Well and truly bitten by the bug

It's not unusual to try a wet on wet style oil painting lesson and get bitten by the bug. After, all it's exactly what happened to me a few years ago and look where I am now! However, I don't think I've ever had someone book as many painting lessons as my new best friend, Cassie. Basically, she came along for one session and booked up every single class, with private sessions in between. Today was one of her private sessions - and she brought some friends with her too. What a lovely way to paint. You know everyone else in the class - and that's where the banter kicks in. All of my ladies are American and it was lovely hearing the sunny accent again - the last young lady who spoke it here a month ago was Joyce Ortner. Cassie's friends are total newbies to oil painting and were a little sceptical that they could achieve a masterpiece with their current skill sets and knowledge. Of course, anyone who has tried this technique already knows different....as long as you are shown how, explained why and demonstrated the whats, whos and the wheres, it's 100% possible.

Easy Access

One of my students made her way to me via public transport from London today. There's a direct train from Liverpool Street Station, leaving at around 8am, arriving just after 9am in Ipswich. It only takes me 10 minutes (at that time of day, traffic permitting) to get to the station so I was able to pick her up and we enjoyed a hot drink and shortbread before the class started. It was Rebeka's first time ever at oil painting and she was amazed at the results she achieved. I'm eagerly waiting to see what her friends and family think of her work. 'They'll never believe I made this all by myself', she kept saying. So I took photos for her on her phone camera, which she eagerly sent to her fiends. Rebeka reeled off all the other paintings she wanted to make, so I think she'll be taking that train journey a few times. I was able to secure her painting and protect it so she could take it home with her. She was guarding it with her life when I dropped her back at the station!

New Class Subject - with a difference

My oil painting, made on last week, has received quite a bit of feedback from visitors, website fans and art forums. And so, for this reason I've decided to make it a new Class Subject. Not only that, I am keeping it exactly as it is - which is small.........measuring 9 x 12 inches. Plus......it's on canvas paper, so I am sticking to that also. This means, when the painting is dry it can be mounted and framed very easily and economically. Because of the differences in size, materials, brushes used and time, compared to a normal class, I am able to offer the lesson at a cheaper rate. So, we'll be painting this on Sunday February 21st in Capel St Mary Village Hall (and also in Heartlands in February - date to be confirmed). The cost of the class will be just £38 per person. You can find class details HERE. A larger image of the painting subject can be found HERE. It's been named 'Contemplation' thanks to the input from one of my dear students.

Art For Fun

Yesterday was the first meeting of the year for the Art For Fun art group. Many of us turned up to a very frosty hall to spend a couple of hours catching up with news and working on our varying art projects. While we were waiting for the heating to be sorted out I chatted to several members. I was thrilled to hear one member had sold the painting she made in the acrylic workshop I gave the group some months ago. Here's what we painted (shown above). Well done Carol. Another member showed me her version of the same project but using a different colour group. Another member had made a version in watercolour, filled with rich crimsons, blues and purples. All great stuff indeed. I worked on something that will save me a little time during tomorrow's class. If I can mix business with pleasure like this I really don't mind. (Thanks for the lift Angela - looking forward to seeing your finished Guinea Fowl.)

Your first Bamburgh Castle Painting - just by following the DVD

The first 'Bamburgh' of the year has just been received....... Kim e-mailed me this finished piece earlier today. I really like the very rich reds and I like the addition of the birds in several different groups. I think it works really well. I will pop a larger image in Sue's Forum so you can see better. Well done Kim. I know Kim won't mind me telling you she painted this at an ungodly time in the morning. 'Duty' called at 5.30am and instead of returning to bed afterwards, Kim decided to take brush to hand and paint her readily prepared canvas. If anyone else would like to have a go at this step by step tuitional DVD project, you can find the shopping cart by clicking HERE.

Website statistics

Some more of the stranger word searches that have landed unsuspecting visitors to my website are: Raku Pottery / Jim Jam Game / Postal Strike Delays / Caravan Kit / Bunches of Mushrooms. No doubt somewhere on my website, even on pages that have been removed from public view, there will be a combination of these words and phrases. Another interesting aspect to my statistics are the locations of visitors. Just yesterday hits were received from Switzerland, Canada, Indonesia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Japan, Italy, Russia, Poland, South Africa, Uruguay, Sweden and China, to name but a few. Unfortunately when I see the names of some of these countries I know I will also have spam mail offering me anything from cheap frames, reproduction prints, the daily lottery wins and the regular requests to kindly accept millions of dollars into my bank account.

