Carole--Im so Proud!

Carole first came across me and my classes last year when I held my solo exhibition in Leominster Library-March 2007

She went in to have a look and liked what she saw and
A phone call later and she was booked into her first class in April.

She was an eager student who listened and watched what she was shown, and was producing first class paintings from the word go.

She excels at flowers and trees-anything with lots of detail in them. That seems to stem from her love of flower arranging-she makes the most beautiful dried flower arrangements-and has a natural eye for things

She has been to many of my classes, along with her daughter Hayley (who was really disappointed not to have been able to make it today due to having a hair rehearsal for being a bridesmaid)

Today Carole bought along some of the work she has done at home, I was gobsmacked and so chuffed at her work-she has worked very hard. I'm afraid my photos don't do her lovely work justice!

My favorite out of all she bought along was the simple poppy painting and she has given me permission to use the idea for a painting--

She was thrilled to tell me she had sold a version of the bluebell wood painting!

Her friend John has started up his own business doing framing as a direct result of her coming to my classes-so Painting My Way has changed a lot of lives over the past year alone!

John makes mounts and frames to suit any type of painting--I haven't got his details off Carole yet --too much going on today but as soon as I get the details I will post on here.

Its very exciting hearing how my classes have changed my students lives--Jan has paintings in Germany as well as this country and at the moment has an exhibition of her work on display at The Nelson Inn, Rocks Green, Ludlow.

Sharleen Toller has her own website on www.affordablebritishart.co.uk and Jack has had friends ''steal" his paintings when he showed them at work!

Kay has sold 4 out of 5 of her paintings she did in class--all for over £100 -the most memorable being her "Summer Day" painting that she entered into the art society exhibition --priced at £180 because she didnt want to sell it -but someone loved it enough to buy it for £180!

There have been many friendships forged in my classes--between students themselves and between us and the students--its a real pleasure to know all of these lovely people and to hear just how painting has changed their lives!

See you all soon!

Todays class

We had a very interesting class today--mother and daughter- Linda and Jane were back after being some of my very first students a few years ago and alongside them was Carole--one of my star students!

Sylvia who should have been joining the class for the first time had to cancel at the last minute due to having some pulled muscles--too much gardening!

It was an interesting class today- The African Dream painting is open to lots of interpretations, and we had a lovely range of paintings in the class--Carole chose to do a simplistic version of it with one big feature tree reflected into the shimmering water--simple but so very effective.The photo does not do it justice.

Janes painting was more subtle and subdued as she wanted it, she had been to Africa on holiday and had a distint idea of the shape of the trees she wanted to put in her painting.Her pond glows with the light shining on it.

Janes painting took on a differnt look as she added touches of yellow to the bushes and trees, again her water on the pond shimmers beautifuly as the sun sets behind the trees.

Both Jane and her mum have booked up again for a new subject matter in Oct. They have said they will probley be back before then though when they have checked out the classes that are on offer before then!

We look forward to seeing them again

Fairford Air show

We had some spectacular sights over Ludlow again yesterday--the aircraft taking part at Fairford were flying overhead -Ive no idea what sort they were, but Bill and the men that were here from Sky replacing the Sky+ box (for the 3th time in less than 2 weeks) seemed to know what they were!

I will definatly be working on some paintings for a class aimed at men taken from these photos I have taken!

Fairford Air Show Practise

You might have to have a close look to see them, but there are some of the stars of Fairford airshow on these pictures.

We were having lunch on Tuesday when we heard a lot of activity in the sky outside-there were lots of different planes circling above Ludlow. We watched as they seemed to get impossibly close to each other-we didn't know at the time what was going on-until we opened our Daily Mail this morning and the reporter is saying about being over Ludlow in one of the aircraft practising for the biggest fly past in the RAF's history!.

I can remember saying to Bill that the planes seemed very close together at one point and the reporter says in her story how scarey it was to look out of the window and see the other aircraft a few feet away!

I hope the weather holds out for them, it will be a spectacular show if it does.

The sky in the photos was beautiful and I will be using the photos for some references in future paintings.

Getting ready !

We are on the Book and Craft market this Sunday, on Castle Square, Ludlow.The weather forcast is not to bad so fingers crossed.

I will have to get organised before then as we go on holiday on Monday!
Im really looking forward to it-the hotel has its own indoor pool so maybe we will get some swimming in to.
We have got a seaview from our room which will be great-Im sure I wil get loads of inspiration while there.

Im busy printing out notes for my daughter and her partner Wayne who are pet sitting--there is so much to remember with so much live stock to look after. The 2 parrots, one cat, a tank full of tropical fish and a large pond too.

