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OCTOBER NEWS For Updates, Special Offers, Announcements.....and an insight into what's going on in my world.
 The Robin was actually my second 'mess around' of the day. I loosened up by painting a floral composition. This particular 'mess around' was mostly to experiment with different brushes, paints and mediums. For this floral exercise I used artists' professional paints and Chroma Lean Medium. I tried the badger bristle floral flat and filbert brushes and I used my soft synthetic flats and filberts. I found the synthetics held the paint better and it was much easier to get a chiselled edge. For the Robin project, below, I used my own home made medium and Winton paints. My own medium was much looser, less sticky and flowed really well, softening the paints to just the right consistency. I also used synthetic brushes and my new round brush really came into it's own when it came to blending colours into really small areas.  With a horrible headcold, and feeling chilled to the bone, I braved the cold outdoors and grabbed handfulls of painting equipment from my studio to set up indoors. Once in the warm, I prepared the canvases ready for Sunday's class. Luckily, the Apollo Studio is vacant at the moment, so the canvases could be laid out on every available space to dry. Next up I'd decided to have a mini mess around. I have promised to have a special Christmas themed painting project lined up for the December painting classes at Heartlands. I'm not 100% sure what the final subject will be, but I do have about 3 ideas that I want to try. Here's idea number one. I'll pop this in the Class Subject Gallery incase anyone would like to book this fellow as a private lesson meanwhile.When Alan came home from work, his first words were........'Quick, count the chickens!' Apparently he had seen a chicken pecking away on a verge of grass at the top of the road. Out we went to the patio and headed for the shed where their grain is kept. As soon as they hear that door opening they normally fly up the garden for their daily treats. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5..................and later number 6 appeared. Phew. A little while later a knock at the door. Karen, our neighbour, came to tell us that she thought one of our chickens had escaped and was dangerously near the road. We decided it had to be caught. Shelby, Karen's daughter, had seen the chicken behind our back fence, so it had wandered quite a way on it's own. With a handful of grain, the chicken was easy to catch and she's currently settled down in one of our nesting boxes. If anyone from Capel is reading this and they're missing a chicken - she's with us.  I have been having a clear out in my office. I discovered a box of DVD's that were discontinued as they were seconds. You might remember the Joyce Ortner DVD's which showed 3 fabulous seascape projects: Magic Moment / Old Man in the Sea / Storm's a Comin'. It seems a shame to have them laying around so I have put them up for sale on my Special Offers page. At the end of 2006 these were being sold at £29 each or £70 for all 3. Unfortunately, the endings on the second discs were sudden and a little premature and for this reason they were withdrawn. I have very limited stock but I'm sure if you're a seascape lover you'll gain a lot of knowledge from these marvellous DVD's. Each project contains 2 DVD's and the 4 hours of tuition that is shown is more than plenty to complete your seascape project. I can't say how long the Special Offer will last as once stock is gone, it's gone for good.
 This morning, breakfast was interupted with a loud rattle of the letterbox and a knock on the door. Upon opening the door we found a package on the doorstep, addressed to me. Assuming it was another duplicate book order and rather annoyed, I made a mental note that I really must contact that book company and tell them to stop sending me things. Later, I took my mail into my office, opening all the letters and leaving the package on the side. It was only after a few minutes that I realised the address label was different, on closer inspection it wasn't from the book company at all. So now some excitement has set in. I fumbled with the packaging but it was tightly wrapped - I reached for the scissors and worked my way through the cardboard. The biggest (emotional) smile swept accross my face when I saw what it was. An even bigger one replaced it when I loudly 'clapped' it. So a big thanks to a very dear and supportive friend for giving us a fabulous start to the day, not to mention a rather professional piece of equipment to help us with our filming ventures.
