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).

Learn to paint Portraits in Oils - Step by Step

AyoubArt is proud to become a distributor for Valerie Stewart Studios. Both Valerie's 'Portrait Painting Technique DVD' and 6 DVD Portrait series are now available to buy direct from the UK. I've just added a new DVD to the Valerie Stewart collection: The one hour demo DVD, 'Painting The Face' (Revised Second Edition) is designed to teach you how the Valerie Stewart Portrait Painting Technique works. It will take you through each step of painting a portrait, from beginning to end. You will learn everything - from one colour under painting to the final touches necessary to paint a quality portrait. For your viewing convenience, you may skip this DVD to various sections of information. There are 8 chapters: 1) Colour mixing 2) One colour underpainting 3) Colour application 4) Painting the lips 5) Painting eyes 6) Painting Hair 7) Clothing. At just £16, which includes postage and packing to any European address - I have immediate availability on this item. The shopping cart can be found HERE - or, if you prefer, payment can be made by cheque - payable to Sue Warne and sent to Apollo House, 10 Windmill Hill, Capel St Mary, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP9 2JF.

Landscape, foliage and blending Oil Painting Brushes

The 1 inch and 2.5 inch Bill Alexander landscape brushes are proving a very popular tool. Most students who use them in class have purchased their own for home use. My class brushes have really been put through their paces since I introduced them into classes nearly 6 months ago. They clean up well and are as soft today as they were on day one. We've all found that we are using my soft goat hair blender brush less and the large Alexander landscape brush more as it really does a good job of removing those brush marks. It's a 'mighty' tool, as Bill would say, much too big to dip into tins of white medium. I find it easier to tip out the medium into plastic trays and pass around the class. It actually ensures you don't load too much into your brush in the first place. At just £20 (which includes postage and packing) for the two brushes, these will last you quite some time. If you look closely, you'll see Bob Ross using these exact same brushes in his first recordings of 'The Joy of Painting' programmes.

New Class Subjects.

For the last few classes, I've been taking along paintings of mine and letting the students select the subjects for future painting classes. Their input has been great and it helps me to make a decision too.

A couple of the paintings they have selected can be completed in just 4 hours, instead of the usual 5 hour session. So......we'll put these into my Saturday Classes at the Green Room in Stowmarket and we'll have a discounted rate for these shorter lessons. One of the most popular paintings 'The Lightning Tree' will be taught to complete beginners on Saturday, February 29th. The cost for the class is just £40 per person and if you book with a friend, you can take advantage of a £5 discount EACH. You can find the details, location etc here: http://www.ayoubart.co.uk/17.html

The first result

I've just received the first photo of a painting made by following my DVD. THis is Lee's picture, you can see he's changed the canvas around to portrait instead of landscape and it alters the composition in a really lovely way too. The picture was taken on his mobile phone and sent by text to me. I think you'll agree, he's done a marvellous job. In his text message to me he says 'Now THIS one I like....' And for anyone who knows Lee, they will know he is his own worst critic. If anyone else wants to text in a photo - you can do so on 079500 32557Look forward to seeing some more.... and well done Lee

The First 'Learn to Paint' DVD

Last week, AyoubArt went into the DVD business. Orders from all over the world have been flying in and the first copies have been well received. 'Golden Lake' © has finally been launched. It's a 100 minute step by step oil painting DVD and will take you through an oil painting project from blank canvas to finished result. If you've painted with me before, you'll be taken on a very familiar journey. If you have never been able to attend one of my classes, this DVD will give you a chance to paint along with me and is probably the next best thing to a live class. With immediate availability I guarantee you'll receive your DVD's without delay. This has been a very exciting project for us to produce. It's been fun (and frustrating) at times, especially mastering the new equipment and programmes, but we are confident you will enjoy this first release. We are double confident you will learn some oil painting techniques, refine your skills and produce a marvellous (and saleable) work of art. So.......an exciting time all round for us here today. I'll be taking along the original painting along with a box of DVD's to my classes class, so students will have a chance to buy direct from the product table.

The reviews received so far, from beginner painters to fellow oil painting instructors, has been hugely positive. You can read the customer comments made so far on my main website here: http://www.ayoubart.co.uk/page_139.html
'Golden Lake' is just the first of several DVD's in the pipeline. The second movie has already been filmed and is currently undergoing editing. If you'd like to see what all the excitement is about the link you need is here: http://www.ayoubart.co.uk/page_136.html

Temptation

I chose to lay in this morning and didn't manage to get my walk in before today's workshop, nor did I have time to do it before it got dark after the class. So, out of interest, I decided to wear my pedometer for today's class. As we stopped for lunch I took a raeding and was amazed to see my steps converted to 1.4 miles! At the end of the class I had notched up another 1.4 miles. Considering I didn't leave the house, that's quite a lot of mileage. But, I may well have undone any good. Sally & Josie always bring goodies with them and today was no exception. They broke the seal on a rather sumptious box of Thornton's chocolates which I managed to resist all day long. But.......they left some remaining chocolates behind and the temptation was too much. Coffee, my favourite flavour, sat there staring at me so I popped it in my mouth without a second thought. Naughty - but nice.