Im printing off all the likes and dislikes of them all and laminating them-it will be handy for when we go away again in August and my friend comes to look after them all.
Jean cant wait to stay and look after the pets.I show her the most recent videos of Jake talking on my phone every week when I see her and she laughs her head off, Im sure she will be teaching him some new words.
It will be interesting to see what new things Jake learns when we are away next week, last time they had him he was talking just like Becki when we returned!
Oh well back to the list making!

Website Updated

My webmaster has now done all the updating on my website www.paintingmyway.co.uk

All of the class dates are on there with how many places are left in each class.

Update on July 12th Class--African Dream

I have 2 places left for this Saturdays class

" African Dream"

This painting has proved very popular in the past .

It is an acrylic painting this time, so it will be dry for the students to take home.

It also means that the sides can all be painted in class !

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

www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Update on July 19th class-Stormy Skies

I have 3 places left for the Stormy Skies Class on July 19th.

As you can see there are some changes that can be made to the paintings to make them very different to each other. Simply adding a palm tree totaly changes the look of the painting.

Its a painting suitable for first time artists or more experienced artists.

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

Update on August 2nd Class-Birch Tree Walk

I have just one place left for the August 2nd class BIrch Tree Walk.

Pictured are some of my students from this subject matter--3 of them had been to me a couple of times before and 3 had never painted anything in their life before--bet you cant tell which is which!

This is one of my most popular subjects and this next time students will have the choice of the usual monochrome or the new 'sepia' colour version.

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

August 9th -Winter Wonderland

There is just one place left for the Winter Wonderland class on Saturday August 9th.

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

This is a very interesting painting to do as we start on a black background.

It is suitable for all abilities even first timers.

Todays Class-Forest Pool

We had a great time in class today.

Sheila was unable to make it because of injuring her arm, She will be coming again in the near future when she is better.

Everyone had been to me quite a few times before except for Michael.

Pauline and Chris will be coming again along with one of their neighbours who does not believe that they have painted their paintings without me touching the canvas myself! Jack has been loads of times before and so has my mate Jan.

Michael (2 nd from left) was over here on holiday from Germany, he had spent the previous week with artist Charles Evens in Suffolk doing watercolours.

He had never used oils before and he was pleasantly surprised by them! He couldn't believe how quickly the painting came together.

I think he will be giving them a go when he returns to Germany! I am emailing him the photos taken in class today.
Michael has got his own blog with some of his work on there-I was very impressed with it.

Check it out yourself on http://www.michaeljordanart.blogspot.com/

The paintings turned out lovely as always, there was a good variety of bushes and different shaped pools! The paintings all had a mystical feel to them. We used the palette knife to create texture on the tree which everyone found interesting to do.

We had to have the photos taken inside today as it was pouring down with rain most of the day, so when it came to taking the paintings out to the cars outside Jack found the garden parasol to shelter under to get the pics safely out!!!

Everyone has booked again including one of the ladies that lives on Guy Thorney Croft Court where we hold the classes.She popped in to see how everyone was doing and decided she wanted to come along next week.

This means we have only 2 places left for African Dream next Saturday.

Oh and Jack I promise to have some more of your custard cream biscuits next time!!!

Jake and Paddy Parrots

Every day is a laugh a minute with the parrots. Jake learns something new everyday.

Bill had a sneezing fit the other night and all Jake has done since is sneeze and say in my voice ''Oh dear Jake'' ''Poor Jake''

When we went away for a couple of nights to do a demo at Wellesbourne Art Society, my daughter and her boyfriend moved in to look after all the livestock--when we returned Jake was talking in her voice--we knew exactly what they had said to him cos he was saying it all to us!

He soon learned to do Paddy's squawk too, but after we covered him up for doing it once too often( A little voice was then heard coming from the covered cage''hello'' ''hello''-he knew it wasn't bed time as he could still hear the TV!!) he soon learned it was not a popular thing to do--and now he tells Paddy to '''Shut up'' when he starts doing it! Its hilarious to hear.

They are sooooo intelligent and the best way to learn them something they do is wrong is to just cover them for 5 mins.We also use a clicker -the sort you use for training dogs.

Its amazing how quick they learn new things when you click and give them a treat.

Jake will copy Bill whistling any tune, he listens intently to everything we say to him and you can hear him practising new words all the time.

The next door neighbours love it when we put them outside-as we do most days when its fine-under the sun blind so they don't get too hot.

Jake talks away all day and he chats back to them over the fence!

Yesterday we had a shower of rain in the early evening-Paddy was upside down straight away enjoying the soaking, wings spread and really loving it--Jake wasn't so keen-never has been a lover of water!. They have to be showered regular to keep their feathers in good condition, so he has to put up with it!

Jake has also learned that if he puts his head into his stainless steel food bowl whatever he says echos so that is his favorite thing to do at the moment!

I dont think we have watched a complete programe on the TV since we had him--we end up watching him instead!

