New Class Dates

Now that I'm up and about again I feel confident to add to the class timetable. A few more classes have been added, including portraiture and pop art lessons. The portraits are done, pretty much in 3 sessions. Some students have said to me they can make session 1 and 3 (for example) but are unable to make session 2. Well, that is so easily remedied. If you are unable to make any of the portrait dates I can easily fit you in with a date that's convenient to you. As long as I have a 3 hour window in my diary we can do it.

Hello world

I'm sat here in the middle of some admin tasks wondering what to write for my news entry for today. This may interest you, it may not. It's certainly nothing to do with art. Sometimes I look into my website statistics more deeply than others - some days I don't look at them at all. To be honest, there's so many aspects to the statistics charts and I can't say I understand them all. I just concentrate on the more important figures - like what pages are popular, how people are finding me, what their word searches are. Where my referrals are coming from. It's very rare that I view the actual country locations of my readers but this afternoon I thought I'd check it out. Wanna know ? Going straight to the top of the chart we have the UK, followed by the USA. That I expect. Next we have - in order of sessions - Australia, Germany, Russia, Japan, China (that means I can expect some spam emails), Uruguay, Sweden, Ukraine, France, Mauritius, Spain, Colombia, Austria (Hello Helga), Bulgaria, Canada, Netherlands, Portugal, Indonesia, Israel and finally Kenya. Some visitors' locations fall under the heading 'un resolved' - no idea what that could mean. Some fall under the heading 'EU'. So - a big hello to the world, I'm watching you watching me........or rather, these beautiful blue eyes are watching you. They are the work of my recent portrait student. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Sold - to the lady with the Gondola!

During last Saturday's class, Alan brought in a total of 5 fresh eggs. They were sold to a student within minutes - probably the quickest display of manufacturing and sales I've seen so far. They are all destined for a baking session so they've been sold to a lady after my own heart. Our painting subject was the second stage of 'Venetia', the gondola sunset scene. I'm going to run this 2 day class again in April for anyone who would like to do it. (Details HERE) Although it's painted 'wet on wet' style, there are a lot of different techniques involved which gives us a much finer and detailed finish.

Class Subjects - new additions

Some new class dates have been added to the Class Timetable, along with some new class subjects. Here's one I have recently finished, entitled 'Serengeti Sunrise'. This painting was very nearly giraffes........in fact, I still might do a giraffe one.

Dingly Dell

I've been wanting to make a new bluebell wood scene suitable for a painting class. Finally, I have one that I think will be suitable for our 7th June class in Capel St Mary. If you'd like to have a go at 'Dingly Dell' do give me a call on 01473 311938 or drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk We'll start at 12.30pm and we'll finish around 5.30pm. As always, I try to introduce new things to the regular students and in this class you'll discover a natty way to highlight your trees and add detail into your foliage highlights. We'll also be introducing a new couple of new colours to the palette.

Versions of 'The Country Church'

The 'Country Church' painting subject is evolving in many lovely ways. Students are making this particular painting subject their very own work. For instance.....a couple of weeks ago one lady painted in a character laying with his back against the tree, knees bent, relaxing, possibly even asleep. Another lady decided she didn't want to put in the foreground tree - instead she went for pretty highlighted bushes and soft grass. It seems once we get to that foreground area - that's when the composition is really open to change. We've had paths, fences and one clever chap even painted in a path leading to a jetty projecting into the water. We've had spires, lightning poles, windows, doors, extensions added to the little background church too. I'm absolutely delighted that students are having so much fun with their paintings and it shows me their confidence levels and their imagination. Well done.