Not a dry eye in the hall.....

Well, I can safely say all of the students who have taken part in the portraiture seminar have left the class with amazing paintings. We've had a few guests drop by this afternoon to admire the work and their feedback has given the students good reason to smile. I'll pop some images of the actual portraits on the website over the next few days so you can see for yourselves.

I have to take this opportunity to thank my lovely nephew, Edward. He has been ever vigilant in fetching paints, keeping the refreshments on the go, running errands at the drop of a hat, taking photos - the list goes on.

We were particularly touched after lunch today when Valerie, Edward & I were summoned to the dinner table. The lovely Pauline shushed everyone up, pulled a sheet of paper from her notes, stood up and read this:

Dear Sue
Your unassuming attitude
Your generous nature and servitude
Deserve a special mention in all our books
(And so does Robbie Williams' good looks)
For you - no gift - maybe a cup of tea
And a great big thanks for your Company
A special mention though,
About your cake
That recipe, I would like to take
Back home with me - so -
When I get a minuteI can bake, and not paint,
When my heart's not in it.
Please remember to keep in touch
'Cos we all shall miss you so very much

NOW

Dear Valerie,
A bouquet of flowers -We thought of that,
But you've no time to enjoy them -So that fell flat!
We all agreed that
Whatever we choose
'Twould be a waste
'Cos you're off on a cruise.
We all subscribed for this gift -You've not had
Then decided the dosh
Go to Edward instead!

This dear lad has been so good
Making us drinks & offering food
He deserves recognition for all
He has done
And we must say it now
Before we're all gone.
He's waited on us
Hand and foot -
But you, dear Valerie......U CAN KISS MY BUTT !!!
(I love you tho' xxx)

As Pauline read the Edward paragraph she walked around the table towards him and emptied a jug into his lap. The student's had made a secret collection and presented it to a very surprised and stunned teenager. Pauline's poem touched all our hearts having us laughing one minute and welling up the next.

What a lovely lot you are - and what a lovely job I have when it brings folk like this into my life.
I love you all and hope to paint with you again sometime soon.
From the heart - thankyou
xxxxxx

Tantalising Smells........

Just before today's Pop Art workshop I spied the egg bowl, looked at the kitchen clock and decided I had just enough time to throw the ingredients for a spicy fruit loaf into the breadmaker - which immediately took care of 2 eggs. Consequently, 3 hours into the class we were painting along to the heavenly smells of warm bread, fruit, cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spices. Unable to resist, the loaf was sliced while it was still hot, served with lashings of butter and a hot cup of tea. I'm trying really hard to resist as I know I can't stop at one slice. I'll be running another Pop Art workshop on Thursday 29th April - details can be found HERE. I can't promise more spicy fruit loaf though, but there's normally a bit of home baking served up to students.

Seeing as it's St Patrick's Day, I'll leave you with a Pop Art Portrait of one of my favourite Irish Celebs.

Get outta the kitchen

I decided to spend a lot less time in the kitchen. Regular readers will know I often have up to 4 hour sessions at a time, creating all sorts of tasty things with my increasing supply of free range eggs. Despite the reduced hours my productivity has increased - and it's thanks to a long awaited piece of equipment. Last week I decided to treat myself to a food processor, which has cut my manual time by loads. In no time at all I've whisked up a family sized quiche, a chicken and vegetable pie, half a gallon of vegetable soup, 2 dozen buns, 2 fruit cakes, 2 trays of fruit, coconut and choc-chip flapjacks. This means my cake tins, fridge and the freezer are quite full. Plus, there's quite a few attachments I still haven't used yet. I can remember well over 35 years ago my mum getting the state of the art Kenwood Chef. It had so many attachments and accessories and we enjoyed her weekend home baking sessions. She was much more adventurous than me (but my eggs are better).

The Women's Institute take to oils

We had a really pleasant drive very early Saturday morning to the venue of my class. Apart from the temperature, you'd think it was a summer's day. The venue was a lot easier to find in broad daylight than it was in the dark too. I'd given a talk on oil painting to the WI ladies of Mendham just before Christmas and they'd subsequently booked me to teach an oil painting class to their group. It was easier for me to go to them, than have them come to Capel. The group settled into the class so quickly and easily with their 'no messing' attitude. Some great paintings all round and everyone's really pleased with themselves. We've already selected the next painting project - everyone present wants to come again and there maybe a few extras too. Interestingly, a couple of ladies came well prepared with protective clothing. They managed, between them, to get oil paint on just about every surface imaginable. Which........in my book, makes you a proper artist.

