A busy couple of weeks

I spent a lovely few days in the Lake District at the Derwent Pencil Museum at the beginning of the month, where I demonstrated and taught for three days, meeting some lovely people there. We had a fun workshop painting chickens and learning various techniques, all of which feature in my new book to be published very soon! 

If you buy my book from me from my web site on-line, I am giving away with it a FREE blank stencil worth £3 and a Daniel Smith dot card. I can't wait! Its such a lovely book, I am sure you will love it too.

I seem to have had another hectic couple of weeks.

Yesterday it was an early start for me driving to Wales to visit two art groups, in the morning I was demonstrating flower techniques in Torfaen and in the evening, boats and harbours in South Wales. This is one of the paintings I completed in the evening, there was a camera and projector and a hall full with 75 people, so the big screen was very important. It did mean the room was dark and I was lit, so it looks like I am painting in the dark, but I wasn't really!

Easter at the farm - (not for the squeamish)

Easter this year was full of the joy of new life, with the arrivals of the Spring lambs. I have been looking forward to visiting the farm for weeks and i was thrilled to witness lambing in full swing when I arrived. (Violet and Richard probably weren't quite as thrilled as I was as they had been up most nights last week helping the ewes with the lambing) but I am just an on looker and for me it was fabulous!

As the mothers wait to have their lambs in the centre of the shed, there are penned off areas where the new arrivals and their mothers are safe for a few days before being let out onto the fields.
I peered over the pens to see some wonderful tiny new lambs and their proud mums peering back up at me.

This is me with a 6 hour old lamb, it was so warm and soft, absolutely wonderful. 

I was fortunate to witness the birth of a lamb, which was rather special - but look away now if you are squeamish in any way.....

The new lambs nose and tongue is just visible, this is the perfect birth position I am told.

Violet needs to assist the lamb a little, but the mother bonds straight away and begins licking her new arrival. I never thought new born lambs could be yellow! There is something rather wonderful about watching this whole process. 
I kept my distance as the sheep don't know me and its important not to spook them at such a time.

This is the new arrival, isn't it wonderful? The other ewes are a bit curious and come for a look at the new arrival, they don't get too close and are not a threat in any way.

After a couple of days to make sure they are ok, they are then let out into the field next to the farm. Unfortunately, the very tiny ones are easy pickings for the fox and the following morning sadly one of these lovely little lambs had been taken.

This is where I take a lot of my photos which I then use for reference in my paintings... sketches and paintings coming soon, i am sure!

South Korea, Leicester, Peterborough and Tewkesbury

I was full of good intentions, as soon as I got back from South Korea I was going to write my blog, but life got in the way and things became so hectic that a whole week has flown by. My feet have hardly touched the ground.
The week in S Korea was fantastic, the students were fabulous, I tweeted images each day so here are a couple of photos from one of the 6 workshops I did.

I had such a fun workshop in Doncaster with a lovely group of people all wanting a fun day painting a street scene, it was great. (Such fun I forgot to take a group photo) 

Then Driving south, my next demo was in Leicester, wow this group have a fabulous venue, these are the gardens. Inspiration on their doorstep all year round, stunning. 

They had specifically asked me to paint an allotment scene, so this was what I did for them. This is a very jolly group, lots of banter, it was such a fun morning.

Then it was off to Peterborough to paint flowers, wearing my piny (apron) from South Korea. I seem to buy one each time I go because they are so lovely.

Friday I had a catch up day which drifted into Saturday as well but on Sunday I had a switch off day. This week I have demonstrated in Tewkesbury and have tried to catch up on admin before it piles up so high I can't see over the top of it!

I am excited to be helping at a farm with lambing over the week end as well as visiting a sheep auction, I love to see all the fabulous different breeds all penned ready for sale, and watching the auction is fascinating. If I manage time to do a sketch, I shall show you, meanwhile, I have another busy day tomorrow.

Off to South Korea again

I'm now all prepared for my week teaching in South Korea. Everything is ready to pack and its the excitement before travelling time! The flight is long but I will watch a couple of movies and try and sleep a bit, I like travelling but not the actual travel bit, if that makes sense? I am not sure if I will manage to blog whilst I am away but I will definitely tweet and take some photos. 
This is the lovely family who organise our trip and always make us so welcome, we are looking forward to seeing them again.

The Great Escape!

What a busy weekend I have had! I decided to switch off so spent most of it painting which was just as well as three of my paintings sold in Burford this weekend so I plan to take more  later this week. I painted in the allotments on Saturday and posted in real time on twitter my painting stages, but I didn't want you to miss out, so I have cropped them and chosen a few, here they are.

I started  with a prepared canvas which was covered in a fabulous warm ochre colour, this was to act as a warm base colour. I put in my darks and my lights, so the base acts as my mid tone.  

Then I like to establish a few brights, it positions the important blocks of colour, so I can now tell if the painting is balanced. 

The shed was actually green but I thought if I painted it red (and there is actually a red shed near by) it would balance the red of the wheel in the bottom right corner. Green might have been a bit lost. 

The greens that are sprouting now are the most vivid colour, really bright, I love them! Time also to get in all the distant sheds and stuff, stuff I can't really make out, but its there and it needs to go in.

Those bean poles just HAVE to go in, I can no longer resist them! Then its time for the  background greens and foliage, I used my fingers to smudge the paint flicks to appear like tiny foliage. Its those minute little green shoots, they seem like a haze of bright greens.

This was the stage I had to leave it, the foreground needed a bit doing to finish it, but I ran out of time.
At this stage there is a real danger of over working it.

The final painting, I did not do much more. I am happy with that.... it will go to Burford.

The Flower Market workshop

I travelled cross country to paint with a great group in Dunstable on Saturday. The subject they had chosen for their workshop was 'the flower seller' a painting they had seen on my website which was inspired by my trip to Italy last autumn. 
Street scenes can be quite daunting and ensuring that such a complex view can be achieved within the day takes some planning. However, this group worked really hard all day, in between cups of tea and of course the biscuit tin! I am afraid to say, I think I ate most of the ginger biscuits, but that's another story!

The flower market 9.5 x 13 inches

This is the painting I completed on the day but the whole group were delighted with their own paintings. 

My new workshops are now on my website

How exciting, my new workshops are now on my website, its very snazzy now because you can actually purchase a place on-line as well as see images of the subjects and the venue. If you have been to one of my workshops before you will know what a lovely hall it is and what a fun day we have!
I am so looking forward to painting with you again this year!