Thirty Days hath September - Days Twenty Nine and Thirty - The end!

Blimey, it's the final day.
My apologies for not posting yesterday, as you can imagine with a workshop and an exhibition to put up, we were a tad busy.

Yesterday's workshop was a delight, two lovely ladies from Leicester joined the regulars and together we experimented with watersoluble oils, a very different medium for me but we spent some time exploring the work of Turner and comparable contemporaries to give us inspiration and we each produced a painting in full.

After the relaxing and fun class, it was all hands on deck to convert the studio and finally see all of the work together.
Unbelievably, I have created over fifty pieces during the month, something I never thought I would achieve and they are all now up ready for the auction.
Jaz, Beez and myself are currently sitting in the studio, waiting for our visitors to arrive but I also know there are lots of you out there who would like to view the catalogue and either bid or donate, so this is it folks, if you have enjoyed this blog over the last thirty days and can spare any pennies for Oakleaf, pop over to my website where you will find everything you need to know:
www.alisoncboard-fineart.co.uk
Alternatively you can follow me on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AliBoardArtist
and not only see what is going on in the studio today but tune in tonight for a live broadcast to see me make lots of thanks yous and hear the wonderful Echohead perform live in your front room.

Thanks to all of you who have followed, commented, supported and generally kept my spirits up when I have been tired and needed a boost - you're all marvellous!

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?