Tea in the Garden - Watercolour Class

Last week we enjoyed a lovely day full of sunshine for our Watercolour Class day.

We were painting a "Tea in the Garden" scene, there were several to choose from, with Claire demonstrating the stages throughout the day.

The wisteria is on it's way!

We took a break from painting and mixing colours to enjoy lunch, some pistachio, honey and mustard salmon served with an asparagus and avocado green salad

whilst the vegetarians had an aubergine, lentil and feta dish

(which was so delicious I made it for supper the following day!)

Here is the gallery of everyone's paintings ...

So pretty and accomplished!

Thank you everyone for coming.

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I had some of the lovely rhododendrons from the garden on the table at lunch, we have a great Online Watercolour Workshop with Claire featuring Rhododendrons, it's easy to buy and download from the website.  The film is about 90 minutes long with Claire teaching you step by step how to paint the chosen painting.  You also receive a materials list, a paint chart of colours used and images of the stages to print out and have alongside you.

Texture in Art with Claire

We recently held a Textures Art Class using watercolour pencils, pen and wash.

Claire had some great images and photos of old doors and ironmongery with peeling paintwork, crumbly stone surrounds, old steps and brickwork, each one told a great story.

Having drawn out the door, a gentle wash was applied, some texture paste was also put to show brick and stone work, then bit by bit the watercolour pencils were used to add colour and structure to the painting.

Here are some of the art materials we used at class.

After a break for some delicious lunch of pesto salmon served with giant couscous and roasted vegetables, the afternoon was spent finishing off everyone's various creations.

(vegetarian option: all dietary requirements are looked after at Treetops)

Here a selection of some of the finished artworks.

Autumn Glow Watercolour Class

Last week we enjoyed our Annual Autumn Watercolour Class, this year we did a beautiful autumnal scene with a cascading river coming through some golden woodlands.

A great opportunity to use and mix some fantastic autumnal rich colours.

(If you need to buy any new watercolours, don't forget we sell Claire's own range of watercolours in our Online Shop her Autumn Berry colour in particular was very popular at this class). 

Claire demonstrated the positioning of the trees and river winding it's way back through the picture, then followed this with some masking fluid, mixed with sand, to create the rocks and edges of the river.  We used a Saunders Waterford thick paper which could handle everything we threw at it today!

Whilst everyone was building up their layers of paint and atmosphere I was busy creating lunch, today we enjoyed a crusted cod fillet on a bed of lentils, beans and red peppers served with piles of delicious roasted vegetables.

Dessert was pears cooked in a beautiful rose wine syrup, served with lime, yoghurt and toasted coconut.

Here are the beautiful finished paintings from our Autumn Glow Artists, well done everyone.

Next term's dates will be on the website shortly, ready for you to book.