Intensive Art Therapy.........

I have spent three - yes THREE blissful days at the artistic home of this lady...


That's because I've been to my fave place in Harrogate - Art From the Heart
And I created arty pieces like this...



..with other arty people like these...



...under the artistic tuition of this fantastic lady...



(another photo 'cos I LOVE her! I learned so much...) The talented Dina Wakley



The lady figure used in my work is a favourite image of Dina's and she calls her Betty - pretty apt I thought, as Harrogate is famous for Betty's.



Now there should be a photograph of the most beautiful Jude here but it seems to be missing - but this is her work... Jude and I are bloggy friends and met in person earlier this year at Dyans - it feels like we have been friends forever... and btw her husband is the BEST personal shopper in the whole wide world. Ask Anybody!



Another one of mine - Jude liked this one, she calls it my 'giraffe piece' because of the colours I think, and perhaps the markings! (I applied the paint with a credit card) Oh - can you spot Betty in there - perhaps she's visiting the zoo?



Now onto day three - Shelley was able to join me today and we had MEGA fun 'creating "painted" portraits' (We applied paint and pastels to colour a photograrph, mine was black and white, blown up and printed onto A4 card) It took a leap of artistic guts for me to do this - I was pretty nervous, (I think most of the students were) I've shown them in the order I did them... in this first one of me, my brush strokes were long, hence the effect I achieved here - I'm not saying I don't like it, in fact I'm quite pleased with it for my first attempt. Some of the others had fantastic results - Steph forgot her own photographs so she altered 'photo's of Dyan and John and wow oh wow, what an amazing job she did. (You'll have to check Dy's blog for them)



This one of Laura-Beth is better, although I still need more practice blending the tones...



And then my third attempt with a photograph of Steph, our bride to be.
It's a scary process you know, my tummy kept flipping and my mind was thinking eeeek, here's what it looks like after adding colour to the face and hair as the eyes and mouth are left till last..



I like this the best, although I still need to work on the contrast of dark and light.. but Andy Warhol watch this space!



Ah, here's Shelley playing away...



And here she is again with Jude - glamour girls together..



Dina giving instruction and advice with son, Carter (THE most amiable young man!) getting in on the act..



And here is Ann, who made me laugh the whole weekend - she brought along this netting so we could use it to make texture in our work and jokingly put it on her head (Ena Sharples style)



And perhaps the funniest thing of the whole weekend was the fact that she has renamed these wonderful pastels - they are now known as 'portafino' - and if you see Jude she will teach you how to pronounce it - true Italian style!

Well they do have a P and an O and an R and T and an F ....



It shall be quiet on this front for a couple of weeks as my arty goods are being packed away, my art room is a bedroom and we are going to be having a little visitor from Leicester who will need to occupy the space! Laura-Beth, Jim and Charlie are coming to stay. Happy times!