Floral Watercolour

We had a lovely group in today for our Florals Watercolour Class

Claire had chosen Roses, one of the hardest flowers to accomplish

The group worked on their background wash having masked out various shapes

Here is Claire's example of the painting at this stage, everyone had some time to mix and study various greens to use in their painting.

Below are the beautiful rose paintings mounted and ready to go home, such gorgeous pinks.

Claire is back at Treetops in October for our Beginners & Refreshers Class on Tuesday 3 October and Temple Island Landscape/Riverscape on Monday 30 October.

Both classes run from 9:30am - approx 3pm

All of your materials are included along with a 2 course lunch with wine and refreshments throughout the day.

To book please click on to the website HERE

Simply Seashells Class

During our August Pop Up Pop In Week we held our first Simply Seashells class.

It was a really fun and relaxing way to spend a few hours.

Using shells, seaglass and sea pottery collected from Cornwall, we learnt about glues, papers and the best way to apply the treasures.  Some people bought their own beach combed treasures with them to use in their picture, which is a lovely way to make it more personal.

Starting with some greeting cards to get used to the glue and pressure needed, we then moved on to our main picture, where we chose shapes, mount and colour of frame.  So many decisions!

Fuelled by cake, tea and coffee, there were some amazing pictures created as you can see below.

Bambi and her 2 little ones were in the garden too which was lovely to see, you can just see one of them on the grass in the photo below!

We have two more Shell Classes coming up at Treetops in the Autumn Term 

12 October or 4 December

10am - 12:30pm

£40 

(to include all materials, box frame and refreshments)

Book HERE

"I really enjoyed the class, the company, beautiful setting and delicious cake was great, I am totally inspired to create some more shell pictures" - K

Simply Seashells is run by Emily and she will be at the October Renartgades Market in Newbury at The Waterside Centre from 10am - 4pm, selling a selection of pictures and cards.

Simply Seashells can make commissions especially for you, either using some of your collected beach treasure, this is a great idea for a special picture to remember a lovely holiday or honeymoon, or her own shells and seaglass collected from Cornwall and Devon.

The above photo is a finished picture created for a bathroom using shells collected over the years in Portugal, such gorgeous colours.  The finished artworks are all natural, no varnishes or colours are used.

Click on the link above to the Simply Seashells website to contact Emily.

August Pop Up Pop Ins!

 

This August we are doing something a little different and having a week of short workshops and classes that you can book into, from an hour to 3 hours long; find something that suits you, come and escape for a while, enjoy some peace, fun and learning with us here at Treetops.

Running from Sunday 6 August to Friday 11 August

Sunday 6 August

Sound Healing

7pm - 8:15pm

Come and relax and let the healing sounds, vibrations and frequencies of the quartz crystal bowls and chimes wash over you. 

Introductory price £7

Monday 7 August

Simply Seashells

2pm - 4pm

Create a picture and greetings cards from shells, seaglass and sea pottery

All materials including a frame supplied, plus tea and cake.

£30

Tuesday 8 August

Summer Garden Cyanotypes

new tutor Laura

10am - 1pm

Collect leaves, grasses and flowers from the garden at Treetops to create beautiful pictures using one of the oldest photographic processes.

Includes all of the materials needed, plus tea and cake.

£48

Creative Mindfulness

with new tutor Libby

7pm - 9pm

quieten your mind and focus with gentle drawing, sometimes using your non dominant hand, your dominant hand or closing your eyes and using your five senses.

£22

Wednesday 9 August

Summer Cupcakes

learn to make, decorate and perfect beautiful flavours with cakes and cupcakes this summer

11am - 1pm

£50

Yin Yoga with Rachel

7:30pm - 8:30pm

A relaxing hour of Yin with Rachel, a gentle class perfect yoga for runners, cyclists and those wanting to stretch and relax into the mat.

£12

Thursday 10 August

Woodland Awakening with Laura

7:15am - 8:30am

Join us in the woodland at Treetops to wake and start the day in nature, with Laura leading a gentle movement and meditation class, under the trees with the morning birds, to set you up perfectly for the day ahead.

Includes warm drink and nibbles

£15

Summer Cookery Class

7pm - 10pm

Last chance to enjoy our Summer recipes, delicious and new ideas including mains, salads, BBQ ideas, cakes, easy puds

 Learn what can be prepared ahead of time. Enjoy a refreshing seasonal cocktail and along with a tasting meal of all the food cooked. 