Lets get Tropical, Tropical

A woman's perogative - I've made a couple of changes to my Class Timetable. I'm changing this month's painting subject at The Green Room (Saturday July 25th) and next month's painting subject at Capel St Mary Village Hall (Sunday August 16th). I've been influenced by a couple of things: 1) The rather hot weather we've been experiencing the last few days and 2) The photos from my daughter's holiday. She spent a couple of weeks in the Caribbean and during that time she took a boat trip to Paradise Island. Fingers crossed the sun will be shining and the windows and doors will be flung open when we paint this. If you'd like to come along do give me a call on 01473 311938 or drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk There's a couple of new techniques involved, just to keep you on your toes. You can see a much larger image of this painting in the Class Subject's Gallery HERE

Doin' the mess around.......

After a private floral class last week, I didn't clear everything away as I normally do. Instead I left out all the paints and soft floral brushes so I could have a mess about with different brushes and various flower types. I also had some sample canvas to try out and it was the ideal time, on Sunday afternoon, to have a play around. The canvas was good, and the thin layer of medium sat nicely on the surface, which means the priming layer was more than adequate. I experimented with the different Alexander floral brushes, the floral brushes I stock and some brushes from another Company. You just never know when you are going to find a new gem of a brush and whether it would be worth stocking or not. I then filled a canvas with daisies, poppies, geraniums, hydrangeas, leaves and a chrysanthemum bloom. This gave me a chance to play around with the brushes and also try different mediums, comparing shop brought mediums to home made medium mixes. So all in all a great afternoon. I'm really loving the daisies, poppies and chrysanthemum blooms and they would be ideal little flowers for a beginner to do. I'll have to see if there's a way I can put them together to make an interesting and pretty painting composition.

Bamburgh Castle - now available to all levels

My Bamburgh Castle painting is probably one of the most popular choices for private classes. However, as it stands it's only open to intermediate students (students who have attended 4 painting workshops). There is a way this painting can be taught to beginners and we'll make this the subject for Sunday July 5th 12.30 - 5.30 at Capel Village Hall. If you'd like to paint this scene, do drop me a line or give me a call. If you're a complete beginner, why not give this pretty castle composition a go and impress you're friends and family. I'll take the class through the method step by step from start to finish, no rush, no pressure and a lot of fun. We'll be painting this on a panoramic canvas as it works well with the composition.

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.

A quiz while we paint

Neville, a regular student of mine, often poses a thought provoking question during painting workshops, (remember several weeks ago, whilst painting the stars into the Northern Lights painting, he wondered who sang the original version of 'Swinging on a Star'?). Neville keeps us entertained with his quizzes and today none of us had the answer to his question. Our little church is painted in using a sable brush. 'Where does sable come from?', asked Neville. He had us foxed until we could get home and google it............. Would any readers have been able to answer him on the spot? Incidentally, we'll be painting the Northern Lights again on Saturday 25th April from 10am till 3pm at the Green Room in Stowmarket. If you'd like to attend this class, do give me a call on 01473 311938 or drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk

All stocked up.......

I've just updated some of my online shopping baskets. I had a few brushes that were temporarily out of stock but am pleased to say we're firing on all cylinders again. The soft floral brushes, in particular, are hugely popular tools at such an affordable price, enabling students to buy in 2's or 3's. I'm pleased to say the grey graphite paper, (which I'm lead to believe just can't be found in art stores at the moment), is back in stock also at just £2.25 a sheet (includes delivery). We've stocked up on the wipe out tools, which are being used more and more for putting in signatures with precision and also for scratching in delicate little details to the foliage areas. And of course, there's the infamous 'Grandma's Spot Remover', a brilliant little bottle of heaven-knows-what that's guaranteed to remove all manner of stains from your clothes - so if you have some oil paint spots on your favourite pair of jeans - this little beauty at just £5.50 will rescue them for you.

We learn new things all the time

My local art group often have guest artists to give demonstrations of their specific media or style. I, myself was a guest demonstrator, showing the wet on wet oil painting technique, over a year ago. I loved the group so much that I joined.

Today we had an artist giving a talk and demonstration on composition, shade and colour using acrylics and pastels. The demonstration was concluded with a short step by step workshop.

You can see here a wide range of landscapes completed by some of the members. It's great to put our finished results in a line so we can see the difference in styles amongst ourselves.

