!!





























The latest sky pics were all taken traveling to and from Wellsbourne last week.Every picture was taken out of the car window as we were going along.When I got home and loaded the camera onto the computer I found that I had taken 222 pictures in just over a day,mainly of trees and skies!!!
They are all good for practising techniques, and Jan was going to have a go at skies before the next class, Ive certainly given some food for thought again!!!

Visit to Stratford







We had a lovely time looking around Stratford Upon Avon in the week. They were busy putting up the christmas lights in the streets, it looks like it will be a beautiful sight when they are lit up!
The giant teddy bear was just gorgeous,he was standing outside a teddy bear shop funnily enough!
We went for a nice stroll around the park next to the Royal Shakespeare Company and the young swans thought that Bill had some goodies in the bag for them--unfortunatly it was just some new painting materials!!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Christmas Pressies


I cant belive how long it has taken me to wrap up the Christmas pressies today.
It was a wet morning when we woke up so decided to give the boot sale a miss.
Then it was a toss up between the paper work or wrapping the christmas pressies!!!
No contest really-I hate paper work.But I will start it tomorrow.
Ive got all the dates to sort out for next year for the classes, have got my dates for some of the craft fairs sorted, and the talks and demos are done.
I am going to work on some new paintings this week ready for the students that have already got a few paintings under their belts and are ready for some new techniques.
I have to take out some more invites tomorrow for the private viewing and got a few people to chase up-looks like Im in for a busy week.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Todays Class -Sat 10th Nov




We had a lovely laid back class today- ''Mrs Subtle'' and Chris from Hadnall Wi came along with Mrs Subtle's (Jean) daughter in law Joe. We had met Jean and Chris a few months ago when we did a class in Chris's conservatory!!!
It was a tad cooler than when we had met before---I swear I lost several lb's that day!!!
Anyway, we got stuck in to 'tropical summer day'' and it wasn't long before we had some exciting skies going on !
Joe (pictured above signing her first masterpiece) who was a first timer told me she had done a fine arts degree, but found this more fun and she was learning how to actually paint a picture, she really enjoyed her day.
The time flew by and before we knew it we were finished.The palm trees went very well, everyone was surprised at how easy they were with the fan brush.
Sharleen got chatting to the other ladies and found they had mutual friends via her dog training classes--it sure is a small world.
Sharleen has also kindly offered us the use of her business premises for classes in the Telford area. Straight away the 3 ladies booked up for a class, which means that with Sharleen there are only 2 places left for ''The Birch Trees'' on Feb 9th.
The students went away with canvas's and brushes to carry on at home,
I am going to sit down tomorrow and get the dates sorted out for next year-after going to the boot sale that is!!!

Friday, November 09, 2007

Apothecary's Guest House

I have got to recommend staying at the guest house we were at in Wellesbourne.Its called Apothecaary's -The Old Dispensary, Straford Road , Wellesbourne, Warick CV 35 9 RN tel 01789 470060
It was the best nights sleep we have had in a long time! The bed was one of the most comfortable we have ever slept in!!!
The room was spotless and comfortable, and Jenny our hostess couldnt have been nicer.
After we had unpacked in the aftenoon, she directed to a great pub that did meals just up the road from there-The Kings Arms--another old place which seeped history.We had a beautiful meal of gammon,pineapple, egg,peas and chips there! I know the diets gone out of the window again!!!
After that we went and did the demo at the fire station for the art society.Then back to the guest house to relax.
The next morning we went down to the beautiful oak beamed dining room,with wood burner, to find some fresh orange juice and chunks of fresh pineapple awaiting us. After that came the full english-all freshly cooked and sourced localy. It was absolutley beautiful.
we will definatly be stopping there again, most relaxing and homely.

Funeral






















Today was a sad day-we said goodbye to Rita-our old friend.She had a great send off, the crematorium was full of her family and old friends.The hearse took her all around the area in Shreswbury that she had lived before she came to Ludlow--me and Bill hadnt known her then, so it was touching to pass by her old home.
I have found some lovely pictures of her on the computer, the one above was taken last Christmas, she loved goose so the past 2 years we have had Rita up for the day in between Christmas and new year and I cooked her a goose dinner-- and she has really enjoyed herself, making a fuss of the cat and the parrot and enjoying her dinner--as you can see from her plate!
She is going to leave a big gap in our lives-in the time I have spare now I will paint and think of her while Im painting.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Wellesbourne Art Society











We had a lovely ride down to Wellesbourne, nr Stratford Upon Avon yesterday. We stopped off and had a wander around Stratford, bought some bits and pieces before finding our way to where we were staying for the night.The Old Dispensary.
We had a lovely welcome from Jenny.
Pictured above are the lucky winners of the raffle with the 2 paintings that I did for them that evening.Catherine and John.
We were doing the demonstration at the local fire station--they were 2nd in at the dreadful tragedy in which 4 firefighters died.
The proceeds of the raffle for the 2 paintings I painted during the demo, went to the fund for the families that lost loved ones in this tragedy.
I will be returning to do one or two classes there by the sound of it,I only take 7 people max for a class in order to be able to give everyone enough time and show them the method thoroughly.There was a lot of people interested last night, so may have to make it 2 classes instead of 1 class.
Since I started teaching people to ''Paint My Way'' --my prices haven't gone up at all in over 3 years .I have absorbed all of the price rises of canvas , paint, and brushes and the cost of hiring rooms to hold the classes--because to me the most important thing of all is to show the ordinary man in the street that THEY can paint beautiful oil paintings -all they need is encouragement and to be shown a technique,which shows in what they produce in my classes-
The exhibition in Dec 'From Small Acorns'' will show that.





Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Wellesbourne , Stratford Upon Avon

We are off to Wellesbourne,Stratford Upon Avon, later today( cant belive the time) to do demonstration for art society.
We are booked into a B+B because of the distance we need to travel, my daughter is staying here to pet sit, so Sparky and Paddy will be spoilt rotten!!