Jo's Birthday Painting Workshop

We had a trip to Derby at the weekend to run a workshop for Jo who has been down to me twice before. It washer 40th birthday and she wanted to celebrate it with a painting party for family and friends. She organised the room ,and even a fish and chip lunch from a nearby chippy for u all-which made a great treat for us after being on a diet!

Jo's hubby Darren-hadn't painted before an like most first timers didn't expect to be able to produce anything any good! He surprised himself!

The birthday girl Jo--her 2 daughters , 2 sisters,partners, brother ,mum and friends were all painting with her !

Phil had to sit for most of the workshop as he had a poorly foot.....and had a huge pin sticking out of the end of one of his toes ! He didn't know what he was going to be doing until he walking in with Karen-who was also kept in the dark about it too! Phil was quite confident with the brushes and paints for a first timer!

Karen -Jo's sister was also confident,and soon had a beautiful painting underway..

Isabel, another of Jo's sisters has been to Ludlow to paint before,,she made a cracking job of her painting..

Derrick managed really well-he wasn't convinced he would be able to paint very well in the beginning--but he was soon making decisions about what was going where..

Rich is Jo's brother--he seemed to find it easy enough!  It always surprises people just how easy it really is if they follow my directions! It does not take long before the painting really starts to look like it should!

Jo's mum Maureen getting her beach done....

Steve had me and Bill thinking were seeing things--he is the spitting image of our next door neighbours son Simon--he really was his double!

Joy is Jo's friend and has painted with me before--she really enjoyed painting this one and knew when to stop at each stage and didn't go back and fiddle with it!

Alicia age 14  is Jo's daughter and made a beautiful job of her painting,,,

little 7 year old Kayla is Jo's daughter....she really is a natural--her painting was lovely and subtle-she even added a lighthouse and some birds to it at the end--well done Kayla!

while Darren went to fetch the lunch from the chippy the other goodies came out-champagne, beautiful cup cakes(that we resisted!)  an all manner of lovely stuff!

chocolate cupcakes---we didn't try them!

Happy Birthday!!

 The end results! Well done everyone..

Kayla's finished painting-didn't she do well!

There was loads of fun going on after the workshop on these chairs with wheels--Joy and the girls  loved it!

and then Derrick joined in LOL

"Yesterday" Workshop -Eardisley

I couldn't believe my eyes yesterday when getting everyones colours combinations they wanted to do the "Yesterday" painting at Eardisley Village Hall. Usually everyone wants to do the orange/reds or the Blues and purples version.....there is only one or two folk wanting to do the browns and cream version normally. So when 11 of the 13 students chose those colours I was a bit worried I would have enough of that colour paint with me..However I did--just!  We had everything loaded into the car instead of the van as there is a low arch leading into the village hall and Bunty van wont fit through..so it was easier to load up the car and get right up to the door to unload/load..        We got off to a quick start and above you can see Alan's painting progressing nicely....he loved using the acrylics..

Above you can see Margaret happily painting away...hard to believe that this was her first time...she couldn't believe that she could produce anything so good--and to be honest--we were all working on huge canvas---40in wide x 12in deep....that is a big  area to cover with paint--but she  wasn't fazed by it at all....

Another first time student was Carol...again you would never believe it--very confident with her brush strokes..

Peggy's painting was so warm and gentle...we used a choice of coloured metallic paints to add a shimmer to the water and  the gold just looked lovely..

We had a laugh with Gladys ...we were all in fits at the little extra she had in her painting!

Mary getting her water painted in...her granddaughter would like to come with her next time,,,

Pat made a lovely job of her picture...

Sue has  kindly organised the workshop again and sorted out the room for me..I loved the metallic she added to the sky-it looked like the northern lights when she finished..

Ethel's painting had a lovely dramatic sky....

Nesta with her lovely vibrant painting..

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Gladys was also painting for the first time--though you wouldn't have known it---she said it was the most fun she had ever had..and what a lovely job she made of it...

Val's painting is coming along nicely here..what a great sky?

Joy is nearly finished here--she made a cracking job of it...acrylic isn't the easiest medium to use--I thinks oils are the easiest,,,but acrylics have their place and oils cant be used to do this painting!

Pat  nearly finished--what a brilliant job she made of it--as did everyone in the workshop!

Watching me do the final touches of some twinkly stars and a moon....

the lineup---or almost all of them....

looking good!

well done everyone! Will look forward to seeing you in January!

Exhibition..

Most of the exhibition space is in a long corridor that is well lit with natural lights and spotlights as well..

There was plenty of room to hang the paintings and all the working out before hand really paid off....all the paintings were numbered with the panel number they were going on as well as having the usual labels with price/medium etc on them.

The Birch Tree Panel...

Large oil landscapes panel..

The Encaustic art panel--all created using melted wax on perspex..

This is one of my favorite pics ...called Two Faced--there are 2 spooky faces in the centre of the painting,,most folk can see the main one but not the second--and loads of people can see other faces in there that I cant as well!

I love the ccolours in this one!

This one called "Rose garden" has lots going on in there when you look closely as well...

Oils and acrylics panel..

A mixed media panel...all sorts going on here--the Flames Of Passion one is one of my favorites--the flames are very textured and tactile..

a few more oils and acrylics...

The final panel -again a mix of oils acrylics including a couple of framed ones!

Set Up At Bishops Castle....

The space at Bishops Castle SpArc'S where my solo exhibition is being held is just great!                                           Light and airy and loads of room on the panels to display everything!                                                                                      Me and Bill had spent days at home measuring out the space and deciding which paintings were going where...labelling and numbering each one,making sure each painting was 100% perfect and a doing a bit of touching up when  needed...

It really paid off---the photos do not do it justice..the lights are catching the twinkling stars on the Blue Moon painting..the middle of the 4 canvas poppy painting is showing up beautifully and the textures on the seascapes are looking good..

All melted wax paintings on this panel;.

This one called "Two Faced" always creates interest---there are 2 faces in the centre of the painting--and some people see more in other parts of it as well...

Lots of things to see in this one too,,,

Rose Garden..

Birch Tree Wall...

A good mix of my Birches paintings..

Some of my favourite subjects...

I haven't shown my Flames of Passion pictures for a while....I love how they look here!

Some of my workshop subjects shown here..

Some more of my subjects shown here..its such a lovely setting  here--will be calling by on Sunday to drop off some browsers!