Poppy Fields Workshop May 12th

We had a lovely group in on Saturday for the oil workshop 'Poppy Fields'  Liz came for the first time with Derek her hubby who was with me for the 4th time,,she seemed to find the instructions easy to follow and used her bashing and tickling brushes with ease!

Derek doing a bit of bashing and tickling in his sky!

Suzi is a little nervous of using much colour , and added the blue little by little..much better than adding too much too quickly and then trying to take it off!

Patsy came along with her friend Cynthia who received her artist brooch for coming to 6 workshops....Patsy hadn't painted since being at school but she followed my directions and made a beautiful job of her painting..

Deborah was back for the 3rd time...

Cynthia adding her grasses...

Alison came from Stratford Upon Avon along with her friend Shirley and stayed overnight--neither had painted before  and were a bit nervous , but they soon settled down to painting and they soon relaxed.

Shirley putting in the first lot of grasses, this painting is quite a good one to start with as its very forgiving if you make a mistake--its easy to change the colours and we get good results very quickly which gives a lot of confidence to the artists..

Watching me explain the next step....I explain each step of the painting..and also show you what NOT to do so I can show you how to put it correct if you do make a mistake...

hard at work...

this painting doesn't really come to life until the poppies start to go in...here we have Sarah adding her poppies--she had them quite bold and a lovely shape, they stood out against her delicate background a treat...

Deborah's poppies going in..

Patsy getting down to signing her painting, often the hardest part of the whole workshop..

Liz,Alison ,Cynthia and Shirley

Patsy, Deborah,Sarah,Derek,and Suzi

Suzi's painting was a bit different as she chose to use purple for her poppies so it ties in with her last painting "Reeds In The Breeze" which also had purple ones in...

what beautiful results, I'm looking forward to meeting them all again soon too!

Well Chuffed!

I was so chuffed to find that the painting I sent in to try and raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Fund has sold......http://www.mstrust.org.uk/artshop/shop/birches/     its a really worthwhile cause ....I hope the new owner has lots of enjoyment from it!

Bluebell Woods and Other Things!

I had to go to Hereford hospital today for a MRI scan on my head to see if there is an underlying reason for the tinnitus Ive had since last September..ironically the past 2 weeks its been much better for the first time....but that doesn't mean that its gone/going away as its happened before..the scan itself was pretty horrible...30 mins in the scanner with my head fixed into a cage to stop any movement...the noise in there is horrendous but its got to be done! I'm still convinced that it was one of the drugs prescribed by the Dr last Sept, but we will see what the scan says...On the way back  from the hospital me and my daughter Becki stopped by Queenswood Country park to see the bluebells again.They are open properly now and are a real treat to see....

Becki baby is due in 2 weeks time but her bump had dropped noticeably this morning so maybe we will see the new baby before then...

Blooming!

My bathroom smells beautiful....mum has had some beautiful matinee coats knitted for the new baby, so I have rinsed them out in Comfort Pure ready for the new baby....no pink or blue coats as they haven't found out what sex it is.....they will find out when its born....I cant wait !        Im going to be with Becki when the baby is born  along with her partner Wayne and I'm looking forward to it so much...and also looking forward to buying pink or blue baby clothes too-much as I love white,lemon and pale green on little ones!

Emerald Woods Workshop

Deborah was with me for the third time---she has not tryed acrylics before and she loved them!

Rob was with me for the 2nd time...his painting took on a very ''enchanted woods'' feel very quickly....

Wendy has been to a water colour course before she found me--and didn't really learn anything from it.She was told to pick a photo and go and copy it--no tuition at at all..needless to say she found a huge difference in my class-where everything is explained and I also show students what NOT to do so I can show them how to correct it! Wendy was completely shocked at how quickly and easily her painting took shape.

Alan and his wife Evelyn were given gift vouchers for Christmas and were really unable to visualise just how they would be able to produce paintings in such a short time....but both settled down quickly and both seemed to find the process quite easy..they decided to leave Alan's painting monochrome and Evelyn's painting was to have some colour.....