Lovely Surprise

When we got back from Hereford there was a message on the phone from a lady who attended one of my classes over 3 years ago.

She had come with her daughter for a private class for their birthdays.

Its their joint birthdays soon and she was wondering if I still did classes!.

We all take it for granted that everyone is on the Internet these days, but of course they are not, and as she is not local had no idea if the classes were still running! We had a lovely chat when I rang her back, she said they had a lot of fun when they came the last time.

They are booked into the SaturdayJuly 12th class next week so that means there is only 2 places left for that class now.

If you want to join us for that class--which turned out very interesting last time we did it in class--get in touch via www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Bills Garden Now

We had a lovely afternoon in Hereford today. Bill had some Wyevale Garden Centre gift vouchers left over from his birthday and hes been hankering for a giant rhubarb plant for the garden for ages. He filled in the small pond with compost a while ago when he was doing the second level of the garden, this has created the perfect environment for this plant. It likes a boggy setting.

The leaves can grow up to 10 feet across, so it will be interesting to see how it does here!

I also got a beautiful black and white striped reed that will grow in the same place.

On the way out we spotted some beautiful clay pots with Alpine plants growing out of them.

The pots were beautifully aged with moss and algae growing on them--couldn't resist getting 3 -especially as they were reduced!

The 2 tall ones will sit on the steps and the one in the round bowl will look lovely on the table on the bottom level.

We had bought some plants at the craft fair yesterday, I wanted something that would compliment the beautiful blue flowering plant (no idea what its called) and found a lovely pink flower with dark red foliage-it looks lovely against the light gravel.

We have also bought some fun items like the digging dog statue and the happy face planter from the boot sales. Its taken a while but its all been worth it.

We were looking forward to having a BBQ this weekend but the weather forcast is not promising, so we will have to see what happens!

Bill Garden

This is how it all looked before the transformation! What a difference!

Craft Fair

Well the wet weather held off until mid morning, then we had a couple of quick showers, but in between it was a lovely warm day.The town wasn't very busy though considering the Ludlow Festival was on. The weather forcast had put people off I expect!

I have some bookings for demonstrations and some bookings for later in the year for classes.

I could have sold loads of encaustic stuff if it had arrived from my supplier---sods law I suppose but everyone who wanted a set is relatively local so will call by when we are up on the ''book and craft ''market on the Sunday 13th July. I will have to post one set to some visitors from Yorkshire as soon as it arrives.

Craft Fair Tomorrow

We have been busy tonight getting everything ready for tomorrows craft fair.

The cars loaded up and the rest of it is ready to load in the morning,the forecast isn't great but as the Ludlow Festival is still on it will probably be busy.

I have got a few paintings to take with me to finish off, in between doing demonstrations of oil painting and encaustic art.

I sold out of all the encaustic art supplies last Saturday at Shobdon, and I am hoping the new lot of stuff will be here in the morning.

Time for bed now, will post tomorrow about the day!

Birch Trees In Brown

Birch Trees in Brown
This is my latest work in the Birch Tree collection.

This is one of my latest work in my almost monochrome birch tree collection.

I painted this triptych in a combination of beige, cream and dark brown, instead of black, grey and white!

It works a treat!

The photo does not show the true colour of the dark brown though-its showing up as black on the photo.

This colour combination will be popular in today's contemporary home.

Each canvas measures 20 cm wide x 50 cm long -so a large 60 cm x 50 cm in total-all the sides are painted and it has been varnished to protect it.

The price of this painting is £180 you can buy it via www.dianetheartist.com

A Wedding Present

I had an email yesterday afternoon asking if if I had a copy of a certain painting.

''Summer Day 9'' that the client wanted was already sold.

All of my work is different but if someone would like a painting along the same lines as another one, I will do my best to do so.

This is the result--I have always got some Summer Day paintings waiting to be finished off and I was able to put loads more poppies onto them both so the client had a choice of 2 paintings.

Its been a bit of a mad rush as the wedding is a week on Friday!!!

The painting is a wedding present for her sister and I am doing an inscription on the back of the frame to the married couple.

I will be posting it next week in time for the wedding!

Funny --No Imagination

Its always an indication of how good my class subjects are when I see how quickly they are copied by other people who do painting classes--- shame they have no imagination of their own to come up with their own ideas!

This Saturdays Class Full

This Saturdays class is full we have a mixture of old and new students with Michael coming from Germany to join the group.

I will be setting another date for this painting later in the year. If you are interested in joining us for this one next time please get in touch via my website http://www.paintingmyway.co.uk

Birch Tree Walk Class Full Aug 2nd

This class is now fully booked---I will be setting another date for this popular class later in the year.
Please get in touch via my websites www.paintingmyway.co.uk