Days off?

Even on days off, it's never really a proper day off, (thank goodness). Today, whilst shopping for my very last minute bits, I bumped into a student of mine, who promptly booked herself into a class in the New Year. When I returned home, I had a quick coffee break in front of the PC and checked my e-mails. Some last minute orders had been sent in and they are now packaged up ready for posting. The phone rang - another 2 bookings for a February class. It's nice to juggle the non-painting side of business in with the Christmas preparations. In a mad last minute decision, I thought I'd really get ahead of myself so I have an easy day tomorrow. So - the bird is now cooked, ready for carving. The sausage/bacon rolls are cooked also and the stuffing balls have been made and they're cooked too. The table has been fully laid and looks a treat. The white wine is chilling and the after dinner mints are cooling in the fridge too. The icing on the Christmas cake has hardened nicely, my containers groan with mince pies, cheese scones, buns, fruit cake, sausage rolls and biscuits with reserves in the freezer. With 4 days of entertaining ahead of us we're looking forward to every minute.

Our Winter Painting Subject

I've been asked to paint something with a Christmas Theme for the Heartlands Oil Painting Workshops in December. I thought about a Christmas Pudding, I thought about mince pies, I thought about a beautiful plate of turkey and all the trimmings........but once I got over my distraction with food, I knuckled down and made this vignette painting entitled 'Watching'.

I hope the students will enjoy painting this little fella. I have just one space left on the December 2nd class and 3 spaces left on the December 9th Class. If you'd like to book a space on either of these classes, do drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk or call me on 01473 311938. Heartlands is in the pretty village of Gipping, just outside of Stowmarket, Suffolk. It lays between Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, just off the A14.

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.

I'm stuck............till tomorrow anyway!

Today, after pretty much another full day of painting, I decided I still had a little bit of creativity left in the brushes. I prepped a fresh canvas and just squirted a small amount of black, white and grey oil paint onto a fresh palette. I didn't know what I was going to paint, I just made a start to see what would flow. It was an exercise to unwind and 'get loose' more than anything else.

I stopped when I reached this point as I was tired. I was very tempted to just push in some foreground bushes and throw in a large 'bravery test' tree.......but I didn't. It's not always wise to paint when you're tired. I think I'd rather leave this one until tomorrow to see what to add to finish this painting off. If you've any suggestions please drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk

Alan thinks the painting should stay as it is...... so I'll consider that option also.

Aurora

Today I had a painting session with a dear friend, Marion. We'd arranged our painting day a couple of weeks ago and we were both looking forward to a whole day of pure painting indulgence. We worked on a version of Bob Ross's 'Northern Lights'. Although we were sat side by side, using the same colours, we very quickly took off on our own tangents with this painting. Marion has many rows of mountains, fading into the distance, with a glacier and stream running between them. Here's my version, 'Aurora' which is availble to students as a new Painting Subject.

A new acrylic workshop

Quite often, when painting 'Sunbeams', (the painting at the top) we take our break just before laying on the oil colour wash. When this painting is in it's black and white form, it is quite a dramatic piece. From this, several other compositions have been born from diptych to triptych to letterbox style canvas. Sometimes we've colour washed them, sometimes we've left them and given them a clear wash before adding in white flares and light beams.

This has proved to be quite a popular painting and so I have decided to run a short class, lasting just under 3 hours. We'll be making this black and white acrylic painting 'Wanderings' on Saturday September 6th at the Green Room in Stowmarket. The class fee is only £30 and includes all equipment, refreshments and your 20 x 8 inch letterbox canvas. The painting can be gallery wrapped (which means we can easily paint around the sides of the canvas). There will be no need to frame it and it will be dry within minutes. As there is no use of colour, it can actually hang in most homes and will make an ideal present.

A new painting subject

We have another oil painting of a waterfall scene to add to the portfolio. Free Falling is a warm landscape with several shades of soft yellows and warm orange-browns. This is suitable for beginners and is available immediately as a private class option.