New Courses

above     Necklace made from painted silk.

Above  Needle Felted Flower This could be used as a brooch or corsage or to embellish a bag.

I am tutoring some courses coming up soon. No special skills or previous expierience are required.

If you are interested to apply for a place on any of these courses please contact East Surrey College  www.esc.ac.uk/

Silk Painting for Embroiderers  
- Sat 6^th Oct 2012  - 10am -1pm  - East Surrey College   AADP1XB5XA

Needle Felted Brooches Taster

 Oct   - Sat 13^th Oct  - 10am – 1pm -  Old Pixham School  AADP1X14PA

Needle Felted Brooches Taster 
Nov  - Sat 24^th Nov  - 10am – 1pm - East Surrey College  AADP1XB4XA

Silk Painting Projects for Christmas
  - Mondays  from 26^th Nov to the 10^th Dec (3 weeks) - 10am- 12pm  - Old Pixham School AADP1X15PA

florum 2012

Orchid cattalya (c) Tessa Spanton

I am delighted to have seven silk paintings at this years florum exhibition.

Five of them are of orchids and two are of roses. the image above is one of the ones chosen to go on the poster advertising the exhibition. It is one of a pair, they are both hybrids that I saw in Maderia. Another is a lady's slipper orchid that I brought back from Madeira. The florist called it sapotilha which is Portuguese for slipper or ballet shoe. The Latin name is Paphiopedilum hirsutissimum which means hairy or furry slipper.

Details of the exhibition are below and there is more information on the website here

The exhibition this year is paying tribute to Elizabeth Smail who died earlier this year. She was the founder and inspiration behind florum. click here

florum

"beautiful plants by skilful artists"

8th - 15th SEPTEMBER
10.00 - 5.00 daily 

SEVENOAKS WILDLIFE RESERVE
Bradbourne Vale Road Sevenoaks TN13 3DH

The Reserve is off the main A25 and is well signposted.
Follow the track past the Riding Stables and bear left when it divides.
Continue as far as the Wildlife Centre where there is ample free parking. 

Poppies with Tissue Paper, Leisure Painter Magazine

I am writing a series of articles with step by step demonstrations for Leisure Painter magazine.

The first one is in the September issue which comes out on August 17th.

The series is called Watercolour Plus. In the first one I have show some ideas to do for techniques that can be combined with watercolour. The other image below shows a poppy done for the step by step demo and combines a number of techniques including the use of tissue paper for the lovely delicate creased petals of an oriental poppy.

 I may have prints or cards of this image for sale in my etsy and folksy shops. If you are interested you could contact me via either shop (see sidebar on right)

Watch this space to see what I have planned to do with Polyfilla in the following issue.

above image (c) used with permission of the editor Ingrid Lyon

                                                   

                    Oriental Poppy c) Tessa Spanton

Carshalton Lavender

On Saturday I had a stand at the Carshalton Lavender Open weekend selling my paintings, prints, silk scarves and some jewellery. The weather stayed sunny and not too hot. One of the things I like best about this event is that I meet people who have come in previous years and a couple asked me to work on a commission which I will look forward to doing for them.

 Also there is no shortage of cupcakes! (see below)

above The Lavender Pickers Carshalton.
below part of my stand

above Pink lavender in the display garden behind my stand




Recipes for lavender shortbread and cookies are on my food blog

Painting Outdoors Part 1

Click on the photos to get a larger version. 

The first photo shows what I usually take with me when I paint outdoors. If I have to walk any distance this is fairly light weight and compact and means that I will actually bring it even if I end up not painting. If I had to take a lot of heavy stuff I probably wouldn't paint outside very often.

 The little paint box is a very clever design and the star of the kit. It's been with me on planes and helicopters in carry on luggage. The water bottle only holds 35ml of water it might be worth packing it empty.
 Closed it is about palm sized and might even  fit in a pocket. Winsor and Newton's field box. I have had this one for a long time and it now contains my own selection of colours. It contains its own little water bottle that doubles up as a palette and a clip on water pot. It originally had a small reversible brush. That was convenient as it fitted into the box but for me too small. 


