Tropical Sunset Class Aug 30th

We had a lovely class today, 4 students-- Oliver, Jack , Pauline and Chris had been to me before but Beverly and Doreen were first timers.

Doreen and Beverly had been going to watercolour classes and fancied a change of medium!

The class went very well with some really vibrant skies emerging from the brushes.

Olivers in particular was very bright to start with, but after some careful tickling with the tickling brush it mellowed down nicely.

The palm trees caused a few laugh among us all--we had all sorts-helicopter rotors and wind turbines to name a few, but as I told the students , real palm trees do come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

I must cut out some pictures of some to take to class to show them!

Everyone was really happy with the end results--Beverly and Doreen have booked for another 2 classes -The Birch Trees and the Poppy Fields and Pauline and Chris have booked for the Poppy Fields so they will be meeting up again soon.

Thats what I love about the classes, everyone makes firm friendships with the other students and its a social event as much as a painting class.

For once we finished early in class and its lovely to relax with a glass of Tia Maria and Baily's on ice while doing some updating!

Back to the grindstone tomorrow -after the bootsale.

It will be my first Sunday off for what seems like ages-but have got to get cracking on the commissions in the afternoon!

Jane and Heathers Day

Jane and her daughter Heather came for a class today.Heather had taken a look at www.dianetheartist.com where I have 200 paintings on show and chosen this one to do.

We had great fun, Jane has been to lots of classes before and has had her advanced student brooch, Heather had not painted before.

They were both cracked up at Jake who didnt stop talking all day.Last time Jane was here he copied her laugh, which cracked us all up!

Jane found the acrylic paint quite different to work with compared to the oils she has been used to in previous classes.

When we started on the second coat and it was easier to blend it all started to feel right again.

Both me and Jane decided that we liked our paintings better upside down-when we turned them to paint the bottoms!

So Bill did some re-stringing when we had finished as the canvas were strung the wrong way up!

They were both very nervous when it came to painting the tree.

They both really liked their sunset skies and were scared they would spoil it.

After watching me do my tree they plucked up courage and did the most beautiful trees each.

Jane added some little birds in the sky and Heather painted a little cat sitting on one of her branches of her tree.

They were both delighted with the finished pictures-I sent them away with enough varnish to give them a coat tomorrow--this will bring out the colour even more on their finished pictures.

Lots On

I dont know how much I will be on here over the next week--have so much on its unreal!
I have Jane and daughter coming for a private lesson tomorrow, Im still working on the commission for the lady off campsite forum.

Karen who recently bought the small poppies painting has commissioned a Trio Of Sunflowers but with a cornish blue back ground.

And Sian who is the cordinator for the British Heart Foundation has asked me if I will do a painting to be auctioned off in aid of the charity!

I also have a full class on Saturday, so no peace for the wicked!

I will try and keep everything updated on here as much as I can but dont hold your breath!

Birds In The Garden

While we were in Onlsow Park Steam rally I spotted these beautiful ornimental garden birds. They balance on a rod with a beautiful crystal ball at the other end, and then the rod just balances on a spike.

They go around in the wind and gently sway up and down as well-its very peaceful and tranquil.

I had spotted them the previous week at the Tern Valley show ,but didnt get chance to go and buy them there.

We have them outside the patio doors by the pond-of course they have been named Paddy and Jake!

Sales

I had a lovely surprise yesterday afternoon--my friends Jan and John went to collect my paintings that were in the Ludlow Art Society exhibition that finished yesterday--when they got there 2 had been sold!

''Big Brown Birch Trees'' which is a massive 36in x 36in and ''Path Through The Whitcliff Birches '' ( A large Diptych )seen in this photo of the exhibition were both sold.

I dont know if the same person bought them or not yet.

They hadnt sold on Wednesday when I was on the door but there was lots of interest in them.It made a great weekend even better!

I had already started another Birch Tree Diptych while at Onslow park, so I must crack on and get them finished now!

Onslow Stars

Here are some of the encaustic stars from Onslow Park--we had some lovely paintings created--and yes kids I did lose my list of names!!!

