Poppies Watercolour

A happy and vibrant day painting bright red poppies.

This is one of our most popular classes and if you look at the menu on the right hand side you will be able to see Poppies from other classes we have done over the years.

We started with a vibrant wash that later is able to hint at poppies, background and other flowers

Some added daisies and seed heads

It was a really stunning gallery at the end after Claire had put all the paintings into mounts

We have a few places left on:

Pen & Wash

Winter Sunshine

Thursday 8 November

9:30am - 3pm

Watercolour

Winter Scene

9:30am - 3pm

Watersoluble Oils

Waterlilies

9:30am - 3pm

Watercolour

Loose & Free

9:30am - 3pm

Our classes include all of your materials, a 2 course lunch with wine, refreshments throughout the day and plenty of support from Claire as we have no more than 10 people at the class

Beginners and Refreshers Watercolour

It was a beautiful sight yesterday morning to see a mother deer and her two little ones eating at the bottom of the garden!

We had a group of Beginner and Refresher artists in yesterday

Claire spends the first part of the morning explaining about brushes, paper and paints.

Everyone can then have a play with the water and paints, watching how it moves, creating different shades of colour, working out how much pigment is needed to create stunning colours.

Today's painting was a lovely blue door, touching on plant pots and hanging baskets, pathways and brickwork.

There were some great Blue Doors!

Retreat Day - Forest Bathing

It's been really busy with classes at Treetops this term, so it was lovely on Saturday to have one of our Relax & Restore Retreat days with Laura.

What a beautiful autumnal day it was too!

Our theme for the day was Forest Bathing

Forest Bathing (aka Shinrin-Yoku) is letting nature into your body through all five senses, the woodland and grounds at Treetops are just perfect for this.

In the morning Laura led some grounding Yoga indoors, followed by a delicious and nutritious lunch.

Lunch was inspired by Deliciously Ella's new book

After lunch we had our Wellbeing session where we talked about the benefits of being outside, especially as we head into Winter, how being amongst the trees and nature is so good for our blood pressure, stress levels, immune functions, helping our minds and bodies relax.  Just 15 minutes has proven benefits.

The book below "The Nature Fix: by Florence Williams, is brilliant and I really recommend it.

We headed outside into the woods and Laura led a gentle meditation, listening to the trees and the birds (and the falling acorns landing around us!)

Everyone had some quiet time to wander and collect some autumnal treasures

In the afternoon we made our own Smudge Sticks

Smudging is the ancient practice of burning herbs for spiritual cleansing and purification.

We had lavender, rosemary and rose petals from the garden

Sage and a variety of acorns, sticks and leaves from the woods.

You tie them together with string and wrap them tightly together, leave them to dry upside down for a week or two.  You then light the smudge stick and allow it to smoulder in a dish.

The benefits include improved mental focus (thanks to the rosemary) an increase to your wellbeing, improves sleep (lavender) increases energy, clears negative energy and the air around you.

We finished the Retreat with some meditative candle-gazing and amazing sound therapy under snuggly duvets and warmed eye pillows.  Bliss!

This was our last Retreat Day for 2018 but if you would like to join us in 2019, please send me an email.  Gift Vouchers are now available for Christmas Gifts

Autumn Watercolour

A vibrant watercolour class full of stunning autumnal colours.

A really bright and brave first wash, followed by some texture paste.

We worked on some negative painting before adding final details to the leaves.

Claire is back on Wednesday 24 October for Beginners & Refreshers Watercolour (places available) and we have one place left on our Poppies class on Thursday 25 October.

Further ahead in November & December, how about coming to try

Pen & Wash Winter Sunshine

Thursday 8 November

A Winter Scene Watercolour

Tuesday 13 November

Oils - Water Lilies

Wednesday 5 December

Our new Papercutting Workshop

We had a fantastic day last week with new tutor Lucy on our Introduction to Papercutting Workshop.

Lucy spent some time explaining about the blades used and best techniques to try, before everyone got to work.

There were some lovely templates to choose from.

We had a break for lunch which today was a delicious and autumnal Chicken Tagine with Lemons, Pomegranate and Olives

Here are the finished papercuttings, everyone did brilliantly!

Lucy return to Treetops for our Festive Papercutting class on

Tuesday 6 November

10am - 3pm

£60

This includes all of your materials, a 2 course lunch and refreshments throughout the day.

3 places left!

Meet Sophie, our new Arm Knitting tutor ...

This is Sophie, another of our new tutors for the Autumn Term

Sophie lives on a houseboat near Newbury and runs knitting and crochet workshops both for adults and local schools.

She has been featured in many a crochet and knitting magazine as well as BBC Radio Berkshire and Waterways World magazine!

Sophie will be joining us to run a really fun Arm-Knitting Workshop!

On Thursday 18 October

7pm - 9:30pm

* You don't need to be able to knit *

Fizz and nibbles will be served as you make a fantastic throw/blanket for you, your home or as a gift.

Cost £80

To book, please email me and I will send you the colours to choose from.