Survey

Any artist or photographers, please can you spare a couple of minutes to do my survey please?
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/99ZHH6X

A little break.....

.....and a day trip to Lyme Regis

Dida

Can I introduce you to Dida..

I am so pleased to be able to show you one of the commissions I have been working on. It was a real joy to do. I believe this is a Christmas present for a sister who has adopted this little elephant, who had fallen down a drain.

I had loads of pictures to choose from and she was so beautiful I thought it would be great to combine a few images together. So this is the finished result. I had great feedback so am very happy and am quite sad to see her go. She has been a bit of a talking point in my studio of a few weeks while in progress.

New Studio

I thought I would give you a sneak preview of my new studio, but I can only show you from the outside. There is currently items being stored in it that means I can't get a good photo, but hopefully I can show you later.

The studio is right down the bottom of this section around the corner, by the barns at the bottom. It is one of the worst places at the centre, as people sometimes don't get that far. But as I want to move their to get my workshops going better, then I wont be relying on people just dropping in so much, as they should be coming down to me specifically to take part in events. That doesn't mean I wont do everything I can to get them down there.

This will be my new front door,

The photo above was taken from this garden opposite my front door, which is lovely but massively underused by visitors.

So I have to paint the studio soon. I have also been thinking about how to fit in everything I want. As the workshops are the most important aspect then I need to sort out desk/tables. I can't use normal tables as I need the extra depth to get drawing boards on. We have been working out spacing and think I need 3 desks put together. I have been looking at these from Ikea

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/S49872322/

I also need to get some chairs, so that is my next search. I have to keep costs right down, so I am looking on ebay and will start trawling the charity shops for chairs I can paint. I probably need 6 for when we are doing lager work but 8 for other times, so I may get 6 and a couple of folding chairs. I looked on Ikea as I like some of the plastic ones, but they are just to expensive, with having to buy the tables and lots and lots of paint. I will stay mostly white in the studio as its the best for displaying art work, but I may go for a bit of splash of colour, but I have time to think about that so wont make a decision just yet.

I know it sounds silly but I am excited about having an indoor toilet and room for a fridge, some nice home comforts will not go amiss.

This does seem very serious now, before, in my little studio, it still felt like a bit of an indulgence, but I really have to get this right, if I don't want to fall flat on my face.

Studio - I'm leaving !!!

Yes you read right, I am leaving my lovely studio at the end of December. I handed in my notice today..........

And immediately agreed to take on a larger studio at the same place. Yay!!!!

OMG panic has now set in, I had contemplated it a little while ago, when I knew the bigger studio would be coming available, but thought it was to soon to move and so had decided to forget it. But life is never good at following plans and circumstances pushed the idea at me again. So after much deliberation and money working out then I decided, to just go for it.

Don't get me wrong I love my little studio and my new one is not as pretty and is not in such a good place at the centre, but the advantages I think outweigh the disadvantages,

The new studio is huge, it gives me space to run my workshops inhouse, rather than having to rent the teaching room, which was less than ideal. It has an inside toilet and also a storage and kitchen area. It also means I can run workshops as and when I want and get some regular groups going. I also have loads of ideas, including renting wall space and running mini exhibitions, but I need to look realistically how they would work.

Of course I am worried about the extra money, my costs would effectively double. but Mr WD put it all in to perspective for me, and we agreed it would be stupid not to give it a go. I could potentially earn a good income from it, if it works. But the loss if I failed could be managed, as long as we keep to an agreed time scale to assess if it is worth continuing.

I am very, very excited at the prospect of what I can achieve in my new studio but also a little sad, my little studio has been a joy and I will be sorry to leave it.

Student work

Beginners workshop paintings............

Finished Tea room Painting