News of a new DVD about to arrive here in the UK. This DVD features Artist Johnnie Liliedahl. She demonstrates the uses of a wide range of 24 different mediums including varnishes. Johnnie also teaches you to make your very own mediums, which is ideal if you don't have ready access to a stockist. It'll be nice to know how to make your own foundation mediums, enabling students to make a saving or two. It also guarantees you'll never run out. I'm sure this DVD will pay for itself in no time at all. They should be here before the end of next week, I'll make an announcement here and open a shoping basket once they've arrived. Week 42: 20th to 26th October I must be the only person who lost an hour this morning. I enjoyed a little lay-in. I had a leisurely breakfast while reading. I even spent (and here's where I went wrong......) some time going through my wardrobe and removing the clothes which are too big (which is nearly all of them). As I caught sight of the bedroom clock out of the corner of my eye, I asked Alan 'did you put the clock back?'. I nearly choked when he told me he had. With just 30 minutes to go before today's student arrived, I flew into the bathroom for a shower and just managed to be set up and ready as Debbie knocked on the door.  I recently received a photo from Helen, a Bob Ross Instructor, who attended the first 2 swans workshop with Darrell Crow. Unfortunately, the class was a small one with only 5 people taking part. It's a shame these classes were poorly attended, with 2 of the 5 workshops being cancelled completely. Helen worked her own composition and re-painted a beautiful single swan with little baby cygnets nestling in it's back.
It's a little bit like Christmas here at the moment. Sometime today our video camera for my DVD production should arrive and the anticipation is intense. Unfortunately, with such a busy schedule, I don't think we'll have time to play around with it until November......unless of course, we take it to tomorrows class. Anita has been working away on her Pop Art Portraits. She is used to detail work as she produces hand made jewellery. Yesterday she finished not one, but 2 Pop Arts, so she returns home today with 3 portraits to WOW her family with. As part of my tuition with Pop Art, I need to work on a piece myself, so over the last 2 days I've also managed to complete another commission and add a new portrait to my collection (which is growing quite rapidly). You won't find my newer portraits on my website gallery, and there's a special reason for that. All might be revealed sooner rather than later.......... Last night's demo was a lovely event with quite a few familiar faces. Both Anita and some club members helped me to unload the car, so setting up took no time at all. It was interesting to find out all the different crafts that the 'Crafters Unlimited' group were enjoyin. A couple of members had a go at painting waterfalls and clouds on a practice canvas and I know I'll be seeing some members in the near future when they book their own private workshops. With lots of laughs and gentle ribbing (from me and from them) it was a lovely night. After the Heartlands class, I had a mad dash home to meet and greet my South African student, who had travelled down from London. The lovely Anita is with me for a few days and hopes to make some Pop Art Portraits. Anita sent me a selection of photos a week ago and I've been working with them to make them suitable for Pop Art. A lot of preparation is done in advance for a Pop Art Class. This is so we can accomplish a project in just one 5 hour sitting. The whole procedure, from photo editing to prepping the canvas, is shown to the students in great detail so they can easily make Pop Art for themselves when they return home. Anita is thrilled with portrait number one and we'll be tackling another one tomorrow. Anita is in for an added bonus tomorrow evening too. I am giving a demonstration to a local Art Group. I rang the organsier to see if I could bring my guest along and they readily agreed. This way Anita gets to see how the wet on wet oil technique can create great results too. It'll be nice to have some company on my trip.  Last week I left my easels and other sundry bits and bobs at Heartlands, knowing that I'd have less to load in my car when I returned a week later. Marion, bless her little heart, had set up the whole classroom. Tables covered, easels out, canvases propped up, palettes at the ready. All I had to do was dish out the paint and distribute the brushes. What a lovely suprise - better still, it gave us a good half hour to catch up on news and discuss new painting subjects. The fabulous weather is still with us and it was great to have the door flung wide open during class. Once again, fabulous paintings were made by all students in a very relaxed and fun class.
