Am now a WAG!!!!!

Whooops typo error there........ should read am now "AT" WAG (stands for Westhoughton Art Group), being married to a retired banker hardly qualifies me as a WAG!! Anyway I was invited to do a workshop on Loose Watercolour Painting by Dave Hendry at his lovely group in Westhoughton this morning. Dave was known to me from      

 I Draw and Paint

an on-line community for we budding artists where I have been a member for a good number of years. He sent an e-mail letting us know about his art group and I sent him a message asking did he want anyone to do a workshop. As some of you will know from previous blogs, I have recently retired and want to concentrate more on my art now and although I am still very new to this,  I love doing workshops and Dave was good enough to take a chance on me and offer me the opportunity to go to his group and run one there.

So WAG...... what a great group of people, still only a small group but run very co-operatively which many of you will know is also my way of doing things and I was again made to feel so welcome and wanted!!! Am not sure if it is something to do with this lovely hobby of ours but I have yet to meet anyone I don't like in these groups, the love of painting seems to transcend a lot of barriers and brings like minded people together and so it was at Westhoughton Art Group.

Dave really inspires a spirit of enjoyment here and I was so delighted to learn that everyone seemed to have enjoyed my session. As I am still new to all this, feedback both positive and negative is so important to me as I want to learn and get better. I am so enthusiastic about watercolour that I really want to convey this in these workshops but I also want people to get something out of them and to feel like they have learned a bit as well.

I was especially pleased about a couple of things, firstly one or two members asked Dave to invite me back which is always a good sign and secondly one lady said she had been on the verge of giving up watercolour and coming along today had made her change her mind and  another lady who was visiting her daughter may now be inspired to pick up her brushes and have a go, not having painted since she was at school. That's what this is all about..........getting the message across that it can all be learned, we just have to be shown how and then have the desire to practice.

So big thank you WAG, I really enjoyed the morning and will look forward to paying you all another visit in October.

Am I a Rocker!!!!

The first painting here was the start of my group wanting me to do a session for them. The two ladies who ran the group would sometimes bring things in for us to paint....... this topic was still life and this was one of the subjects. As often happens I did have a false start and then managed this as I got to know my way around the subject

When she saw this Ruth said she really liked how I did things (everyone seems to like loose watercolour painting) and would I be interested in running a session for them...... I said yes immediately and then thought about it...... yikes what had I let myself in for!!!! Anyway I had lots of time to mull it over and decide what I was going to do which I will cover in another blog.

In the meantime as I had quite liked doing the chair thought I would do our own rocking chair and also posted it as an image in the group.  The one above as far as I remember I did draw but this next one was straight in with the paint. We bought this chair before we got married and I still love it, it looked so lovely in the small cottage we had at the time and still sits in our hall today.

I like the colours in both these and enjoyed painting them and may never have thought of chairs as subjects had it not been for the group. I might do these differently now but I still look back on these with affection as at the time they were a bit of a breakthrough and of course prompted Ruth to ask me about doing a workshop and then on to running the group, so quite a turning point!!

RUSTY Rackets and HOT NUDE!!!

And before any of you ask, no this is not a self portrait!!!! Her figure is marginally better than mine!!!! I thought this image, which I found on images of tennis players, killed two birds with one stone.... topical as we have been playing tennis and an obvious choice to continue with my very serious nude series!!!! I am obviously far too light of foot and active on the court for anyone to have been able to take such an action image of me like this .........I am however wondering just what I'm meant to be fiddling with under my dress..........maybe best not to dwell on that!!! By the way, I do like the intense action and movement around the racket on this, and I don't know if it is clear on here but the droplets of sweat breaking from the forehead.......

Just before we went to Lake Garda a friend of mine text me asking would I like to go to a "Rusty Rackets" session at our local tennis club. As this was my first Monday off work I jumped at the chance though haven't played tennis for about 15 years. Anyway today was the third time I've been and have also persuaded my husband to come as well, so this morning having taken our ibuprofen and paracetamol, mine for my knees and back and him for his moderate to severely arthritic hips we sent off in the glorious sunshine for our tennis session!!!

Gary, the coach said last week he could see we had both played before but as I prepared to listen to his compliments about our skill and talent and how we had obviously not lost it.... he followed up by saying yes he could tell it was a long time ago as our rackets were so antiquated!!!! He said today he thought ours would be an interesting household as he observed my husband and I (I know I sound just like the Queen!!!) be ceremoniously whooped by the opposition one of whom has either had or needs 2 new knees!!! But it's the taking part that counts... right????

Anyway we thoroughly enjoyed again, and look forward to more sessions in the next few weeks, we may even treat ourselves to new rackets as that is obviously affecting our performance!!!

So my retirement is taking many new paths, strangely enough another participant was a lady who is running the art exhibition I am attending in a couple of weeks at the same venue, she called me later and asked would I mind her mentioning my name to the Bolton press to help advertise the event..... mind???? No I don't mind at all though am not sure why she thinks it may help as I am absolutely certain no-one will have a clue who I am!!! But baby steps and who knows what will happen!!