Thirty Days hath September - Day Twenty Eight - Coloured pencil...

...and wrestling with a tarpaulin!

Two challenges today, one artistic and the other of my patience!
I had a lovely class in the studio this morning, with faces old and new, all looking to discover the joys of using coloured pencil. Now, coloured pencil is definitely a challenge for me but I used the excuse of preparing for this class by asking the advice of lots of artist friends to see what equipment they preferred and then treated myself to a few new 'sweeties'.

I was intrigued when I chatted to various coloured pencil artists to know the difference between some of the major brands and so we set about comparing them in class this morning. I always try to have plenty of equipment for people to play with when they come for a class, that way no-one feels like they are wasting their money when they invest in materials as they will have made sure they are the right thing for them.

I seemed to prefer the Faber Castell Polychromos pencils myself but perhaps my tastes will change? What I did LOVE was Pastelmat paper and feel that this could definitely be an addition to my regular materials in future, it was just so beautiful to work on.
Sadly, because it was only a morning session, I only had chance to do a quick demo but I did enjoy playing about with a very different media for me, I've even had a booking for a workshop on the strength of the conversation today!

As you can imagine, it's all hands on deck at the moment to prepare the studio for the auction ahead of the installation tomorrow night. After looking at the weather forecast, we decided that a couple of gazebos at the rear of the building are not going to be enough so off Beez and I trotted to procure ourselves a tarpaulin to put over the top of everything.
You know, just in case Hurricane Maria hits us on Saturday.

Have you ever attempted to wrestle a tarpaulin? There's a challenge to ones patience if ever I encountered one...

Tomorrow will be the last painting challenge of the month - the last. Let me just take that in for a moment. Now, you may have to excuse a late or delayed post due to the fact that as soon as I finish in the studio tomorrow night, I need to do the installation of the display. I will promise to show you the display on here and I think Jaz and I have have a few surprises up our sleeves on social media too...tune in, won't you?

Thirty Days hath September - Day Twenty Seven - Beaucroft School

Day Twenty Seven? How is that even possible?

That means there are only two days until the auction - yikes!

A slightly quieter day today, which I'm not going to lie, has been lovely. A chance to take stock, pause and inhale deeply before the final push of the weekend.

This afternoon was spent with the fabulous team at Beaucroft School in Colehill, a village near to my location. Beaucroft is a Foundation Special School that caters for children and young people between the ages of 4 and 19 who are experiencing learning difficulties, including complex needs and those with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

I had been invited by an old friend of mine to come and work with the Lulworth class who are all currently looking at the theme of 'Me' so had been exploring portraits in various media. I was shown in to class by the lovely Phoebe and she introduced to me to all her classmates and they shared their projects including using watercolours and found objects which were adorning the walls.

We started by suggesting that they use some observation skills to paint me, with a few portrait 'rules' along the way but of course, rules were made to be broken so we had a few eyes in different places and I had a couple of chins at one point. Oh, hang on a minute, that's pretty well observed ha ha.

After concentrating really hard on their paintings, we also did a quick collage exercise using pictures cut from magazines to assemble our own fantasy portraits and I found myself not wanting to leave this bright and vibrant classroom.

Here is Anna's beautiful portrait of me:

Apart from the children in class, I've never been so impressed by the dedication, indefatigable enthusiasm and caring nature of the team of Zoe, Neil and Sam, all of whom deal with the challenges the children face without hesitation. I came out feeling very humble and extremely honoured to have spent time with all of them.

Anna and a couple of the children have VERY kindly agreed to donate their paintings to the auction, so if for no other reason, pop over to the donation page on auction day and donate what you can so that I can go back to the class and tell them how much money their paintings raised.

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/alisoncboard

Tomorrow - Coloured Pencils. What was I thinking?

Thirty Days hath September - Day Twenty Six - Yacht Club Beginners

A very privileged view for a workshop today, sitting above the water at The Royal Motor Yacht Club at Sandbanks, watching the boats come and go while watching the beautiful scenery across Poole Harbour.

So, why was this a challenge? It wasn't exactly a chore to be in these amazing surroundings today teaching my favourite subject of Mixed Media. However, there were people in the room who had never painted before - not a jot - and so. their expectations and future hobby were in my hands.

They had already decided as a group that they wanted to paint the view of The Needles, an apt choice as many of them had sailed around it as it's not far from where we were sitting. I gave them lots of fun things to play with including Brusho (of course), watercolour ground mixed with sand and white biros. We took it nice and steady, a stage at a time and they achieved some fabulous results with good humour and acceptance of me nagging them to stop faffing, step away from their pieces and as one person said 'the tappy tappy stuff'. That's Brusho...just in case you were wondering.

Here's my piece:

But much more importantly, here's theirs:

Aren't they fantastic? Not only had most of them never even heard of the materials I was suggesting but they have all turned out differently, a testament to their creativity coming through, no matter what their skill level.
I'm having the evening off tonight, I hope you all understand so it's bath, Bake-Off and a very large G and T, may you all enjoy a similar evening...