Evelyn adding some detail with her sponge...

We met Fay and her hubby at Welland Show last year. Fay bought a monochrome painting from me for her hubby's Christmas pressie while we were there...it never fails to amaze me just how far folk will travel to a workshop--Fay and her hubby came nearly 100 miles to the workshop today,,.and I think it may be the start of an addiction for Fay--she loved every minute of it and wants to come again!  Fay wanted to use some autumn colours in her painting so she used orange , yellow and green,,,,,Wendy fancied some of the same while Deborah,Evelyn  and Rob added a touch of blue to the sky..its one of those paintings that you can do in almost any colour combination and it will work!

Lovely results from everyone--what a lovely bunch of people they were too...we had lots of fun and laughs along the way!

Dilwyn Show Cancelled

We had a phone call this morning from the organisers of Dilwyn show this morning--as we had sort of expected the show is cancelled due to the awful weather....a real shame as its one of the loveliest little shows we do --and is also the first of the season too....
but the field is soaking wet and its not going to happen...
We will be spending the time with our 2 little granddaughters instead as they are down here from Sunderland!

Some Highlights Of Our Hols!

As part of the deal we booked at the hotel via KGB we had a three course meal including a bottle of wine---we had a set menu or could pay an extra £6.60 each and upgrade to the hotels best menu --so we did that!

my Chilli prawns were to die for.....

The waitress then bought out some special 'bibs' as we had ordered the Hot Stone special and she explained we may need them to protect our clothes.....

our rib eye steaks were delivered to the table on a hot stone,,,sizzling merrily away,,the heat was amazing -and the steak was cooked in no time at all..we added the tomatoes and the chips onto the stone after as well!

Bill waiting to turn it over..

it took no time to cook the steak...

Bill demonstrating the need for the bib LOL...good job he had it on--would have spoiled his shirt!

If you ever get chance to try a hot stone meal--go for it----one of the best steaks Ive ever had!

Henry is the resident doggie--he is a bit deaf bless him!

And the other resident is George the African grey--or Georgina as she is now called--we are pretty much 100% that George is a hen bird...after being able to compare our Jake to my daughters bird Pip who is a hen bird....she is only a baby at 19 months old--and learning to talk....we got chatting to her owners and gave them some advice on her diet as she has been on a bog standard sunflower seed diet that is very bad for them..so hopefully she will be on a good complete diet with all the vitamins and minerals she need to be healthy soon..it was like being at home listening to her chatting away in the mornings while we had breakfast!

Holidays -part 2

On our way to the second part of our holiday in Llamberis we had every type of weather you could imagine! Gales,snow,hail,and sunshine...we were glad to arrive at the hotel!

but I still got Bill to stop the car so I could get some snaps...

Bill relaxing in our lovely room at the Padarn Hotel....

couldn't see much of the view when we arrived

but when the rain stopped it was lovely!

We went to the Llamberis Slate mines--its free to go in and very interesting--

as well as the mines there are some cottages that were moved there stone by stone,,,and done up in different era's.....

all very interesting, they have all the sounds and smells in the cottages and it really brings back memories of my nans house when I was a child.

The sixties house was brilliant---

reminded me of my mums bedroom when I was a child

A lovely demo in splitting slate--he made it look easy!

wow--what a lovely slate fan----

the cottages at the mines..

Lots to see in the sheds---

Love the old windows..

some birches to take to workshops,I like folk to have some examples of the real thing..

Bill meets Polly-the resident doggie at the craft centre next to the mines..

The goats are across the road from the centre

We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw these two idiots rock climbing with no helmets or shirts on their backs and arms..the guy in the red slipped a few times and his language was vile as it echoed around the hills!

they are around half way up the rock face---long way to fall!

the view was just beautiful when the rain stopped...

the lovely dining room at the hotel..

we stopped on the way home to get some snaps of this waterfall--how beautiful!