Sunday Dinner

We had friends Marion and Phil round for dinner yesterday-havent had much chance to see them for ages with one thing and another so it was lovely to get together again.

Bill did all the meal preparations as normal bless him , hes a great cook!

The menu was Roasted leg of pork with roasted vegetables-parsnip, swede,carrots, potatoes,butternut

squash and onions-then there was boiled new potatoes and broccoli! The roasted veg are healthy and so tasty and the gravy is to die for after all the flavours mingle together!

After we had weight watchers strawberry cheesecake and chocolate brownies with fresh strawberries and low fat cream-delicious!

Aftewards I shared with Marion my favorite special drink -Tia Maria and Bailys over ice-something my sister had had on holiday and which I thought sounded gross-until I tyred it-its gorgeous and is something to have when you want a real treat!

I love preparing the table for a special meal-and managed to create a lovely vase with roses, grasses and twisted hazel from the garden.

The white roses always look like they have been splattered with pink paint-they are beautiful!

I got on and did the tidying up /dusting in the house that had been neglected for a while!

The parrots create loads of dust due to their feathers, and throwing their food around--you can hoover 3 times a day and theres still a mess on the carpet at bedtime!

But if you have pets you have to put up with these things, and they are worth all the mess they make!

Sparky cat has been to the vet tonight with an abcess on his head-he has been fighting again-you would think he would learn by now!

Another 2 injections and hopfully he should be ok-and keep out of scapes!

Bills Garden

Well the weather has been dry today for the first time in ages, Bill has been out in the garden and its looking great.

The top stage of the garden was the last to be done and it was a real wilderness with bindweed and wild strawberries taking over.

Its been a real transformation, the area has been weeded and stone put down--there is somewhere to put the wishing well that Bill made a long time ago and has never had a proper home!

We have some plants to put in that we bought when doing the other 2 stages, so hopefully the weather will hold til that's done.

Theres been lots of trimming and pruning going on, the ivy had made it across the net on the pond to the other side almost-now its all neat and tidy again.

My herb garden is going to have a sort out tomorrow, the big bay tree is in for a major cut back-it may even come out and be put into a big pot.

I hope the weather holds til its all finished now, we will be packing away the garden furniture and BBQ cant see it being used much more this year !

Bill says as soon as he packs away the wind out sunblind we have over the patio door the weather will pick up again!

He said it would turn nasty when he put it back up there earlier this year and he was right!

Poppy Commission

Ive made start on Karens second painting she commissioned.
She loved my Poppy Delight painting which was already sold and wants one along the same lines but in more orange colours to match her sitting room which is terracotta colour.

She bought along some photos of the room and where the painting was going to hang to give me some idea.
I showed her some other paintings I had done using the oranges, yellows etc so she could tell me exactly which colours she wanted me to use.

I have made a start on the first undercoat of it and I am very happy with how its going.

It will have many layers on top of this, up to 40 layers of paint will go over this and then the centre is done with melted wax.
Karen is having both black and gold wax which will set off the tones of orange beautifully.
I will be doing a lot more to this tomorrow.

Trio Of Sunflowers

Ive finished the commission Ive been working on at last, the photo docent do it justice--the blue background has come out not at all true!

Its more of a Cornish blue in real life!

Karen who commissioned the painting called by yesterday to see it and was thrilled with it.

She bought along photos of her kitchen where it will be hanging and Ive got the colours just right.

The sunflowers appear to jump out of the canvas as they do in the original painting which has a bright green background.

All it needs now is three coats of varnish to protect it and it will be ready for Karen next weekend.

Todays Class--Sept 6th

Well what a day! We had 2 cancellations for the class today due to Ludlow being cut off from the outside world with the rain and floods!

Every road in and out of Ludlow was blocked from last night.

I found myself in the position of having to drive through fast moving flood water when a large pool burst its banks yesterday afternoon after visiting my friend who lives out at Henley nr Ludlow.I had the windows open in case I had to make a quick escape!!!

I was scared stiff as the back end of the car was being dragged around, made it out safely in the end but was one of my most scary moments ever!!!.

As I already had the room booked and paid for re today's class,I was able to fill the gap with my nephew and niece to save canceling the class for Pat who lives local and wasn't affected by the floods.

I gave Pat the choice of what painting she wanted to do instead of the one planned for the class.(Oriental Dawn)

She chose this beautiful vibrant sunset painting which had great results all round which would match one she did with me when I first started classes over 4 1/2 years ago.

I had taken along several different paintings from which to choose a theme and we went from there!

It was painted in acrylic instead of oils so the end result was dry at the end of the class.

We had great fun, the bright colours work so well in this subject.We used a special shimmering paint for the water, lovely effect that dosent show up in photos !!

