Another Day

We are busy getting ready for the festival craft fair in the morning.

Lots of packing to do, and things to check!

The weather forcast isnt great but we are well covered by the stalls and backsheets, so should have a good day!

Day Off

It was lovely to have a day off today for a change.We went round to see mum and had a catch up with the news, been too busy to call for a couple of weeks.
Then me and Bill went to Hereford to buy some more paint and brushes to replenish the stock sold at yesterdays class.
While we were walking down the High Street we smelt a wonderful aroma of roast beef coming from one of the best hotels-so on the spur of the moment we went in and had the best sunday dinner that we have had for a long time!
Bill had a field mushroom sauted with garlic on a large crouton and I had an asparagus and cherry tomato tartlet with warm salad and redcurrant jelly to start and then we both had roast beef and all the trimmings!
It was beautiful, the veg's were cooked just right, not hard but not soft either. There was carrots,broccoli,swede,cabbage,roast parsnips, and poast potatoes! As well as a gigantic yorkshire pudding!
We have both worked very hard lately so we enjoyed the treat and will cook the shoulder of lamb that we had bought for today,tomorrow!!!

Todays Class

Here is the class of today,We had a great time- we spent more time in giggles than we did painting!from left to right---

Pauline and Irene'1' on the left of me had never painted before,Carole on the right of me has been to me before and is 'addicted to my classes' according to what she has written in my comments book.

Brian, to the right of her had tryed and failed to paint in other classes , and Hayley-- Caroles daugter was here doing her 3rd ever painting and Irene '2' on the right was scared stiff that she would not be able to do it!!

Every body enjoyed the class today-we were in uproars at Pauline who decided that one of her tree's was to be called'Angela'Why '?-we dont really know-she just thought it should be!

Irene'2' was a scream--she was to be todays ''fiddler''of which we always have one!

In every class we have one person that 'fiddles the most' that just wont leave the painting alone-and today that prize went to Irene '2'

And in the other competition of ''''the person who used the most white paint''--another contest that we have in each class it was a close contest between Brian and Irene 2. And again Irene 2 won it!

The winner of the most paint on the hands and anything else was a toss up between me and Irene 2!

And I won it hands down when we counted how many baby wipes we had used!

The muckiest palette was won by Brian-whose palette was a mud bath by the time we had finished! Everything was grey!

4 of the 6 have booked for next weeks class which has changed from 'Snowy Day' to 'Summer Day', as I have said on my website -nothing is set in stone with the classes and if people want to paint a particular painting we will do so!

Wild life In The Garden

We decided that the small pond that we had let go 'wild' had got a little too wild and the 4 fish that we had put in earlier in the year hadnt been seen since! So Bill started to pull some of the reeds that had taken over when the little frog appeared out of the water.!He seemed very quiet concidering what was happening and hung around til Bill had finished! You wouldnt belive how much stuff was in the pond-the fish will be much happier now they have room to swim more freely!

I was tempted to move the fish and put them into our big pond, but the fish in there are getting so big I think they had better stay where they are!

Getting Ready

Bill has been busy today, getting the canvas prepared for tomorrows class.As you can see they are drying on my worktops .

The brushes are in the garage being sorted out their box's, so we are all set for the Winter Wonderland class in the morning.

Our Little Muchkin

Little Callum is 5 months old tomorrow,where has the time gone to?

He is such a happy little chap, always smiling and laughing! He is moving home tomorrow with his mum and dad-lets hope it doesnt upset him too much.

Our 2nd grandchild is due in less than 2 weeks, but will be a bit further away for us to see as Bills middle lad Darren lives in Sunderland with his partner Lyndsey.

Latest Painting

This is my latest painting-well not quite-I decided that I wasnt completely happy with my latest Summer Day painting so decided to make a few alterations to it!

It was just crying out for some palm tree's on the tranquil beach.

So when we had a quiet few minutes on the craft fair today I added these palms.

I am a lot happier with it now and it will be the subject for a class later on in the year.

Bills Painting

I thought Bill was winding me up today at the craft fair-he picked up the brushes and started to paint one of my small canvas that I use for my 4 minute paintings!

Within 10 mins he had produced this lovely painting! Not bad for his 3rd attempt at painting ever!

He has cleaned hundreds of brushes but he surprised me big time by using them to paint with today!
Several people watching thought he was the artist with all the work on display!

I am going to be able to let him do the craft fairs and classes on his own if he carries on at this rate!

He is a real help in my classes as he knows what is suposed to happen with each brush stroke at each stage and if he see's anyone who does not look sure about what they are doing he can advise them what to do, while I over see the others and get round everyone.

I have a full class this Saturday and I am looking forward to see if Carol from Leominster has done any painting at home since the last class, she bought a knife from me at Shobdon and said she was going to have a go on her own.I am going to take Bills painting to show them all, what a clever hubby Ive got!

