Poppy Field Workshop June 18th

Ive got a few places left in this Saturdays workshop ''Poppy Fields''  a lovely painting to start with if your a beginner--you will learn to use a variety of brushes and techniques .We will use oils which is a very easy medium to use--we always get wonderful results in this workshop---please contact me via the website if you would like to join me for this class.www.paintingmtway.co.uk

June 11th "Yesterday"

We had a lovely workshop today--10 in all and 5 newbies! Pat -above had me creased with her added extras that we quickly painted out----

Margaritta  is having a look at what Maysoon is doing!

David was painting for the first time---

as was Bruce...

Maysoon chose a lovely combination of colours

Hard to believe that Ros is a first time artist--she made a beautiful job of it!

Jo was with me painting for the 2nd time-she made a cracking job of her painting!She commented in my book that it was worth the journey down from Derbyshire so I must be doing something right!

Joy just filling in some detail to the background...

Margaritta met us on the market not long ago---she created a very dramatic sky ....

she had to leave early in order to visit her hubby xx

Maysoon had to leave early as well-----what a beautiful painting!

Well done everyone !!! Jo,Norma,David,Pat,Ros,Bruce,Joy and Anne....some cracking results all round,,,,looking forward to seeing you all again!

Sheffield and Harrogate Break

We were pretty organised for once and after cleaning the brushes from class we headed off on our short break--first stop  was The Staindrop Hotel in Sheffield---we arrived at 7pm ---the hotel is styled in Arts and Crafts style---it was just beautiful--and one of the cleanest hotels we have ever stayed in....

the bathroom was great--everything sparkled--and the bath was very cosy---the shower doors/full mirror closed the full length of the bath...

a bottle of bubbly was included in the deal we had---very nice it was too! After a truely lovely meal with 10% discount from the deal we had an early night and after a full english breakfast  we headed north to Harrogate and The Kimmberly Hotel----another great deal ....we saved £450 on this 2 night break here!!!!! Luxurious dressing gowns and slippers were in our room-along with a real coffee,cafetiere, bottled water and some chocs--along with a Kimmberly teddy bear to take home!

we arrived earlier than the stated check in time so we went down to the bar and had a lovely cool drink! As usual we were lucky with the weather and didn't need a coat or cardie the whole time we were away!

bathroom was very modern--

the bath was one of the best Ive ever had the pleasure to soak in--it was deep and wide---and the luxury toiletries supplied were just beautiful!

nice to have the option of 'real' coffee in the morning! And the local Harrogate water was lovely too!

LOL-didnt order any wine from the hotel---in fact we only had the included breakfast there---the prices were rather expensive as you can see!!!

the lift made us laugh every time we used it---mirrored on all sides--it was like being in Goks mirrored room on TV !

when we walked into town the first night we noticed the faces in this tree....we saw at least two---how many can you see?

The Kimmberly Hotel

a beautiful sky on the way to York....

The Tower in York..

York Minster---wow what a building----its hard to imagine how they managed to build such a beautiful building in those days---

beautiful......

the detail is just amazing..

from the Minster we went on to the York Museum--this Scottish wild cat reminded us of our Sparky!

from the Museum we moved on to the Art Gallery....more to follow on that...

-these beautiful flowers were just crying out to be photographed!

I love this tree--she looks like she has long eyelashes--------

some friends on face book recommended that we had a look at The Eden camp if we had chance---we went out of our way on the way home to call there-and it was well worth the extra miles!

very interesting place..

blimey its hard to imagine how they managed in those days on rations..

we were very disappointed to find that BED restaurant was closed when we were there.....its sounds great fun and was rated the top place to eat in Harrogate.....they do a great special deal with wine between 5pm and 7pm Tuesday eve -Saturday--so no good for us as we were leaving Tuesday morning!However we did find a lovely gem-----Jinnah Indian restaurant --it was just perfect---£9.95 each for an eat as much as you like buffet! They bought the pickles and poppadoms to the table--followed by the starters--beautiful onion bhaji, chicken tikka etc--then we went down and had the choice of around 12 different curries and rice---I'm not joking when I say it was to die for---we both tyred about 4 different ones....

on the way to Maldon we spotted this beautiful poppy field--but couldnt stop due to the road not being safe to stop on---as usual I had my camera at the ready so did get this quick snap-the red against the yellow of the rape was lovely!

saw these a bit further on-where it was safe to stop!

Summer Day June 4th

Fantastic results from everyone.......first timer Julie made a brilliant job of her first oil painting! Sally who was sooooo nervous her first time a few weeks ago walked in the room so much more confident and really looking forward to the workshop! She was no longer scared to place brush onto canvas! Maysoon has been to quite a few workshops now and is a confident artist....she omitted the poppies and did some beautiful daisies instead! Trevor has been to one other workshop a few weeks ago--a very confident artist--he wants to paint the Squirrels Eye View painting in July!

Sheffield and Harrogate Break

We are off on another short break tomorrow--after the Summer Day workshop we will be heading off to Sheffield--we are booked into a lovely hotel--for tomorrow night, breakfast and then lunch on Sunday--also included in the deal is a bottle of champers so that will be most welcome after the drive up there!
From there we are heading to Harrogate for 2 nights. The hotel looks very luxurious and there is wine ,chocolates and a teddy bear included in this deal! The normal price is almost £600 for the 2 nights but thanks to the Groupon deal we are paying much much less than that!
I will have my laptop with me so will be able to take bookings etc.and any calls are transferred to my mobile..so all of the business bits are taken care of!
Jeannie will be here looking after the livestock....Bill will fetch her while I'm doing the workshop and get her settled in--Sparky loves it when Jeannies here--he gets spoiled rotten! Then when we have finished the workshop just the brushes to clean and away we go! Looking forward to the break--we have 2 free National Art passes that will get us into galleries and museums free so just off to have a look at what is in the area!

Poppy Fields Bewdley

We had a drive over to Bewdley to see the poppy field---it was ploughed after flowering last year and its even better this year..absolutely stunning....all of the photos here are copyrighted and cant be copied without my permission.....

doesn't look real does it? A sea of red!

Bill admiring the beautiful view..

we had a walk up the lane by the field and got some more shots of the field..

I love cow parsley--must get some painted  in some of my paintings..

Just by the field live Joan and Rob in the old Toll House-they have the most beautiful garden and studio where they have their paintings and wood turning on display. Joan gave me permission to take some photos of some of the poppies...its well worth a visit--we were very impressed with some of the beautiful pieces of wooden pieces there.

how beautiful is this?