Bill had fun playing darts while we painted and at the end of the session Natalie was so tired she nodded off!

Mind you she had been at a sleep over the night before and didn't know anything about coming to paint until her mum picked her up this morning! I expect she was chatting til 4am this morning!

We have bought the paintings home for Bill to varnish, as we had explained to everyone just how much difference the varnishing made-it really brings out the colours in the painting!

Everyone will get them back tomorrow-to amaze their family and friends to what they have done!

Ebay

As its 5p listing day on Ebay I have listed some of my encaustic work on there.
There is a mixture of A4 size and A6 postcard size. All sorts of wierd and wonderful things appear in the melted wax images when you study them!

Check out what Ive got for sale by checking out my profile on ebay "dianetheartist"
Ive got 100% feedback on the site.My encaustic paintings have sold well on there in the past.

Todays Craft market

The weather was good today while we set up and took down , but at mid-day we had such a storm , Bill had to keep emptying the canvas roof by pushing it up for a good hour!

Surprisingly there were lots of people around and they were glad to come into our stall which was warm and dry,we had lots of interesting conversations with folk!

Craft Market

My new aprons I had especially embroidered with my logo for the classes arrived today.

We met the company at the Tern Valley event and ordered them then.

I'm very pleased with the quality of them, they are completely adjustable, to suit everyone, the embroidery looks great against the black background!

Ive stocked up with my bags as well, I ran out of the bigger ones at the Onslow Park event,so was hopeing they would arrive in time for tomorrows craft market--the encaustic sets fit in them a treat!

Im looking forward to tomorrow--the weather forcast is not bad and the towns is still full of visitors, so we should have a busy day.

Bill has been busy most of the day varnishing all of the acrylic paintings, they will be dry enough to take with us. Will pack them tomorrow to make sure the varnish is dry!

Ive got a lot more of the trio of sunflowers done too--Im really pleased with it and so is Karen who commissioned it.

It works lovely on the blue background!

Yesterday I had a day of all sorts--finished off a couple of paintings, altered a few that had been niggling me and got some more of the newsletter ready to send.

A busy day-could have stayed in bed this morning!

Charity Donations

As all of my regular readers know I support the British Heart Foundation charity.

My dad died 3 years ago with heart failure and hubby Bill suffered a heart attack 5 years ago.

So the charity is one very close to me.

Since then I have sold several paintings and donated the full price of them to the charity and done a couple of other fundraising events as well.

Sian the area co-ordinator for the charity got in touch a few weeks ago to ask if I would donate a painting for a big charity event going on in Worcester soon.

Of course I was pleased to do so, and in fact decided to donate 2 paintings.

I painted the Birch Tree one especially for the event and the Summer Day one I decided to add a few more poppies to , after asking some advice from one of the forums about how to make the oil paint dry quicker added a few more flowers to the painting!

Sian will be picking them up next Monday and hopefully they will raise a good amount for the charity.

Ludlow Food And Drink Festival

I cant belive its almost a year since we were at the Ludlow Food and Drink Fesival Craft fair .

As usual the fair is on for 3 days Friday 12th, Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th September.

There will be things going on in the beautiful castle as well as other events all over the town.

We will be doing the craft fair in the Harley Centre in Ludlow College in Castle Square on the Saturday and Sunday.

I will be demonstrating both the oils and encaustic art and will have around 80 paintings for sale.

I will have lots of encaustic equipment to sell---I am stocking up well as I sold out at Onlslow Park last week and sold out on the first day at the food and drink last year.

There will be lots going on over the 3 days-the famous Sausage Trail, the sandwich trail and the real ale trail to name but a few.

We always met some lovely people there and we are looking forward to it very much.

We are on the normal craft market this Thursday, the weather forcast is quite good for then--the rest of the week is not looking very good though!

Commissions

I have another 2 commissions to do.

Karen who recently purchased a small poppy painting off me has requested "A Trio Of Sunflowers " but with a blue background instead of the vivid green to match her kitchen.

I made a start on that one yesterday and have emailed her the background so far---It started OK and then dryed a lot darker than I wanted, so had to mix another lot of paint to get the correct colour--cornish blue!

She loves it so far!
She got in touch today to say she loves Poppy Delight and could I reproduce it again for her, this time using a more orange red that will suit her colour scheme.

Luckily she lives fairly local to us and will be able to pop in at the weekend to see how her paintings are progressing.I will continue to email her the photos but there is nothing like seeing it in the flesh so to speak!

I will be painting all day tomorrow, tonight Ive spent updating my websites and catching up with the latest newsletter.

I didn't realise just how time consuming doing the newsletter would be--but have had such a good response from everyone who receives it that I will continue with it.