Craft Fair

We are going to take a chance on the weather and do the craft market tomorrow.We have loaded the car and trailer so we can have an early start in the morning.

We are taking some different paintings to the ones shown--the poppies have sold and I have painted some more but using silver wax for the centres instead of gold!

My sister-in -law Jan is on the next stall to us , she will be selling her quilling work,she makes fantastic cards and pictures with very thin strips of paper-she has more patience than me!!!

Unfinished

This is my latest in my monochrome collection.It is called ''unfinished ''because that is what it is!

I usualy add detail of bluebells or foxgloves in melted wax to make them 'almost monchrome' but after painting one at the Three Counties Show and adding bluebells, deciding I prefered foxgloves and painting over the bluebells-then of course someone wanted one with the bluebells in it!

So I had to paint one all over again!

This gives you your own input to the finished painting-let me know which you prefer and I will add them for you-you can even have the choice of what kind of varnish you have on the finished piece! I have both satin and gloss-the choice is yours!

The price is £120 including P+P to the UK if you are outside UK please get in touch.

Flooding In Ludlow

This bridge was once the main route into Ludlow, the river Corve burst its banks last night and this bridge collapsed just seconds after people got off there.It will take months to rebuild the bridge.A lot of homes and cars have been destroyed.

A lot of sheep were also washed away.

The bridge at the top of the page is Ludford bridge and the amount of water going under it is scary, the noise is so loud.

Lets hope we dont get too much more rain.

Snowy Day

I ahve spent an enjoyable afternoon painting the latest new painting that we will be doing in a class on Saturday 7th July.

It is quite an easy one for beginners and more experienced students alike.

Cats--Who'd Have Em?

I knew Sparky had caught something this morning as I could hear him yowling as he came accross the roof with his catch.
Although he has a perfectly good cat flap, he prefers to come in the hard way--up onto the wishing well--onto the fence--onto the sloping roof--in through the en-suite window-down onto the loo and down the stairs!!!
This morning he had another baby black rabbit--it was already dead by the time I caught up with him.
We have more black rabbits wild in the fields behind us than normal ones, and Sparky seems to catch more of them than the others.
He ate every bit of it when I put it outside on the lawn, and is now sleeping it off on my bed!

Sparrows

Its a little hard to see but these 3 little baby sparrows were looking so sorry for themselves today! It was pouring with rain all day. They just sat there in the bird table huddled up together waiting for mum and dad to bring then food!

I didnt wake up til 1pm and then if Bill hadnt bought me a cup of coffee into the bedroom I think I would have been there all day!

The past couple of weeks have been so hectic it has caught up with me I suppose.

I have nothing to do now until next Saturday when I have a full class--- so I can have a nice rest!

The festival craft markets have been cancelled due to the bad weather.

The painting knives will be here tomorrow , and I have got the new landscape and large oval brushes ready for the students who ordered them at the last class-they are a a bargain at just £1 each

It was great to be home and take a look at the fish in the pond-they have only had a quick feed lately, havent had time to enjoy them!

The picture at the top shows the 'Fairies Fishing Rods' that I have growing in pots around the pond-we will have a good show of them this year-the flowers are covered in buds-they look so pretty bobbing around in the breeze.

The 2nd pic shows some of the fish in our pond-the big white one is my favorite one-he actualy comes right out of the water when its feeding time-as you can see!

Great Encaustic Pic!

I failed to get this talented boys name today as it was so hectic! He painted the most beatiful encastic painting of a butterfly in no time at all!
He went away with the full kit of the encastic set and extra wax's and card-I just know I will be seeing more of his work in the future-he was a natural at it!
Within seconds he had reconised that he had the vague shape of one butterflys wing and quickly added another, then the body and some more colour to the wings!

Beautiful Scenery

You can see what beautiful scenery we have had while doing the Shobdon Food and Drink Festival.The avenue of trees is just beautiful on the approach to the venue.Some of the trees are so big they have great big supports under the branches to hold them up--I bet they can tell some stories!!!

Busy Weekend

I have sold out of the painting knives today.

After seeing what they could produce-everyone wanted one and at this price who could blame them. I gave several demos of what could be achieved with them during yesterday and today-the garage is full with 20 4 minute paintings hanging there drying! Bill has to watch his step when unloading the trailer and car, he could end up with multi coloured hair if he's not careful!

Zak doing encaustic art

Here is 5 year old Zac being shown how to make his own encaustic art painting, he loved every minute of it.

Shobdon

We had a very busy day today-the weather was very kind to us and there was loads of people at Shobdon.
This is 5 year old Zak who had a go at encaustic art ! He loved it !
It goes to prove that you are never too young to have a go at art!