Mood, pressure, type of brush and variety of colour mixes ensures that even though we follow the same guide, all paintings, whilst they have their similarities, will look different. So today, I've learned a few more tips about both art and teaching whilst enjoying the company of friends and colleagues who put together a rather tasty buffet.

Pop Art

As well as teaching the wet on wet oil painting technique, I also teach pop art. Pop Art is made in acrylics and is only available as a private class. I can take up to two students maximum for this to allow for 100% personnal guidance. The Pop Art classes also run for approx 5 hours and the subject can be either taken from a family photo or a celebrity. If you wish to paint a family member, I will need the photo sent to me by either e-mail or post a week in advance to make sure it is suitable for Pop Art. If you wish to paint a celebrity I will need to know the name also a week in advance. This allows me to play around with images for the best possible representation. Tomorrow's private student wishes to paint Robbie Williams so today, in an exercise to experiment with colour mixing, I have painted my own Pop Art version as a guide. He's hanging on my lounge wall to dry and his eyes follow you everywhere! If you'd like to book a Pop Art Workshop, drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk or call me on 01473 311938

Once upon a time.....

Way way way back, when I first thought about teaching the wet on wet technique, I had a couple of eager young 'Guinea Pigs' who patiently let me practice with them. Micheala, a young teenager and daughter of a neighbour was enjoying art at High School. Her art lessons with me went hand in hand with her school work. Micheala has now left school and is working, soon to take her driving test too! She has painted a few paintings on her own and given them as gifts to family and friends.

Stacey, another young lady, happily let me try out new subjects on her and her friends a few years ago. She has since painted both privately and in classes. Although she's not attended a class for a couple of years, we met up late last year at an Exhibition. I was stewarding at the time and walked around with her browsing the many works. Stacey had just purchased her house and proudly informed me she had decorated it with her own works of art. 'Sue', she said, 'I learned the technique from you and now I'm painting my way'. Many thanks for your guidance'.

More recently, another student has been showing me her 'home' work. Joan has learned the basics and she is now confidently experimenting with all manner of colour and tools. Joan is currently taking part in an Easter Exhibition and has already has sold several of her paintings privately. You can see her Bluebell Wood above.

Regular students, Katie and Des, have made all manner of paintings covering a wide variety of painting subjects. They take what they learn from a class and use it in their own way. You can see examples of their work on their own blogspot showcase here: http://wwwkadeart.blogspot.com/ After learning how to make an animal portrait, Des used the technique and created a wonderful oil painting of their pet cat, Tizzy.

Once the technique and the brushes have been mastered the world is as big as your own imagination. It just goes to show that oil painting really is great fun for everyone and a very rewarding hobby.

Little People

Today I've been fiddling around with some more landscape scenes that will be suitable for complete beginners to paint in my AyoubArt Oil Painting Classes. For one of the projects I wanted to create a nice warm snow scene in brown, cream and ochre tones......... I also wanted to give it that little something extra. What a difference it makes to the painting to have these little silhouette figures. I'm calling this one 'Remember a day'. A gift voucher for a private lesson to paint this romantic scene would make the ideal Valentine's gift, don't you think? It'd last a lifetime too.

Intermediate Painting Classes

Students who have taken a few AyoubArt Classes and are familiar with the wet on wet technique involved can progress beyond a basic landscape. Last week Peggy took stage one of her Tall Ship painting, The Cutty Sark. Peggy is in her 70's and undergoes her first cataract operation this week. When you see what she accomplished in her first advanced class you'll find it hard to believe.











Tomorrow, Mr Stevens tackles his first wildlife project - Leon. For now, you can see Barbara's version of Leon. Barbara is another student of mine and recently took part in a local Art Exhibition. She sold a total of 4 of her 6 paintings.

To qualify for one of these painting subjects you only need to have taken 4 AyoubArt Classes at only £45 each. A 15% discount is available EACH if you come in pairs. This applies to both my scheduled classes and the private classes.

Just for good measure, the third advanced painting subject I offer is a popular scene of Bamburgh Castle. You can see Lynn's version here. Both Leon and Bamburgh Castle can be completed in a single 5 hour private lesson for only £65. The Tall Ship will take two 5 hour private lessons.......... You'll be able to see the difference the second lesson makes in a few weeks time. We have the rigging, the nets, the rat lines, shadows in the sea and many other embellishments to add as yet. If we get time, we might ewven throw in a couple of seagulls too!