 I discovered today's student, Jackie, on the patio this morning, feeding my hungry girls. The chickens know when someone new is staying here and are very forward in checking people out. We've put up a flexible fence to keep them (the chickens, not the guests) off the patio area, but daily they fly over (or through) the barricade and strut their stuff in front of the guest accommodation. We started our workshop early today and, at Jackie's request, we painted a rich candle composition in reds. Using softer floral brushes and looser paint, it was quite a contrast to yesterday's landscape painting project. This gave my student a wide coverage of techniques in her workshops. I think you'll agree, this subject looks really warm and lovely in the red hues. It's a painting I think I'll develop a bit more when I get time, change the base and make it a bit more seasonal. You can view a large image of the red candles HERE
Week 41: 13th to 19th October  Today's student had left the painting subject for me to select. Her only specification was 'I want something bright'. So......I opted for 'A Peaceful Evening', one of my latest designs and one that is proving to be very popular because of the strong colours used. We've had a marvellous day and Jacky has mastered quite a few techniques on her first oil painting experience. I know she wont mind me sharing this with you, but at one stage she stood back from her painting with tears in her eyes. 'I'm just so chuffed with it', she told me. I've cropped a section of her painting, just to show how nice the painting would be on a letter box canvas. Yesterday's egg went into some fruit buns, which Jacky (and Alan) enjoyed at tea break. I can't believe the bright orange colour that my buns turned out - those eggs must be really rich. We've had no eggs today, so the Christmas cake has been made with normal shop brought ones. The smell here at the moment is wonderful - 2 more hours and the cake will be done - ready for feeding with brandy. See, we're back to food again. Maybe I'm even more Gordan Ramsey than I originally thought.
 Guess what..........? We're grandparents!! Well, maybe that eggs-agerating a bit. What I really mean is - today we have our first egg. I'd given up hope of any of our hens laying this year. Some of our girls are at the age when they should be laying, but their laying pattern is governed by the amount of light they have each day. With the dark nights drawing in, we were told they may well go until February before we see our first egg. Trying to find out which hen done the deed wasn't difficult. Henna, our Rhode Island Red, proudly trotted by Alan's heels as he brought the egg to me. I've been saving egg boxes for ages and nestled our little treasure into a compartment. We're now wondering what to do with it. Perhaps I'll get another batch of cakes under way, or maybe it can go into our Christmas cake. (Doh! It always comes back to talking about food!)
 Today's live demonstration at the Green Room went really well. I think the fabulous weather we are having is bringing people out. It was so lovely and sunny in fact, I decided to set up my easel outside. It's the first time I've painted outside since a camping trip in our motorhome back in September. Some ladies from an Art Group were really interested in the easy technique shown and I'll be seeing them and some of their pals in December. Another interested lady brought my demo painting from me and took it home wet. It reminded her of the lake she can see at the back of her house. So all in all, a really successful morning. We're thinking about doing it all again in a few months time.
Not everyone likes wine, (I know, hard to believe, isn't it). The welcome pack, which can be ordered to greet guests into the Apollo Studio, contains a bottle of white or red wine. If you're not a wine drinker, you could always have something else instead. Our current guest has opted for a pack of honeycure bacon and some chocolates instead. Something to bear in mind if you'd like your essentials waiting for you.  Life returns to normal at Apollo House. With the car loaded ready for an open day tomorrow, I'm wondering what I'll paint in my demonstration. Dawn, the owner of The Green Room in Stowmarket, is having her open day from 10am till 2pm. Do drop by and say hello if you're in the area. Visitors will be able to see exactly what goes on in all the rooms that make up the venue. It's THE place to go if you want to feel good and relax. From aromatherapy treatments, reflexology, hypnosis, yoga and much, much more. The Green Room has a reception room upstairs, large enough for me to conduct my monthly oil painting workshops. It has marvellous light and overlooks a pretty courtyard. On top of that, it's right opposite a bakery. Our next class there is on the 25th of October and we will be painting 'Golden Brown'. There's room for just 2 more students if you'd like to come along. Details can be found HERE. I find most of my students slip away at lunch time to get their freshly made sandwiches......bagettes.....rolls.......pies.......cakes.......savouries Oh, here I go again, back on the subject of food - I'm not making this diet of mine any easier for myself, am I? Especially when I can smell my freshly made loaf, ready for the Apollo Studio's new occupant.
 Time to think about Christmas...... (I know not all of you will agree). My Gift Vouchers have been printed and are available not only online from my website but also at my painting class venues. Just have a word with either the owner or receptionist and they'll be happy to sell you one. The 3 vouchers are valued at £45, which will pay for a painting class; £65, which will pay for a private lesson and £25, which can be used either towards a class, a private lesson, DVD's or art materials. If anyone would like a voucher for a different monetary value, ie £10, please drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk and I'll be happy to print a special voucher for you. And speaking of Christmas, I'm ready! No, I haven't done my Christmas shopping, no I haven't put my tree up (although that could change next week)......I've got all the ingredients ready to make this year's Christmas Cake. As regular readers will be aware, I've become a bit of a baker, so it only seems apt to make my own cake...............and pudding.............. and mince pies............... and sausage rolls.