Onslow Park

We got back late last night from a fantastic weekend at Onslow Park Steam Rally. We arrived on Saturday morning and got the caravan set up and all the stands in place.

As we had so much space it took ages to get all the paintings and the tables done!

We were by some old friends from last year as well as a few new ones.

We always have a good laugh here-everyone is so friendly.

We met up with some people from last weeks Tern Valley Vintage show as well.

The marquee was massive as you can see from the photographs, its hard to imagine that people were stuck for space as they walked round there, but it was so busy at times you could hardly move!

Bill manged to get out of there to see some of the things that were going on in the arena, and came back with some lovely photos of the sights!

The rainbow appeared over the site on Saturday night as we were walking up from the van to have a meal.

We were up early to have a full english breakfast to start the day on Sunday morning, all we had to do was uncover all the stands and tables as we had set it all up the day before.

I miscalculated on the encaustic stuff I sell--last year I sold out of everything early on the Saturday so this year had taken more than double with me-again I sold out very quickly on the Saturday, so have got some orders to send out early next week and also some people are coming to Ludlow Food and Drink Festival next month to pick up some equipment.

I also had people who had bought off me last year coming back for more waxes and cards.

Everyone agreed it was a brilliant hobby to have!

I also ran out of my large bags that I had printed with my class details on, still got some small ones left-the kids just love having a special bag to put their encaustic paintings into to carry round with them! Must remember to put another order in this week!

Lots of interest in the classes, some of the classes are full or nearly full now, and I must get cracking on setting some more dates.

All in all a great time had by all, cant wait for next year!

A Drink For Jake!

My two nephews came around tonight with their Dad

to borrow our laminater---Jake was quick off the mark when he realised that they had a glass of J20 juice drink each ! He loves it!

He quickly flew down from his cage to have a sip or two-

along with the odd ice cube from their glass!

Paintings For Debra USA

Ive posted these 3 paintings on here for Debra who lives in the USA to choose from!

We have been in contact on and off since we were on holiday in Somerset when she emailed me and said she liked one of my paintings that was already sold.

I have painted these 3 versions of the painting for her to choose from.

I have emailed her the images several times but for some reason she gets my emails without attachments but not the ones with them! I think its an ongoing problem with my computer so this is the other option!

Anyway Debra, let me know which version you like and I will get it posted off to you asap!

Onslow Park Steam Fair

We are busy getting ready for the Onslow Park Steam Rally this weekend.

We are going early on Saturday morning all being well-the show starts on Sunday but its such a great atmosphere there and we have lots of friends to catch up with, we are going early.

It will give us chance to set up our stand and sort the caravan out too--we have decided we dont need the awning as we didnt bother to put it up last week when we were at Tern Valley, not taking any more stuff this week so we are leaving that behind.

If its as busy as last year Bill wont get chance to go and see everything he wants--my stand is 25 ft long and its immpossible to keep an eye on everything when its busy, so I ended up ringing him and asking him to come back every time he went wandering last year!

I shall be demonstrating the encaustic art and also the oils and acrylics too, so I will be kept busy while Im there.

Bill has re-organised all the plastic boxes we lug the bits and pieces around in to the various craft fairs, and found we needed some new ones so we went into town yesterday and replaced the broken ones.

Its been a real spring clean--everything is in the right place for now-hes even made some bubble wrap bags for the lights!

How long it will last for though is any ones guess!

It will only want a cold rainy day when we are packing away after a craft market for it all to get thrown in the nearest box that it will fit in!

My sister in law Jan and my niece are coming to parrot /cat/fish/ sit again--Jake learned lots of new words last week when they were here-he seems to pick up peoples laughs right away and hes been doing Jans and Natalies laugh as clear as a bell all week!

Ludlow Art Society Exhibition

The Ludlow Art Society has its summer exhibition on at the moment,its being held at the local College in Castle Square.

I had my stewarding duties to do today and a very interesting afternoon I had.There was a steady stream of people all afternoon and we sold 2 paintings.

the standard of work is very high this year, there really is some beautiful work in the exhibition.