Just have to remember to keep making notes each day of things to add to it!

If you would like to be added to the list to recieve the newsletter please get in touch via the website http://www.paintingmyway.co.uk/

Well Done Jimbo!!!!!!

Big Congratulations to my son Jim--he has come third in class(over2 litre) in the big Woodpecker Rally held near Ludlow today.

Its the first time he has driven a front wheel drive car on gravel, and he said he drove like an old woman for the first few stages--especially after coming to a stop(Just) over an 80 foot drop in the first stage!

A real bum tightener!!!

He has always rallied Skodas, but has previously built Estelles and Favorites-this is his new Felicia with a 2 litre Vauxhall engine in--he didn't even bend a panel this time!

I'm always relived to hear he has got back in one piece, well done Jim--no doubt there will be some sore heads in the morning though!!!

Oriental dawn-- Sept 6th -4 places left

I have 4 places left for this atmospheric painting next Saturday.

It is suitable for complete beginners.

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

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Emerald Woods--Sept 20th-- 4 places left

I have 4 places left in this class.

It is suitable for even first time students.The results are great each time we do this painting in class!

If you would like to join us in this one please get in touch with me via the website

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Summer Day Class-Sep 27th--FULL

This class is now full--I will be setting a new date for this popular subject in January 2009

This class always gets booked up as soon as I set a date for it--if you would like to go on the waiting list for this class please get in touch with me via the website

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

The painting is suitable for even first time students and the results are always stunning.

You will have the option of painting poppies, daisies , thrift ,cornflowers or all of them if you wish!

Poppy Field Class --Oct 4th --2 places left

There are just 2 places left for this popular subject.

we have had some fantastic results each time in the Poppy Fields class.

Its suitable for even first time students.

Bright and vibrant, its a painting to cheer up anywhere it hangs!

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

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Serenity In Green -Oct 11th--one place left

I have just one place left for this new class subject "Serenity In Green"

on Oct 11th.

There will be the option of doing it in different colours-someone has already requested shades of browns, although it would work in several other colours such as blues or purples.

If you would like to join this class please get in touch via my website www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Birch Trees class full--Nov 1st

This class for November 1st is now full.

I have 7 students booked into this popular class.

There will be the option of painting this in the brown/sepia colours as well as the black and white.

I will be setting another date for this class for January 09 and will put the details on here and the website as soon as a date is set.

If you would like to be put on the waiting list for this painting please get in touch.

Tropical Sunset Class Aug 30th

We had a lovely class today, 4 students-- Oliver, Jack , Pauline and Chris had been to me before but Beverly and Doreen were first timers.

Doreen and Beverly had been going to watercolour classes and fancied a change of medium!

The class went very well with some really vibrant skies emerging from the brushes.

Olivers in particular was very bright to start with, but after some careful tickling with the tickling brush it mellowed down nicely.

The palm trees caused a few laugh among us all--we had all sorts-helicopter rotors and wind turbines to name a few, but as I told the students , real palm trees do come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

I must cut out some pictures of some to take to class to show them!

Everyone was really happy with the end results--Beverly and Doreen have booked for another 2 classes -The Birch Trees and the Poppy Fields and Pauline and Chris have booked for the Poppy Fields so they will be meeting up again soon.

Thats what I love about the classes, everyone makes firm friendships with the other students and its a social event as much as a painting class.

For once we finished early in class and its lovely to relax with a glass of Tia Maria and Baily's on ice while doing some updating!

Back to the grindstone tomorrow -after the bootsale.

It will be my first Sunday off for what seems like ages-but have got to get cracking on the commissions in the afternoon!

Jane and Heathers Day

Jane and her daughter Heather came for a class today.Heather had taken a look at www.dianetheartist.com where I have 200 paintings on show and chosen this one to do.

We had great fun, Jane has been to lots of classes before and has had her advanced student brooch, Heather had not painted before.

They were both cracked up at Jake who didnt stop talking all day.Last time Jane was here he copied her laugh, which cracked us all up!

Jane found the acrylic paint quite different to work with compared to the oils she has been used to in previous classes.

When we started on the second coat and it was easier to blend it all started to feel right again.

Both me and Jane decided that we liked our paintings better upside down-when we turned them to paint the bottoms!

So Bill did some re-stringing when we had finished as the canvas were strung the wrong way up!

They were both very nervous when it came to painting the tree.

They both really liked their sunset skies and were scared they would spoil it.

After watching me do my tree they plucked up courage and did the most beautiful trees each.

Jane added some little birds in the sky and Heather painted a little cat sitting on one of her branches of her tree.

They were both delighted with the finished pictures-I sent them away with enough varnish to give them a coat tomorrow--this will bring out the colour even more on their finished pictures.