My talented husband

To coincide with my Highcliffe exhibition, today we ran a workshop at the studio showing how my beautiful picture frames are made by my husband Richard. When we first met I taught him how to picture frame, although not much tuition was needed as he was already very practical and this has now grown as part of the many services we offer at my studio.
What he hadn't allowed for, was that one day I might ask him to pass that knowledge on to anyone who might be interested and so this workshop was born.

It was important today to pass on the amount of work that goes in to picture framing and the hours that it takes to compliment the art work. Richard goes further by also reclaiming wood for the mouldings as I prefer natural woods such as oak and cherry, and profiles them in to lengths that can be used to show off the subjects that I choose to paint.

I don't think people were prepared for the amount of accurate maths that's involved either, as Richard showed how to calculate the dimensions of a mount and cut clean bevels on our mount cutter before demonstrating how to prepare work for a browser or to fit in to a ready made frame.

However, everyone went home with greater knowledge of what is required to finish off the hard work that goes in to creating a work of art and many were able to cut their own mounts, impressed at how much better their paintings looked after framing.

I think Richard surprised himself a little too, it wasn't obvious that he hadn't taught before and many of the class remarked on how he shared his knowledge with ease. Now to teach him how to paint...

Waiting for the Postman

My solo exhibition went up yesterday at Highcliffe Castle, if you are local to me then may I suggest you call in if you get a moment? For no other reason than it is the most beautiful building with a very interesting history, including once being the home of Mr. Selfridge! If you happen to be somewhere else on our planet, look it up as you will be fascinated by the story that it has to tell and therefore I feel very honoured to be asked to exhibit there.
I had promised many of you that I would blog during the duration of the show and let you in on a few of the stories associated with my work. I thought I would start today with this piece called 'Waiting for the Postman' and depicts my two Jack Russells (Troy on the left and Riley on the right) in their morning sentry duty at my front window, guarding me from the horrors of the man who dares to bring my correspondence to the door. They can't understand why I'm so ungrateful, they save me from this terror on a daily basis and all I do in return is shut them in the lounge......
The painting is mixed media and includes a selection of stamps used as collage items in the background. My Dad is an avid philatelist so I asked him for a few worthless examples to help to tell the story, there is even a stamp with a squirrel on it (top right) just to torment my boys even more. The main media is watercolour but I have included a little powdered ink and pastel to help with the fur over some of the collage materials that I laid down at the start of the piece. The painting is for sale and if you would like any more information, please feel free to get in touch for a no obligation chat via my email alisoncboard@gmail.com

Probably Peter

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to the Wyndham Art Society to give a workshop. They are one of my favourite groups to visit, so welcoming and ready to have fun, they are a pleasure to teach. A few emails backwards and forwards before my arrival gave me the information that they would like to have a go at a horse head portrait - no mean task for those who haven't had a go before! So I arrived at their regular meeting spot, armed with Pete, my husband's old showjumping ride, a wonderful, if not slightly temperamental Dutch Warmblood who is a handsome old goat and worth painting. I always have lots of stories to tell about Pete, mostly concerning our love/hate relationship but certainly that he is a champion and when he wants to win, there isn't much that will stop him.
I promised the lovely people at Wyndham that I would give a brief over view via this blog of what we tackled, both to remind them and to help out any members that missed the session.
Probably Peter will be going in my exhibition at Highcliffe castle at the end of March if you would like to see him all finished, but until then, I hope that this will suffice.....

1. We drew Pete out on to good quality watercolour paper, first using Tracedown from a photograph I had taken and then worked back in to our pencil drawings to give as much information as we could. Using pink Frisk masking fluid, we decided where all our highlights were going to sit and reserved them accordingly. Using sketching pens in black, brown and grey, we drew back over the masking fluid when it was dry to start to make Pete 'pop' off the page.

2. Using cold colours to complement Pete's orange/brown tones, we dropped in a vignette background and used this opportunity to add a little Brusho to the composition which would provide us with texture and movement in the final composition.

3. Using colours loosely, we applied watercolour, firstly all over Pete and then concentrating on shadows and features.

4. After removing the masking fluid, we were able to balance out the bright highlights with darker shadows and many participants went back in with ink or gouache to put the finishing touches in to their 'Petes'.

So here is Pete, looking very pleased with himself - a fitting portrait of a horse that makes me laugh and swear in equal measure. If you have any horsey portraits that you would like to share, email me at alisoncboard@gmail.com, I'd love to see them!