Tern Valley Show

We had a great weekend at Tern Valley Show--there was lots going on there for all the family. There was some beautiful sights-the gypsy caravan was stunning.

The dogs gave a fantastic show-walking along parallel bars and jumping through rings of fire!

The blue macaw was in a cage outside one of the stalls around the main arena-poor thing didnt have any toys or water and he was just going form perch to perch bored out of his mind-we enquired how much they wanted for him but it was way too much--£1600 , I just hope some kind person came along and bought him.He was really friendly and let us stroke his head.

We were kept very busy on our stall both selling and giving demonstrations.

I sold my Emerald Forest painting on Saturday so I got stuck in and painted another one as it is a class subject!

I also got one of my Brown Birch Trees paintings finished that I took with me. I also started some new monochrome birches that I want to get finished this week to take to Onslow Park next weekend.

The weather wasnt as bad as forcast on Saturday during the day but that night it emptied down-all night long.But there is nothing like being snugged up in a caravan having a nice drink and a game of scrabble whilst listening to it raining! We both slept like logs, and of course we had the traditional cooked breakfast to start the day

Of course in the morning with al the heavy lorries etc moving round the grounds it all got very muddy and churned up.When we loaded up the caravan to leave last night we got stuck in the one gateway-as did most people-so we had a tow out with one of the tractors that were standing by for the purpose!

Now just got to unload the caravan of the washing etc and start getting ready for next weekend!

Your Age

A bit of trivia sent to me by one of my regular readers Tom-

YOUR AGE BY EATING OUT
Don't tell me your age;
your waiter may know!
YOUR AGE BY DINER & RESTAURANT MATHS
DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!
It takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read .
Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!
This is not one of those waste of time things, it's fun.
1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to
go out to eat.
(more than once but less than 10)
2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)
3. Add 5
4. Multiply it by 50
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1758...
If you haven't, add 1757.
6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.
You should have a three digit number
The first digit of this was your original number. (I.e., How many times
you want to go out to restaurants in a week.)
The next two numbers are
YOUR AGE ! ------ (Oh YES, it is!)
THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2008) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS

Nearly Ready !!

After Carole left yesterday after her one to one class, I set to and gave the new caravan a good spring clean.

Sparky cat decided to jump in and check it out as well--he likes the seats at the back of the van by the dining table best!
He did try out the bed after we had put it down, and started playing with the string to the awning that Bill had started to get sorted!!

We haven't really looked at everything propley since we bought her months ago, so today as the weather was fine, Bill got the awning out and made sure everything was there.

Its massive-doubles the size of the space we have.We will be able to leave the bed down instead of putting it back as seats each morning as we have a lovely dining space with seats at the other end of the van.

We have got everything packed ready to go tomorrow, just got to sort out which paintings we are taking, and load those in the morning.

We have been shopping for a few essentuals that can be left in the van instead of having to remember to pack each time,there is loads of storage space in the bathroom for all the toiletries so they can be left in there.

The shower is quite powerful and the heater works well, so we have all the things we need.

The fridge works on gas as well as electric so we can have some ice in our drinks while we are there too!

We are looking forward to meeting up with some of the people from various forums I belong to-cant wait!

One last thing to do is to get the paintings packed up for the exhibition tomorrow and dropped off before we go.

Its a shame we cant make it to the private viewing on Saturday, but some of my students and friends will be there.

Caroles Class

Carole came for a one to one yesterday-she wanted to learn how to be loosen up in her painting technique.

Carole has always liked to have a photo in front of her when painting at home to work from, and said she couldn't use her imagination to paint anything.

I just put out some acrylic colours on a plate and we just got on and played with the paint.

It took her a while to 'free up'' but when she did , she produced a beautiful abstract painting-shown above in its stages..

Its bright and vibrant, and Carole was really pleased with the effect--we moved into the garage to do some splattering effects-which was great fun!

When we were finished I put the pan on and we all had some bacon sandwiches and a cuppa!

