Winter Exhibition at Barn Acre Gallery

I must mention a fantastic Exhibition that is being held in Wargrave from Friday 20th November until Sunday 6th December. (10am - 6pm daily with late opening til 8pm on Thursdays and Fridays).

Kirsten Jones, has a perfect gallery by the river and will be showing a selection of paintings, prints, ceramics, jewellery, stained glass and quirky objects by over 50 artists.

I discovered Kirsten's great paintings whilst in St Ives, and then realised she was practically local! I love her style, perhaps because she uses alot of pink?!

I can really recommend a trip over to Wargrave, there are cakes and coffee (and chickens wandering!) and you will find so many Christmas presents and plenty of inspiration.

For directions and more details visit her website www.barnacregallery.co.uk

Coastal Scenes - Watercolour

A brilliantly successful day! We had a full class of 8 yesterday, from beginners to experienced, and this included 5 different paintings being attempted, so Claire was kept on her toes!

We painted crashing rocks in St Ives, Coastal Path in Dorset, Perranporth Bay, a Hampshire beach and a harbour in Southern Ireland, quite a mix!

We mixed some lovely blues for the skies and seas, used plenty of masking fluid for our splashes and reflections and whether or not it was the topic itself it did create such a relaxing day.

Being a seaside day, we had to have fish for lunch and a scattering of seashells on the table!

Claire and I will shortly be deciding on our Spring 2010 dates, useful for both planning and thinking of Christmas Gift Vouchers. If you have any topics you would like to see covered, do email and let me know.

An Autumn Update

Beautiful colours are appearing everywhere, this is my favourite colour in the garden at the moment, bright pink inbetween the oranges, browns and greens.

Classes are booking up quickly for the remainder of the term, so I thought I would let you know how many spaces are available on each one, as of today:

Friday 16 October - Coastal Scenes = FULL

Monday 16 November - Winter Scene = 2 spaces left

Friday 20 November - Christmas Aga = 6 spaces left

Tuesday 24 November - Winter Scene = 3 spaces left

Tuesday 1 December - Christmas Flowers = 4 spaces left

Wednesday 2 December - Christmas Flowers = 2 spaces left

Hope to see you soon!

Watercolour Masterclass

Phew!! It was very stretching, this week's Masterclass. Claire was definitely pushing us to try new things and really tested our ability. There were quite a few moans and groans, stress and tension, but the beautiful sunshine and the large serving of Mary Berry's Divine White Chocolate Cheesecake definitely helped us!

The general idea of the two days, was painting dark into light, with negative painting included in that. We spent the first morning, pencilling our scene - a Market Place in France with "Mr and Mrs" eating their ice creams under a dark and shady stone archway.

The painting above shows where we were at after Day One; we had painted our first wash, windows, roof, archways etc. It all looked very soft and pale.

The painting below shows the finished painting. We spent Day 2, mixing a variety of dark browns, greens and creating blacks, to keep layering up our colour. The stone arch was actually bright orange to start with, which looked very scary! But we then put a dark glaze over the top and there was our stoney shade.

It was very hard to do the people, that is a class in itself I think!


Here is a row of the finished paintings, mounted, looking very professional. (If you click on the photographs, in theory they should appear larger in a new window on your computer).



Below is everyone hard at work! It was a great two days, we all left with a huge sense of achievement. Claire taught us so many new techniques and skills, we definitely felt we'd had a Masterclass!

And we're off.....!

Term started today with a great Beginners Class, a landscape scene that covered 'first wash' with a beautiful sky.

Claire spends the first part of the morning, practicing with different colours, differing amounts of water and various brushes, to get everyone relaxed and itching to get started on their painting!

By 3pm there were 5 very good paintings by 5 new artists!

There are spaces available on Winter Scenes with Claire, on either Monday 16 November or Tuesday 24 November. Check the website for further details www.treetops-newbury.co.uk.

Almost Autumn Term .....

I hope you have all had a great summer. The sea featured quite often in mine; youngest son and I discovered fossils in Lyme Regis, we did get lucky but it involved being under heavy rain for four hours! (lovely B&B: www.nettlebanklymeregis.co.uk, thank you to Sue's tumble drier!)

We enjoyed the wide expanse of West Wittering, go early when the tide is out, it is fantastic, you can see across to the Isle of Wight, and walk along the beach to East Wittering to buy a sandwich. For tide times and a webcam of the beach visit www.2xs.co.uk/weather/

And my favourite .... St Ives. Colours as stunning as ever, despite the un-August weather and a 7 hour journey back!

Schools are ready to start again and the new term dates are out in the post. Until they reach you here they are:

Tuesday 22 September - Watercolour Art for Beginners
Tuesday 29 & Wednesday 30 September - Watercolour Art Masterclass
Friday 16 October - Coastal Scenes
Monday 16 November - Winter Scenes
Tuesday 24 November - Winter Scenes

Friday 20 November - Christmas Aga

Tuesday 1 December - Festive Flowers
Wednesday 2 December - Festive Flowers

Timings, prices and other details are on the website www.treetops-newbury.co.uk.

Happy Holiday

What a beautiful view! This is from a house we stayed in, in Worth Matravers, Dorset. We were just visiting for the weekend, and England being England, we had one heavy rainy foggy day, when we couldn't see the view, but the following morning the blue sky was out and we headed off down the 1 mile pathway to the sea.

We walked 6 miles along the coastal path, which was stunning.

It was this time last year, that Claire and I were planning our Seascapes Watercolour classes for September. On 16 October this year, we will be painting Coastal Scenes, so when you are out and about this Summer, take plenty of photographs to bring to the class, see the website for booking details.

(If you fancy waking up to the view above, our friend's house is now available to rent from www.dorsetcoastalcottages.com. Ref 3409. Gwyle House).