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...

Sunflowers and Exhibitions

I'm looking forward to tomorrows workshop...the weather forecast is much better and all 6 students are able to attend...it will be a fun one to do and I'm really looking forward to it!

Well its come a full circle...quite a few years ago I had an exhibition of my work in Leominster Library..a certain lady called Carol Dukes saw my work and picked up one of my leaflets.. she attended some of my workshops and we became great friends....she has now had her own exhibition in Leominster Library and had sold 3 paintings when we called by there...The Birches she painted in my workshop...and the one shown below is based on my Serenity painting....

She also had some of her beautiful dried flower arrangements on display too..

I love Carol's poppy....

I have some of my paintings in exhibition at "Footprints And Hearts" Corve St, Ludlow..

Its a lovely space--and there are some beautiful things to browse there as well as the popular "Pop-up Tea Parties" that are held there regularly...

As well as the exhibition at Footprints and Hearts I have some paintings in the Ludlow Art Society Spring Exhibition at the Harley Centre,Ludlow Collage, Castle Square, Ludlow....shown above is one of my watercolour paintings...Stormy Seas...and below I have the other paintings entered in the exhibition...

Purple Poppy has been done with acrylic and melted wax...

Squirrels Eye View is in acrylic

Summers Day is in oils..

Stormy Skies in oils..

The Birches diptych...acrylic..

Weather----grrrrrrr

I had to cancel last Saturdays workshop because of the snow...we couldn't get out of our road to get to the venue and I had students coming from Birmingham, Shrewsbury, Telford ,Leominster and Cleobury Mortimer-and they had no chance of getting here safely.
So for every ones sake it was the best option to cancel...everyone except 2 have booked in for another workshop...so that's been sorted.
I'm keeping everything crossed that we will be able to run the new Sunflower workshop this Saturday--but I wont hold my breath--the forecast is for more snow Friday...watch this space.....

Celebrations

Well I'm all behind doing my blog as we have been away to celebrate my 52nd birthday and our 12th wedding anniversary! We decided to return to Tenby where we had our honeymoon all those years ago! We stayed in a little guest house called Southside...our room was right up in the top of the house...and while the bed looked lovely--boy was it hard! Since Ive had the polymyalgia I suffer a lot of pain in all my body and need a softer bed so I can sleep---it was also one of the noisiest bed we have ever slept in....which did make us laugh a lot!

it did have a little seating area to watch the TV from...

and a little desk/wardrobe area--unfortunately the wifi didn't work there--so we ended up really having a complete break from everything--work,family and friends!

The weather was kind to us as it usually...and we were able to get about and mooch around Tenby without brollies..

such a pretty place..

After 2 nights we moved on to The Cliff Hotel and Spa at Cardigan....a bit more luxury there and a quite super king size bed that was completely quiet! The only drawback was---absolutely  no mobile phone signal or Internet acces at all! If you want to get away from it all--The Cliff is the place to go!

And just look at the view we had from our window...it couldn't have been better...

We watched the sun going down

and you could have been anywhere in the world...

The Cliff...

fantastic views from the back of the hotel..

We had a meal included in our deal....chicken pate to start..

and rib eye steak with garlic and pepper sauce and garlic potatoes...not sure what if any of these things caused poor Bill to be ill that night but he was certainly  ill! We both ate exactly the same food while we were away,,and I was OK..Thankfully he was OK in the morning and managed to put away a decent breakfast! In fact it was one of the best breakfasts we have had anywhere....

the huge conservatory that looks out over the bay..

We woke up to this beautiful day the first morning...

We went for a drive around the coast....

found a lovely little pub near here where we had lunch..

These 2 cheeky bugger were obviously used to being fed and kept coming up to our window and looking for food---they didn't get any!

We did quite a bit of celebrating while we were away!

Looked like the hotel had a refurb over the winter,,,,everywhere was sparkling and new..

We stopped off on the way home...some beautiful views in the area..

It was starting to snow on the mountains on our way home..

We saw loads of Kite in the area too...shame it was too cold to hang about to see them fed....all in all we had a wonderful time...apart from the bed and the food poisoning! But as always me and Bill laughed our way through it all...and that is one of the secrets of a happy marriage--keep smiling and laughing together!!!