Thursday, November 26, 2015

''Into The Light'' Workshop

A lovely new subject for last Saturdays workshop. Using acrylic paint is shades of purples and blues--(the purples are not showing up at all in the photos for some reason ..) we soon had a really atmospheric background.. 9 of the ladies had come as a group for an early Christmas Treat, and bought along a few bottles of wine to enjoy which helped with the nerves a little! They all had lifts home so they could enjoy it!

Chris's background is looking great here ..

enjoying lunch!

more trees going in for Jackie...

One or two ladies wanted to add some snow to the paths...

Jan's painting is really taking shape now..

I love how everyone finds their own style so quickly-- some really lovely  results!

well done ladies..

its such a shame you cant see the detail of the twinkling stars  and the snowflakes floating down...it certainly isn't one of the easiest subjects I teach, but well worth the effort!

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Foxgloves And Dragonflies

Barry painted with me earlier in the year when I went to do a workshop for the ABC41 club of which he is a member..he came along with his wife Denise who was a bit nervous!


This is a lovely subject to do and the results are quick to show too..I love teaching trees--everyone soon gets their own style very quickly--and trees are a bit like signatures-all unique to each person!

5th time for Liz who travels down all the way from Derby with the other girls-she loved using the monochrome paint!

First time for Gaynor, who also travelled down from Derby-lots of nerves but soon settled into it, lovely results too..

The workshop was a birthday treat from Cynthia husband-they stayed nearby and made a weekend of it-first time using acrylic and oils for her--she has tried watercolours before though..

5th time for Jo too--the Derby ladies will be receiving their artist brooches next time they come!

Christiania really enjoyed her day-said it was her first time since she was at school!

Diane drove everyone down from Derby--so Bill made some boxes so the paintings could all be stacked safely in the boot for the journey home.

everyone found it very interesting to use the acrylic first--then oils--and then right at the end have the choice of adding some colour to the monochrome...

Sharon got on well with the acrylic paint and had some great trees happening!

Lovely bold trees from Karen !

First time for Mary-she cant wait to come again!

everyone hard at it here!

Mary with her finished painting--she left hers monochrome-apart from the foxgloves and dragonflies..

I loved Barry's and  Denise's paintings--they added a touch of lilac to just the bottom of their paintings-very effective!


Karen loves colour--and her painting took on a real magical look--Cynthia left hers monochrome which looked just as good!

Isn't it amazing just how different the paintings can turn out so easily!

Amazing results from the '''Derby Five'''

Christiania, Denise and Barry with their finished masterpieces


Winter Wonderland Workshop

Im very late getting the blog done again--where does the time go to? This subject has lots of different bits to it--some easy-some not so easy..but all the ladies tackled it really well and what great results we had from them! Looking forward to seeing them all again...

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Winters Walk

Between work commitments and illness we were down to just the one student yesterday..so Chris came to the house to paint Winters Walk..Only her 2nd painting--she came along to the Serenity workshop a few weeks ago and loved it so much she booked into another 3 workshops!

We had a visitor at lunchtime--Simon-one of my students kindly picked up a set of veg cutting tools from Kidderminster for me after I saw his impressive veg on Twitter LOL...he gave us a demo and Chris was so impressed she was going to call by on her way home to pick some up for herself!

She loved painting using he acrylic and oils...and can be seen here adding some clear glitter to the snow to make it look really frosty!

Well done Chris--will look forward to seeing you in the ''Into The Light'' workshop next month!

Think we need a bit more practise with the potato cutter! But they made lovely crisps..

The carrot spiral cutter was great...can be used for all sorts,,,

The tomato cutter was very easy to use,,,and the potato spiral tool worked well...the kids will love the curly chips! I'm so lucky to meet such lovely people through the workshops,,thanks again Simon...will have fun practising with all the tools in the future!

Friday, October 23, 2015

Sunflowers Workshop




This was the first time I have run the Sunflower workshop for about 3 years..I was a bit nervous for once, hoping I would get everything in the right order! I had a run through at home to jog my memory! Linda made a cracking job of her painting..

Beverly got on great painting her sunflowers...


Jeanne was bought a gift voucher from her son...first time painting in oils for her but she loved it...and said she may add some embroidery to it at at later date...would love to see the end results of that!

Angela and Sue (below)  buy each other gift vouchers for birthdays and Christmas..

the paintings looked a little odd for a while but soon came together once the sunflowers started going in!

Dawn was working on oil painting canvas paper instead of the box canvas everyone else was using...she wants to take her paintings to her holiday home abroad, and it will be easier and cheaper to transport on the canvas paper and get framed when she gets there!
I love seeing how people use their pallet's---Sue made full use of hers ...not much space left on it!

and this was Jeanne's,,

The photo does not show the detail..but they were all brilliant-- very individual..lots of scope to do your own style with this subject-- will be painting it again next year... I have already got bookings coming in for next year...see the dates underneath this years dates on the website!www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Monday, October 12, 2015

Blackpool Break

We had a lovely 4 night break in Blackpool last week,,,a bargain price too--just £78 Wowcher deal  for both of us for 4 nights B+B ...the reviews on Tripadvisor were all brilliant-except for someone complaining that there was orange squash on the table instead of fresh orange! Our room was large--and spotless clean--had 2 double beds and a single one in it! Lovely huge shower all newly refurbished-couldn't fault it!

It doesn't take us long to make the place untidy! The weather forecast had been awful so we packed loads of cold weather clothes--and didn't need any of them in the end! It rained a couple of nights but not when we were out and about--it was lovely and sunny!

I used £7 worth of Tesco vouchers in exchange for 2 tickets to the Tower circus-- we went last year and it was brilliant, but quite expensive--so this was a real bargain! Some fantastic acts-- no animals, breath-taking trapeze acts etc...well worth a visit!

Bill admiring the view of the pier..


Most of the scaffolding is down from round the tower now..

As we had a such a good deal with the digs and circus I thought we could splash out on a visit to see Michael Jacksons Thriller show that was on for just  5 days in the Grand Theatre --it was good but didn't feel it was worth the £60 compared to all the other things we did..


We don't normally have fish and chips-- but fancied some as we walked back down the prom...they looked OK but didn't taste great--the fish was thin and a bit greasy--as were the chips-so we ended up leaving most of it...

The breakfast at the LLanryn Guest house was lovely-- no complaints at all..Choice of cereals, toast and a full English--not a trace of grease to be found...

View from the Tower


If you do nothing else when you go to Blackpool, you must take a visit to The Funny Girls Show-- we laughed all night !!! Zoe and her 'girls are just brilliant! 7pm -12pm and only £12.50 each what great value!

There are so many different bits to it-always different!

Their version of Abba lol

We were crying at The Sound Of Music!!

PMSL at this!

Brulee was our 'waitress' for the night

Even Amy Whinhouse made an appearance!

This act hanging on the ribbons made my eyes water at times...

amazing!

The finale...well done ladies--we will be back to see you again next year!  And we came back to some wonderful news about my son Jim...he is in remmission with just a few residual cells left--they have also found a perfect match bone marrow donor ! He is having another weeks chemo to clear up the cells left and seeing the specialists in Birmingham later today to sort out the donation.Its by no means going to be a walk in the park for him but things are looking far more hopeful than they were..somewhere out there is a selfless lady who made the desion to be a donor--I thank her with all my heart for that xxx