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Friday 30 March 2012

Pen, Ink and Wash Class


We had a great day yesterday, Claire set up plenty of pens, inks, watercolours and water for us to have a play and experiment.

We started out practicing with black and sepia pens, making marks, hatching, dotting etc.

That then grew it sketching and some great pictures were created.

There was plenty of photos to choose from, from a wide variety of themes, but ink tends to lend itself very well to flowers.


Some of our class, working with the inks at the island.


Here is the gallery of everyone's amazing work

















Monday 26 March 2012

A Busy Saturday Creating Cupcakes



We had a busy Saturday with two different cupcake classes.

An Easter Chocolate class; there were so many varieties of chocolate to choose from to decorate the cupcakes!  The kitchen smelt gorgeous.


Here are a few of the boxes that were taken home.




We also held a Stage 2 Cupcake class, for bakers who have already been to our Stage 1 class.

We spend the class learning new decorating skills, with flower paste, buttercream and experiment with new nozzles.

This group were amazingly creative, the cupcakes looked great! 


Look at this beautiful peony!





To see the rest of the groups creations, click here: Colourful Cupcakes

There are a few spaces left this term at Cupcake Classes:

Saturday 21 April: Stage 2   9.45am - 12.15pm
Friday 11 May: Stage 2  11am - 1.30pm
Wednesday 30 May: Stage 1  10.30am - 12.30pm


Sunday 25 March 2012

Aga Comfort and Casual Cooking Class


Sarah Whitaker was back on Friday for a very interesting and delicious Aga class.

The theme was Comfort and Casual, so we enjoyed a delicious roasted tomato and pepper soup, a creamy mushroom risotto, slow roasted salmon and a whole range of other delights that showed everyone how to use their Aga, how to retain the heat and how to juggle the ovens, along with showing us each cooking method alongside a delicious dish, ie the roasting, the simmering, the frying and so on.

There are so many tips to pick up along the way if you spend a morning with Sarah.

There is plenty of time to ask questions and time to enjoy a great tasting lunch of all the food Sarah has cooked, one of the puddings was "Caramel and Cholesterol Pie" it was soooooo good!

Bookings are underway for Sarah's return on Friday 18 May for Fabulous Fish
and Friday 21 September for Easy Entertaining.

The classes cost £65 and run from 9.45am - 1.30pm



Sunday 18 March 2012

Racing at Treetops!


Cheltenham had a busy week with it's horse racing last week, and on Friday we had our own race day.

But with Watercolour horses.
The first time we have tackled horses at Treetops.

This was a class that involved quite a bit of drawing at the start, ensuring we all had the correct amount of legs for each horse!



We created a lovely wash of blues for the sky and greens for the grass, that dried beautifully over lunch.


We enjoyed choosing our colours for the silks of the jockeys.


We used small brushes to flick the manes and tails to help create speed and movement within the painting.


We finished with some dark brown splattered across the galloping area, to create yet more movement from the hooves during the race.



Wednesday 14 March 2012

Spring


The garden and woodland at Treetops are starting to colour and blossom, yet there's still a good nip in the air.

The daffodils are starting to come out and the bluebells are getting ready to carpet the woods in May, or could it possibly be earlier this year?

We've got a Bluebell Watercolour class with Claire on Thursday 3 May, this is always a popular class, the colours are so beautiful and the painting so calming.


Whilst talking of Flowers, Susanna is back with us on Monday 30 April for a Flower class, I love it when she arrives with bundles, boxes and stands full of flowers, my kitchen becomes a mini flower stall and the smell is out of this world!


Friday 9 March 2012

Amazing Acrylics


We had an amazing day with Claire yesterday, learning about Acrylics.

It was a great group and we enjoyed gorgeous sunshine, bright inks and acrylic colours, a delicious lunch and worked ourselves very VERY hard, as the photos below will show you.


After wetting our paper, we used these vibrant inks either by dropping them on, or making them move around with the brush.  They make fantastic patterns.

The photo below, shows some of the group making a start on their base cover.

The theme we had today was flowers, either as a still life or an abstract form, so there were plenty of floral ideas and shapes to choose from.


Unlike Watercolour paper that absorbs water and colour very quickly, the inks just sit on the paper we used today, so they take a while to dry, you can see the shine on the one here.

Ideal for us to have a nice quick break in the sunshine whilst they dried! 



we all loved this so much and thought it a work of art just on it's own! 

After the base layer had dried, we covered it with school white PVA glue, scrunched up a large piece of tissue paper, then smoothed it out over the top of our painting, using a rolling pin to smooth out any large air bubbles.  It creates a wonderful textured surface for us to work on.

After it had dried, (more sun, more biscuits!) we re-wet the piece of paper and added yet more inks to create a second layer of depth and interest, without losing the lights and darks we had already created.


Then it was time to get to work with the acrylic paints and start creating our masterpieces!


Some people got VERY carried away and managed two or three, all different and when it came to our gallery at the end, the room was full of stunning, bright and beautiful acrylic paintings.

A fantastic day!

Here are ALL of today's painting from our very talented ladies
 (note: some had never painted acrylics before) 

if you click on the photo, it will enlarge the painting so that you can get a closer look


















An Impressive Day!

Summer Term Watercolour dates will be published shortly