 For a little bit of seasonal fun, I am currently offering Darrell's haloween and thanksgiving projects at just £7.50 each. The projects are called 'Pumpkin Annie', pictured here on the left, and 'Andy's Harvest'. As always, my price includes postage and packing to any UK/European address. You'll find the full images and the shopping baskets on my Special Offers page. Offer ends November 5th.
The discussion of my own line of DVD's, something that's been on the back burner for a while, has recently come to light again via e-mails from my customers, requests from my students, talk over dinner, and closer to home. We've been talking about the idea for almost a couple of years. We've even had a couple of practice runs. The 2 DVD's we made over a year ago were sent out to a small selection of students, who e-mailed me photos of their finished results. Their results were great which showed us that the teaching elements contained in the DVD's were spot on. I think the time has come to get this project on the go sooner rather than later. Any input that readers can give as to what they would like to see on DVD would be most useful and much appreciated. Do feel free to drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk Week 40: 6th to 12th October  On our day off together, we exercised a bit of role reversal. I was the teacher and Darrell was the student. I gave Darrell a private lesson and taught him how to make Pop Art. Mind you, the roles soon reversed back again when he later taught me both how to paint and how teach the 2 Swans painting. Darrell was an excellent (and very quick student) and as you can see, he made quite a job of this little Pop Art Portrait..... This exercise has led us to other things, and we're currently in the very early stages of discussing the viability of Pop Art DVD's. If this is something you would have an interest in, drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk , lets see if we can gauge just how popular a Pop Art DVD might be to you.
 I can't go so far as to say we're having a heatwave, but it was our second consecutive day of lovely sunshine. What an uplifting way to start the day, and the drive to the picturesque village of East Bergholt for the Happy Daisies class was a picture in itself. All of today's students done an absolutely marvellous job of their candles and daisies. All students received a great deal of personnal attention from Darrell too. The ooo's and the ah's resounded in the hall as he made the floral painting look so easy. There were a few ooo's and ah's from myself and another student, Brian, as Darrell literally threw together some figures on a spare canvas, giving myself and Brian a quick demonstration on how to paint people/figures. I think this is going to be a very popular DVD (The Basic Technique of oil painting People) and will really take your landscape paintings a step further.
 Our overseas friend, Mr Darrell Crow, takes less and less time to settle in with each visit he makes. I just thought I'd let you know that he's currently sat by Alan's side with his feet up watching Jimi Hendrix playing Star Spangled Banner! I think this means that Alan's forgiven him for shouting 'Chicken Soup' to our chickens. Do you know, the first thing Alan done when he returned home from work was to count them, just to make sure we still had 6.
The good news: Just to let you all know, I have the masters of Pumpkin Annie and Andy's Harvest. The bad news: What I don't have, however, is much time to set up the shopping baskets for them. As soon as I have a few moments I'll work on those straight away. Another really exciting DVD which I have is 'The Basic Technique of painting People'. This informative DVD shows how to add figures to your paintings. This is not a portraiture DVD and the figures are easily accomplished by students. To have a couple of people walking through your landscape, holding hands, really adds quite a story to the composition. The availability will be immediate............once I've got the shopping baskets set up for them, so bear with me folks. After my post-class brush cleaning and conditioning session, I headed straight for the kitchen also. Darrell is currently en-route and according to the latest flight report, he's due to land 30 minutes early. He'll be here, touch wood, late this evening, so I'm just preparing him a tasty supper (and lunch for the next day). With a fresh brown loaf on the go and some carrot and ginger soup simmering away I think this will be a warming and substantial meal to see him through the night. It'll be all systems go tomorrow, that's for sure. Once again, it's not too late to book a space on the East Bergholt Classes. CLICK HERE for details. As Victor Meldrew says....... 'I don't belieeeeeeve it'. I've missed out on treats yet again. Marion had baked a batch of fruit cakes for the Heartland students, which were served with lashings of rich butter. Plus she promises to make an extra special cake when Darrell is teaching there next Tuesday too. I tell ya, I'm really having to exercise some mighty strong will power. Week 39: 1st to 5th October  Doh!!! I missed out on 2 lovely treats in today's class. Maxine had been busy baking and made the WHOLE CLASS some feta cheese and vegetable savouries - they smelt divine. On top of that, Nagini's father dropped by to check up on his daughter's progress and brought the whole class a large bag of cadbury's chocolate eclairs. Sadly my current diet doesn't allow for such indulgance, but I can say I was very, very tempted. Thanks guys for your very kind gesture. I took my new camera along to class and as it's been ages since I posted a class photo, I thought it'd be good opportunity to take some snaps.