£50

Friday 11 August

Sound Healing

7pm - 8:15pm

As above

Introductory price £7

To book any of the classes please email me, we hope to see you on August!

emily @ treetops- newbury.co.uk

Woodland Retreat

We held a wonderful and blissful relaxing time in the Treetops woodlands last weekend, a day retreat with tutor Laura Routh-Parsons.

Laura used to hold Yoga and Meditation classes here at Treetops about four years ago, so it's been wonderful to welcome her back.

We started with a lovely calming meditation listening to Laura's gorgeous voice and the nearby birds and breeze through the trees.

We then added bits and pieces we'd brought from home to add to Laura's beautiful and colourful nature mandala, which created a lovely centre piece to our gathering.

Enjoying some gentle movement and simple yoga poses we got our bodies moving, worked on some breathwork/pranayama, which on this Retreat was Breath of Fire, this is really good for balancing and strengthening your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, increases your resistance to stress, boosts brain function and gives you a general feeling of wellbeing, especially with regular practice. 

We took a break for some flapjacks and elderflower cordial.

Laura then held a beautiful sound session as we lay on the soft woodland floor, either looking up at the canopy of beech leaves and blue sky or with our eyes closed covered with an eye mask, wrapped up cosily in blankets with supportive cushions.

Using crystal bowls, chimes and bells, it was so beautiful mixed in with the sounds of nature, it was just the perfect spot to be.

We moved across the woods to the fire pit to enjoy a delicious lunch and chat.

We had a lentil and nettle daal, made with nettles foraged from the edge of the woodland that morning, served alongside warmed naan bread.

My little outdoor kitchen set up on the treehouse platform!

Pudding was a lemon drizzle cake infused with homemade elderflower and rose cordial.

Finished and packed up mid afternoon, leaving no trace apart from flower petals and footprints.

Join us back in the Treetops woods for our next Woodland Retreat on Sunday 17 September.

10am - 3pm

£65

Relax and Restore

Make time for you; peace, relaxation and the perfect place to just get away from it all.

Some recent comments:

A huge thank you for the beautiful woodland retreat on Sunday. Oh my goodness, I enjoyed it so much! Everything was lovely, including the food (of course!) as always.

Thank you for a wonderful few hours, can't wait to return

Such a wonderful day!

Summer Cookery Classes

 

We've had some smiley faces at Treetops during June for our Summer Cookery Classes, both day and evening classes, both 3 hours long, full of delicious, new and seasonal recipes.

We ended up with a bit of a pink theme which I fully embraced!

We made a delicious raspberry and thyme cordial which we mixed with sparkling water and a scented geranium.

The night before the classes I picked the rose petals from the garden and massaged a sugar solution in with them and left them in a cool place overnight.

During the class I turned them into a gorgeous rose petal jam, I'd eaten this each morning on holiday recently and it's so good (costs £11 a jar in Fortnums)!

After each recipe has been cooked, either Susan or Bianca, my two brilliant assistants, bring along tasting dishes, so you can eat and drink as we go along!

Our Summer Cookery Class cake was a gluten free lime and coconut cake.

Vegetarian wise we had a halloumi and orzo salad, minus the halloumi it is a delicious feta and orzo side salad, perfect to take along to parties or to accompany bbq's.

Talking of BBQ's, below are some chicken meatballs we enjoyed, which can be made bigger to enjoy as burgers.

We made a few other things too, all of which were lovely bright, colourful and tasty.

You always need a 'show-off' piece and for Summer Cookery this was our beetroot cured salmon, look at the vibrancy!  The process for this starts 48 hours before you serve it.  

I always include lots of recipes that can be prepared ahead of time, as they are always useful and always asked for.

Our Raspberry and Thyme Cordial then blended with other ingredients to become a Rose and Raspberry Gin Cocktail which really was 'summer in a glass'.

Cheers!

We will be running this class once more this Summer with these recipes, Thursday 10 August, so if they take your fancy, please get booked in and come along to join us.  It costs £50 for the class and you get to enjoy a tasting menu of everything cooked, along with a cocktail and a recipe booklet to take home with you.

Book Here