Cupcake News

Colourful Cupcakes has just done a wedding in Southampton on a boat, 80 bright and beautiful cupcakes with the theme Cherry Pie. It was great fun, I loved making them.

Cupcake Classes are from next week, I have added a new date; Wednesday 26 May. For any other details visit the blog: http://colourfulcupcakes-newbury.blogspot.com/.

Bluebell Watercolour Class

We had a very busy Bluebell class today, lots of mixing of blues, purples and greens. Four new artists, slightly nervous (!) with three of our regulars.

Claire had chosen a lovely woodland scene, with plenty of tonal values - lights and darks.

After pencilling in our trees, we used some masking fluid to fill in the trunks and protect where we wanted our light areas to be, and followed this up with a light wash.

The paintings were amazing when we had them mounted for our exhibition at the end, everyone had different coloured bluebells. The achievements were great today. It is amazing what beginners can do after a day with Claire at Treetops!

Bluebells at Treetops

The Bluebells are almost out and are looking bright and beautiful against the bright greens.

I am just getting Treetops ready for tomorrow's Bluebell Watercolour class, we have 7 artists coming, which includes quite a few beginners and new people. Fingers crossed the rain disappears, when the sun shines you can see the blue hue of the bluebells in the distance from where we are painting.

Watercolour Workshop Trial

This morning we trialled a new idea of a Watercolour Workshop. The idea was that you came to Treetops with either a painting to finish or a painting that you need help to get started. Over the course of the morning Claire would be available to give support and advice.

You needed to bring all your own materials and equipment, which again was useful to have Claire look over, to see whether the paints we had were of good quality, either artist or student quality, if they are of student quality they tend to remove alot of the lovely rich pigments that usually produce the beautiful and vibrant colours.

Claire talked about mixing colours, in particular getting some great greens with lemon yellow. She talked "cows" and other animal shapes and helped me get some shadow and depth into one of my paintings that at the moment looks just like a group of floating objects!

The morning ran from 9.30am - 1pm, with the usual home made biscuits and fresh coffee available but it was mentioned that it wasn't quite the same leaving Treetops without having had lunch!

If you are interested in coming to one of our Workshops, please let me know.

Sunflowers in Provence Watercolour Class

A Sunny day for a Sunny Subject. Sunflowers in Provence was the title, and it wasn't as easy as it looked. We spent a large part of the morning using masking fluid to paint out the sunflowers leaves, so that when we did a wash we could keep that part of the paper completely clean and white.

Using a limited pallette of about 5 paints we mixed up a variety of greens and yellows, and then different blues for the sky and the mountains in the distance.

A delicious lunch of Delia's Salmon with pecorino and pesto topping followed by Tana Ramsay's Rhubarb Fool. We needed the energy to rub all the masking fluid off after lunch, it took ages!

Sunflowers Watercolour Class

There are a few spaces left for next week's Watercolour Class, titled Sunflowers in Provence. Suitable for any level of artist, we have some complete beginners coming, so don't be afraid to come and give it a go.

The class is on Wednesday 28 April, starts at 9.30am and finishes at about 3pm, a 2 course lunch is included and plenty of biscuits (and coffee!) to keep you going throughout the day. The price is £65.

Claire provides all the materials, so all you have to do is just turn up and paint. Call 01635 44850 to book a place.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! The house is quiet with no classes....

Plenty of time to get Colourful Cupcakes of Newbury launched. The logo and website are currently being worked on and I'm taking orders! I've recently made some lovely girly pink birthday cupcakes, some bright and pretty cupcakes for Christine Scott Interiors and this weekend some Purple themed cupcakes. Today was all about having fun with mini Cupcakes, they disappear so easily in just one mouthful!

I have started a blog http://colourfulcupcakes-newbury.blogspot.com so that you can see what I'm up to.

Bookings are coming in for the Cupcake Classes, these are on:

Thursday 13 May 10am - 12 noon
Thursday 17 June 10am - 12 noon
Saturday 3 July 2pm - 4pm
Wednesday 15 September 10am - 12 noon

Cost £45: this includes all ingredients, materials, recipes and 6 cupcakes that you have decorated to take home. To book call me on 01635 44850.

It's great fun, and involves clouds of icing sugar and twinkly edible glitter everywhere!