Reeds In The Breeze Workshop April 20th

We had 9 first time students on Saturday..and 6 who have been before--some of them only once before...Teresa and her daughters all seemed to find it quite easy--in fact-everyone of the 15 students managed to use the knife as if they had created waves every day with it! I was very impressed with them all!

We had a wonderful range of paintings -from really quiet and tranquil to more bold ones...all very beautiful!

Emily opted for some purple poppies instead of the usual red ones--and it gave a really different feel to the picture...

Jaine's painting developed quickly,

I think everyone was quite surprised at how easy each stage was...

looking good....

Donna's painting is coming along nicely here..

Jac wanted to use a redder brown as she was painting a picture for her mum who has Alzheimers bkess her---and she painted a place in Cornwall that has red /brown rocks there...its for her birthday so I'm sure she will love it!

Sue added some rocks to her picture..and decided it looked like Nessie...and the more she tried to correct it the more like Nessie it became...so we left it at that!

Josie saw me doing my demo at the British Legion club the other week-and booked up there and then,,,

Roger had met me on the market at Christmas and came from Banbury to paint--he made a weekend of it and stayed Friday and Saturday night ...he said it was a challenge for him as he had never painted before--well he made a great job of it!

Pat and daughter Rachael were enjoying their  Christmas pressies from Rachael's daughter!

Rachael  and mum Pat said they will be back!

Cheryl must be due her artist brooch now...

Bev getting down to it...I will be putting the photos on facebook in a minute., if you want to make friends with on there its easier to find me by my email address.. dianetheartist@hotmail.co.uk  or look up painting my way on there..

Poppy Workshop April 6th

I love teaching this workshop--its so much fun exploring the different mediums and colours..you can see the texture on the canvas here..it takes a lot of drying but is worth the effort!

Karen bought along a sample of her new wallpaper so she could match the colour up--I knew I had just the colour for her..and sure enough it was a perfect match!

Jenny used shades of browns and creams and it worked lovely...to be honest it seems to work in any colour combination you like..

Doreen chose the beautiful bright poppy red..

And I love the blues that Bev chose...she is just making the centre a shade darker here!

Wendy seemed to find it easy to get a more random shape to the poppy centre,its one thing that a lot of students can find hard when painting--its so easy to make everything symmetrical !

Joy used blues with a touch of purple-a lovely combination..

Margaret choice of colour worked well too--a beautiful cerise pink...

Nicola chose the popular Teal /turquoise colour--i love it-its one of my favourite colours of all time!

Virginia used the teal but added a touch of blue --

Lisa was really nervous as it was a first time for her, but the nerves soon went once she started painting!

Steph was with me for the 2nd time-and of course this one was completely different to do from her first one which was Serenity and done in oils...

The painting really comes to life when the melted wax is added and we had some lovely combinations of colours done...some just black and silver, some added a touch of gold  and Jenny added a few browns to hers a swell to compliment her colours..I even managed to find a purple one to match Karen's so she was a happy bunny too!

Looking good Jenny!

Wendy adding the finishing touches..

Silver paint for the stamens is last..

The paintings are all very dramatic and vibrant..

And Doreen's looks just beautiful,,,

Karen's centre was a little larger than some of the others but it goes to show there is no right or wrong with this subject....

How lovely to look down the row of paintings as they were being created and see the wonderful colours!

Beautiful results ladies!

The photos never do these paintings justice!!

WOW!

Easter Monday....

It was lovely to have a day off today for a change so off we went to the boot sale at nearby Tenbury...it was bitter cold there and there were not many people selling there.I did get a couple of bargains though--a beautiful  amber necklace for £4 and these brand new unopened LED remote controlled candles for just £1..They look lovely -very realistic-we will use them in summer on the patio

We had Becki, Wayne and little Tommy round for dinner later--last minute decision after we realised the leg of lamb we had bought would be way too big for just the two of us!

As little Tommy isn't able to have chocolate yet as he is only 10 months old I bought him a toy --he loved the paper more than the pressie I think!

He is still such a good little boy-always happy and smiling-I cant believe where the time has gone!

 

 

He did get round to playing with his toy in the end bless him...we still have the Easter eggs to deliver to the other grandchildren yet..but I expect they have had plenty to be getting on with for now...We are on the door of the Ludlow Art Society exhibition tomorrow 10am-1.30pm and back on the market every week from Wednesday..lets hope we start getting some better weather soon!

Easter Market

Well we were up bright and early yesterday--6.30am--which was 5.30am really as the clocks had gone forward...to go down to the Easter Sunday market...we arrived to find someone set up on our usual stall! We then discovered that I had in fact forgot to book and pay for it!  Another case of 'steroid brain'  The steroids I have to take for the Polymyalgia really mess with my head at times and I can the daftest things--and forget to do things as well--its a good job I have Bill to keep an eye on me most of the time!  Anyway all was not lost-Tony the new market manager soon sorted me out a good open air spot and we were able to get a huge display set up..the weather was beautiful--bright and sunny with little wind to blow us about.

We has space to put up an extra table as well..and because it was quite warm I was able to do some painting while I was there...The first painting sold off the easel...before it was even finished..the lady is collecting it in a few weeks when it is dry!

The BBC had cameras in the town to make a programme and they asked if they could record me painting-I forgot to ask what program they were going to show it on though it may get get edited out maybe! It was very very busy all day long..loads of visitors in town as there was lots going on in the castle.We had lots of interest in the workshops and the views on the website have rocketed since!

Josh was one of the people who had a go at encaustic art...he made a beautiful picture!

Sunflowers Workshop March 30th

This was a new class subject...and the students had a choice of background colours..although everyone chose to do the green background--they also had a choice of composition too...everyone enjoyed creating the background--its a very free, loose style and they had a lot of fun doing it! Here is Sara-nearly finished..

Margaret is Sara's mum... it was their 3rd time painting..and confidence is growing every time...

Jenny used a touch of blue alone with her greens and ochres and it worked really well..

Jennifer was bought alone by her Mum Mo and sister Tracey....she hadn't painted since school...and was amazed by what she created--it will have pride of place in her kitchen which is decorated with sunflowers!

Tracey's sunflowers are really jumping out of the canvas!

Mo making a start on the sunflowers....

lots of concentration going on here..

the styles of the sunflowers were as different as each person painting..fascinating to see how they all differ...we had every sort--from fluffy to spikey!!!

the flowers were done in several layers, adding more texture each time...

 I didn't have time to finish my own painting because I was busy supervising everyone else-Bill stepped in and added a bit more  for me...

After the painting came the real fun bit...adding the melted wax detail...

some used a couple of shades of gold wax with some brown but then the silver came into play--and boy did it look good--it was at this point that we realised that when viewed through sunglasses the paintings looked like they were moving..it really was very odd! We also realised that the paintings looked great hanging 'portrait' way up as well as landscape--and for that reason we decided not to add stalks to them!

Wonderful results and I will be setting another date for this one in November...