I think we can say the good weather is now behind us.........for a few months. After Saturday's class I took a few moments to unwind in front of the computer with a cuppa. I then headed for my studio and made a start on getting all the equipment together for Sunday's class. By the time I'd done, it was getting dark, it was blowing up a gale and it was drizzling. Nevertheless, everything's loaded and ready for the off. Looking out of the window this morning, we've still got winds and drizzle and there's not much daylight either, which makes me realise that it will probably be the last Capel class of the year where we will finish while it's still light. With the clocks going back later this month we'll notice the difference come November. I wonder if the huge Christmas tree will be in the hall by then? (Or am I getting a little premature with the festivities here?) My daughter has the right idea - she flys off to a sunnier climate later today.  We've still got availability on the 4 Darrell Crow Workshops taking part in East Bergholt Lambe School next week. If you'd like to book your spaces on any or all of these classes, please contact me on 01473 311938, or 07950032557, or drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk. I'm getting quite excited about Darrell's trip and my mind was racing today as I was making a start on some canvas preparation. When we put our heads together all sorts of ideas flow. It's great for us to discuss the many aspects of art instruction together, sharing helpful tips and hints. I don't think there's a trip yet when both of us haven't learned something new from each other. I can remember how nervous I was when Darrell visited for the first time - and now, it's just like having a long distance relative coming to stay. Do you know, he's as much at home in my kitchen as I am. Here's a snap taken from Darrell's first workshop in the UK standing with Davy, a long time painting buddy who has recently signed onto the Bill Alexander Art Instruction Course.
 Today I packed up my easel, canvas, paints and brushes and headed out to a friends to spend a painting day at her spacious, quiet and peaceful home with a specific project in mind. I took along Darrell's 'Beautiful Daisies' DVD so we could sit and paint together; I need to be familiar with this painting so I can assist students who will be painting this with us next Thursday (9th October) in East Bergholt. I also wanted to see which of my brushes would be the most appropriate to use for this project. We had a great day and our paintings, although following the same instruction, are very different. You can't help your personality and mood coming through onto the canvas and we find this a lot in classes. Some folk paint gently, some paint aggressively, some people paint nervously and some paint confidently. And all these emotions can change within the same person, which means you can paint differently on different days, depending on mood and circumstance. It's good for me to switch roles from Teacher to Student, that way I can put myself in your shoes and have a much better idea of your needs. Here's my finished peice, I didn't follow the DVD to the letter, by the way. There's till spaces available at Darrell's class, so if you'd like to come along and paint this project with us we'd love to have you. Please call Sue on 01473 311938 or drop me a line on info@ayoubart.co.uk
I've made a change to this month's painting project in the Green Room on October 25th. We'll now be painting the very popular 'Golden Brown'. You can see details of the painting subject HERE  I'm going to take this as a compliment...... When visiting Soha, my oldest daughter, the other evening we were catching up on news. She was playing a lovely CD, which I borrowed, as I often do. She was excited about going to see one of her favourite bands, Kings of Leon and played one of their CD's to me. She'd done this a couple of times, but I can't quite gel with the band (and told her so). Kasabian - yep, Keane - yep, Gossip - yep, Elbow - yep - I'll take all them quite easily. But these Kings of Leon are going to take some time to get into (if ever). 'Mum', she said, 'It's the ONLY un-cool thing about you.........!' Isn't that nice (or is it?) Still, I guess I feel the same way about her taste when she rolls her eyes at Pink Floyd.
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Copyright © 2003-2009 Susan Warne. Wet on Wet Classes /Apollo Studio Accomodation / Alexander Art
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