Carole's friend John who had bought her here had a great time with Jake the parrot while we were painting.

They are going to the private viewing on Saturday at the Ludlow Art Society Exhibition, John has just started up framing paintings so Im sure he will pick up a few customers there!

Places left in Classes

I updated the numbers a couple of days ago, which are seen lower down the page--these have changed a bit with new bookings-new places left are as follows

6th sep -Oriental Dawn--2 places left
20th Sep--Emerald Woods--4 places left
27 th Sep --Summer Day--3 places left
11th Oct--- serenity in green--3 places left
I am awaiting a couple of calls back soon about classes so these numbers will be changing soon, I will update asap I know anything.

Craft market

We have been on the Book And Craft fair today on the Castle Square in Ludlow-the weather was a real mixture-pouring down one minute and sun burning bright the next.

It was unusually busy for a change, despite the weather! I didn't even get chance to take any photos, as Bill pointed out as we were packing up at 5pm!

It was a constant stream of people most of the day. Jill a lady Ive been talking to on the Internet for a while came by, she wanted to try out the encaustic art and had ordered the complete set off me.
I gave her a demo of how to do it, and then she had a go, so I could be sure that she knew exactly how much pressure to apply to the iron. She did a lovely pink and purple pic in just a few seconds!
She is a really keen artist and I had to send Bill home to collect some black and white blank canvas as I had forgotten she had told me she wanted some!
Good job we are only 1 mile away!
I managed to get 2 paintings done--2 class subjects that I wanted to get done on the size canvas we use in class.
At the moment they are on much bigger canvas and it was confusing people when I said they were class subjects-the size put them off!!

Anyway I managed to finish them, in between all the chatting and demonstrating, I hope they dry before the weekend so I can take them to the Tern Valley Vintage show .

Sat Aug 9th-Winter Wonderland

We had a really fun class yesterday.

Jack is on his 12th/13th painting (will have to check!).

Chris and Pauline are on no 6 each and received their artists badges-Chris had his speech ready and was disappointed that the press didn't turn up for photos etc!!!

Oliver aged 12 was here for the third time-joined by his grandad Don who was painting for the first time.

So real mixed lot !

Everyone was surprised by how little paint was on their palettes to start with.

I explained that there is no point in putting out lots of white paint in the beginning as it will just get contaminated by the blue, so we add that as we need it!

Right from the start everyone's painting was completely different-as is the norm.

I had explained to Don who was attending for the first time that the idea of the classes is not to produce a carbon copy of the painting we are using as an example but to show everyone how to use the tools of the trade!

Its lovely to see how everyone interprets everything I show them differently.Don couldn't believe all the different skies we had in at the start.

The same went for all the different stages.Trees, snow and water!

The class was a little different to the normal one after 11am--my friend Ros arrived with hubby Lincoln and son at the venue.

We were expecting them after a lovely holiday spent with them near Glastonbury earlier in the week.

Ros is a very talented artist, and runs the website www.affordablebritishart.co.uk

of which I am a member.

Its a brilliant site, easy to use for both buyers and artists alike.

The students really enjoyed having Ros there, she handed out some valuable tips to the students. It was interesting for me to to see how Ros does things.

Ros and family found it all very interesting to see the end results, which the students were all chuffed to bits with!

The students had two for the price of one according to Jack in the comments book!!

After we cleared away, we all went home to introduce the menagerie to them. Jake of course did his usual and didn't say a word until we all went out of the room-then he proceeded to say something very rude !!!

Bill had put a couple of chickens in the slow cooker to do while we were out,and had prepared a mountain of vegetables to roast, as well as the normal boiled veg.

I made some bread sauce, got the cranberry sauce out and we all had a lovely Christmas Dinner complete with Christmas crackers-which Ros's son managed to win most of the prizes!

Ros thought it was great as she is working Christmas Day!

They say never work with children or animals and I can see why!

Jake proceeded to make farting noises all evening-making everyone crack up with laughter!

All in all a great day, it was great to meet up again, and we are already making arrangements to go up to Scotland to see them again-cant wait!