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.

DON'T throw away old brushes......

Just a bit of fun really.......but if you want to see how I rescued a very used and abused painting brush you'll see all in my forum HERE under the heading 'What would you do with this?'. If nothing else, it might make you think twice before throwing a brush away.

A new type of painting class?

This morning's demo was a lively event. I demo'ed this particular Art Group a couple of years ago and I've been a member ever since. Now, the first time I gave a talk I was fine, I didn't really know a soul. This time though was a little different as I'm really familiar now with all the other members. And this time.........I was a little nervous. I really wanted to give my friends a good talk, a good show, something a little different. The way to present a very different and new slant on the wet on wet technique came to me in an inspired early morning flash. I woke up at around 5.30am with a great little idea - and I put that idea into practice for the first half of the demo. I was thrilled at the end of the talk to be asked back AGAIN! So, with our diaries at the ready we've scheduled in a painting workshop. Once again, my supplies were popular as there's equipment and DVD's on offer to suit watercolour, acrylic, pastels and other. My main painting was raffled off, to raise funds for the group and it's gone to a really good home too. One lady was telling me that her nephew would love to learn to oil paint and would more than likely be interested in painting exactly the way I did during the first half......... 'It would suit him perfectly'. Now I'm wondering if I just might have struck upon a new-style oil painting class.......I'm not giving too much away at the moment, but I'll run the ideas by some of my regulars and see if they would be up for it. Isn't it great how one thing often leads to another.

Live Demonstrations

It was lovely to meet with the Holland-On-Sea Art Group last night. They had booked an oil painting demonstration and talk. When I arrived, they had set out about 8 large tables. Me, being a bit of a 'spreader' used each and every one of them. Alan even managed to set up an art store in the corner of the room which proved really popular before, after and during the tea break. Several members of the group are already active oil painters, probably the highest percentage that I have come across in an art group to date. This group are really lucky to have a facility where they can run an ongoing exhibition along the sea front from March right through to September, being manned by volunteers from within the group. The group are always looking for new members and to be honest, with this exhibition facility on a plate for you, I'd highly recommend anyone within the area to consider joining up. E-mail me for contact details if you're interested. If you'd like me to come along to give your group a demo, you can find the details HERE At the end of the evening, just as I was putting the final brush strokes on the mountain and lake painting, I told the audience 'If anyone can read this next bit, you can have the painting'. I started to put in my Arabic signature, pausing between letters. One cheeky lady asked 'Is it the Loch Ness Monster?' So I explained about my Sue's News page and told her 'you're gonna be on it...........' (The painting was given to the Chairman of the group, who very kindly helped us to set up and clear away).

Underwater Inspiration

Here's Jazarah. He's the bright orange starfish I bought for my daughter's marine aquarium. I was asked to name him, his name means 'carrot' in Arabic. He actually looks like 6 little carrots. Here you can see him moving up the front of her tank (I say him, but it could be a she for all we know). The top of him is a vivid orange, almost luminous, hence the name. We also picked up a sea anenome in a brilliant bright white with pink tips on the tentacles, a burgundy feather duster tubeworm and a hermit crab with bright blue legs. These keep her fish and dancing shrimps company. An expensive hobby, but..........whenever I go to visit her we both sit in front of the tank for ages watching all the creatures. One of the first items she brought for her tank was several kilos of live rock. In a few months, this rock has produced all manner of organisms. The harder you study it the more you see. I have an old hand held magnifying glass in my office and I'll be giving that to her next time I visit. It'll help us get a much closer look at what's occurring.

Looking at Soha's aquarium has got me all inspired. Quite a few months ago I worked on an oil painting of a couple of 'Nemo' fish, just for fun really. I think I might like to re-design the painting and change the composition a little. It's amazing how we can look back on our work and think of what we would like to change - especially when we have learned new techniques since the original painting.

Pop Art Portrait - Kings Of Leon

I forgot to take a photo of one of the Pop Art paintings I made for my eldest daughter's Christmas present. I managed to rectify this today by popping over to her house and seeing the painting hung in situ. With a spotlight by the side of it, hung on a plain wall, it really looks fab. Apparently everyone who has seen it has passed a favourable comment on it and one friend wants to book a Pop Art class with me so she can paint it for herself. For those of you who are wondering who this fab four are - it's the King's Of Leon. A few months ago my daughter was singing the band's praises to me. I told her I didn't know what all the fuss was about as I could take them or leave them (preferably leave them). Her reply was 'Mum, not liking the Kings of Leon is the ONLY un-cool thing about you. Well, things have changed since then and their latest CD is permanently in my car, with another copy of the same CD in the dining room (thanks to a generous Santa). They are now my baking background music and it's one of my most played CD's. Hopefully, that now makes me a cool mum........ I've put a larger version of this painting in my gallery HERE so you can view a more detailed image. It is gallery wrapped (which means it's painted right around the canvas edges) and measures 20 x 8 inches. This 4 person Pop Art portrait is for sale for £85 (includes postage and packing to UK mainland), should anyone want one.......or, for a £65 private class fee you could paint your own - or any other celebrity you care to name.