Old friends

A couple of weeks ago I had a visit from students who are more like long lost friends than customers. They first started painting with me a few years ago, travelling all the way from York. It was great to catch up with all the news and chat, and of course, it's the first time they've seen me since I lost all the weight too, so they had a very new-style Sue teaching them today. They left with a goodie bag of Victoria Sponge, Cheese Scones and Cinnamon Fruit Loaf, (well it stops me being tempted). I'll be seeing them again in class tomorrow where they will be swapping from the acrylics and Pop Art to more wet on wet traditional oil painting. After this re-union I caught up with another student who I haven't seen since 2007. It was great to catch up on news, but most importantly, we'll went over the ins and outs of becoming an Alexander Instructor. Fingers crossed we'll have another member from Europe enrolling on the course.

An Unusual Lesson

I conducted a rather unusual lesson the other week..........my students had supplied me with a swatch of curtain material and a photo of their new settee. They wanted nothing more than to paint their own contemporary or abstract artwork to hang in their soon-to-be decorated lounge. I'd explained that this would not be a follow my lead/step by step workshop. Instead, I would give them a wide selection of brushes, a few pointers, illustrate some special effects and be on hand if they needed any assistance. The palette had already been selected, so pretty much anything they made would have gone with the decor. We started off by putting masking tape over some areas and blocking of sections of canvas and blending various tones. As the day progressed some rather pretty effects materialised. Here's one lady's almost completed piece and she's absolutely delighted with it - a pretty oriental cherry blossom theme that will compliment her home beautifully. She may be back to paint some more on different sized canvas to hang on opposite and adjacent walls. I bet that will look really nice, and will make for quite a talking point too.

What a grey day

Are you all experiencing this horrible fog we are having at the moment? It's dense and it's freezing cold and I can't see to the bottom of my garden. Despite having a warm car sat at the top of the path, I decided to carry on with my daily 4 mile walk to the village post office. I put on an extra couple of jumpers and two pairs of gloves as well. The post office is only a mile down the road and once the internet orders were posted I walked on for another mile, studying the frosty cobwebs and the frost patterns on the foliage along my way. This time I took my camera with me. You can see here, (top photo), how this heavy fog has made everything appear a dull grey and blue/white. I guess the scenes from my walk strongly influenced today's painting exercise, as you can see from the bottom photo. My painting isn't finished yet as I had to stop work to make some fresh home made soup for tomorrow's art group. I'll go back to it on Sunday and see what develops. One thing I will say, it's great painting in my new (very warm and cosy) workspace. I can just leave everything as it is and pick up/drop off whenever I choose. I also get to keep an eye on the washing, as the tumble dryer is in the same room - it doubles up as a nice big worktop area for my bits too.