Website housekeeping

Over the last few days, when I've had a few minutes, I've been having a jiggle about with the website. Some jiggling has gone on behind the scenes and some jiggling has affected the way some of my webpages now appear. I've tended to update my website on automatic pilot mode for a long time now and I've not really paid attention to how things can perhaps be refined, made a little easier on the eye (and the screen). So.................if you see a few little changes, don't be alarmed. You would not believe how many photos I deleted yesterday from the website album.....some as old as 2006. I guess it's my little premature Spring Clean!

Venetia - a 2 day painting project

I needed to refresh my memory on a little area on the 'Venetia' painting. I'm teaching the second stage of it later this week. I've actually ended up painting the whole thing again, partly to increase my speed and partly to double check the bit I wasn't 100% sure about. (You can see I don't leave anything to chance when it comes to a painting class!) What I'm left with is a completely different colour tone - which just illustrates how colour mixes can change a painting. Probably mood has a big influence too. A bold and fearless student will paint a completely different painting to a quiet and timid person. If you scroll down you'll see the much richer and deeper earlier version of the same composition.

More dates

Just a quicky to let you know the class schedule has been updated with more dates and painting subjects. Private Classes are available inbetween these dates subject to availability. Please call me on 01473 311938 or drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk if you'd like to book tuition or have any enquiries.

Private class chit chatter

With a private class, it's quite a different experience to a group class painting. For a start, it's up close and personal. The students and I get a good chance to chat as we paint. Today's lady, Anne and I certainly had a lot to talk about. Apart from our mutual interest in art, Anne spent several years in the Middle East and is more than familiar with the Emirates. So we covered ex-pat life in sunny Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. My first proper job at the age of 16 was in the Sharjah Carlton Hotel. There were only 2 hotels in Sharjah at that time. My office was opposite the reception, see here, on the top left, just behind that row of plants. Anne is also the mother-in-law of a student of mine who emigrated to Canada several months ago. It was great to go through the photos of Anne's recent visit there to see how the family are getting on and what their new surroundings look like. If you fancy indulging yourself in a private class, at the moment it's only an extra £20 above normal class price and includes a lunch. If you bring a friend you can take advantage of a £5 discount each. I can take up to 4 students in a private group booking too, if you prefer to have an exclusive painting party with friends. Plus YOU get to choose the painting subject from the ever growing gallery. Call me on 01473 311938 for more details/availability.

Valet and Easel

Last week the weather wasn't reliable enough to go for my bike ride. So, I replaced the pedal power with wax-on, wax-off power and gave my car a full valet instead. To be honest a bike ride would have been much quicker but I do feel I've burned off more calories with all the bending and stretching and scrubbing - plus the car looks a lot better for it. My custom-built easel has finally been removed from the boot too - which means I can put the back seats up. This too got a scrub down and I've almost removed most of the oil paint from it (the easel, not the boot). I'll be favouring the stand up easel over the table-top easel for the next few days in my private classes. I should really use this beautiful easel more often when I am at home.

Word Searches

People find my website by a variety of ways. When I view my statistics I'm often smiling at the wierd combination of word searches that seem to pull up my website. Yesterday I had a hit from someone searching 'where to get a tattoo of husband's name'. Another hit came from 'arabic lettering'. A third hit came from 'dip in horizon'. Just a handful of examples for you, and I'll make a point in future to mention further bizarre search words.

Woops - a - daisy !

I had a bit of an accident when hanging the Serengeti painting up to dry. I have several nails in walls around the house and that's where my wet paintings get sometimes get hung, plus it gives me a chance to live with them for a bit. I gallery wrapped this painting (or, in layman's terms, I painted around the edges). Just as this painting was in position it slipped from my hands it hit the lounge carpet on it's side and then fell face down. A bit like buttered toast really. Did I panic? Nope! Out came Grandma's Secret Spot Remover and within seconds the BLACK oil paint was removed from the carpet. But that wasn't all.......I had a big black smudge across the front of the painting. So out came my trusty wipe out tool. Off came the smudge and it was soon repaired and back to normal again. If this happens to you - for £5.50 the spot remover will take out paint stains from clothes and furnishings and for £5.99 the wipe-out tool will take out any random blobs from your paintings. You can see a little indentation on the bottom picture that was caused by pressure - this will become flat again as the painting dries out.

A Righteous Path

Today I worked on a new painting subject. This is a quaint little composition with a bit of everything. Some subtle pastel mountains, some foliage and grass, a pretty little church, some birds, some fencing and a pathway. This is available straight away as a private class subject. As most of my painting subjects, this is aimed at beginners. No previous artistic skills or experience is necesary to make this painting. Simply follow my easy step by step guides and you too can return home with a painting similar to this one. If you'd like to see my availability for private tuition please give me a call on 01473 311938 or drop me an e-mail on info@ayoubart.co.uk At just £65 for a private class, which includes refreshments and lunch plus all the materials and equipment you need, this is a very relaxing and rewarding way top spend half a day. If you bring a friend, you get a £5 discount.......each.