The pencil tin with the piano keys contains a pencil, a sharpener, some kitchen roll and at least one reversible brush made by Pro Arte. I have a round which is about size 10 or12. It has a very good point so can be used for details as well as washes. I also have a flat and a filbert. Being reversible they fit the tin and the tip of the brush is protected in its housing.

The clip file contains some sheets of A4 cartridge paper and 1/8th IMP watercolour paper.
I also bring a small bottle of water to drink and if I am out for longer a sun hat, sun cream and an RHS lightweight waterproof cape.

All this will fit into a tote or shoulder bag.

Sometimes the little folding fishing stool comes too. It was given to me by a friend and is more comfortable than it looks and much better than a folding 3 legged art stool that I bought.

Below is another kit I sometimes use.

                                      

This is a shoulder bag, again Winsor and Newton. It holds my field box and an 8x5 in watercolour pad which is really too small for me. it has lots of useful pockets and spaces for brushes and pencils.

It's been to the beach and to Monet's garden at Giverny where I did some little watercolour sketches but overall not had as much use as the combo above.
The water bottle is larger than the one in my first kit. I got stopped at Gatwick airport as I had forgotten to empty it. I didn't want lose it but didn't fancy drinking it as it had been in there some time. I had an empty drinking water bottle with me so the water was put in that and handed over instead.
The water pot folds flat and when full looks like a little handbag.

In my next post I will show you what I take when I want to work bigger than 1/8th IMP

Silver Photogram

Cards made on the computer from a Silver Photogram of lavender, wild flowers and grasses

I recently went to an evening event called Elements at the Wellcome Collection in London.It was a fun evening of crafts, music, story telling and science, themed around gold, silver and bronze the elements used for the Olympic medals.


To make the silver photogram I chose some items from a vast array of things. These were laid on photographic paper in the dark room and beamed a torch at them for 5 seconds. This was fixed in various solutions. The end result was black and white. Later I scanned it and changed the background colour. To find out where silver comes in to this look here

I watched a sausage (yes a SAUSAGE as in sausage and chips!) being used as a battery, listened to saxophones, made a silver photogram, extruded some fine silver wire, watched a silversmith making amazing new things out of spoons and learnt about metal colloids in stained glass.


 I also watched pewter being cast in cuttlefish bone.
This was run by the Institute of Making and was very popular. Each time I went to have a look there was a queue and a table full of people hollowing out patterns in cuttlefish bone. Alas time ran out for having a go at doing that.


The Bronzo Dog Doo- Dah  Band performance made a fantastic conclusion to the evening, They  played Baroque music and Jazz  There were 3 saxophonists playing bronze instruments. Some parts were made of silver. A mouthpiece was exchanged for a gold one and the sound changed from a soft muted sound to a brilliant full bodied sound and for the finale we heard the sound of a beautiful sax plated with pink gold. Other metals we heard were from the snare drum and the whimsical sound of a jig composed for the occasion and played on a tin whistle. 


Below silversmith David Clarke cutting a bowl for a spoon. The handle was removed from another spoon and soldered to the new bowl to make a new design. We were invited to have a go.
Spoons have been creatively used in the delightful little jugs bottom left 

The Diamond Jubilee

  Above  this is a work in progress though nearing completion and was inspired by the flags and festive bunting on boats in St Katherine's dock.      size approx 9in square. medium watercolour

Just over a week ago the Queen's Diamond Jubilee was being celebrated here in the UK.
Queen Elizabeth 11 like her forbear Queen Victoria celebrates 60 years on the Throne, both the longest reigning monarchs in the history of the UK.
I wanted to see the river pageant that took place on Sunday 3rd June. I was invited to apply to the BBC to be one of the artists painting the scene from the Millennium Bridge that crosses the Thames between the Tate Modern  and St Paul's. I was tempted to apply but in the end I didn't. I also had an invitation to travel up with a veteran watcher of royal events. When I saw the weather forecast and worked out I would have to get up at 5.30am to get the same train as her I reluctantly decided to put my feet up and watch this  piece of history unfolding in all it's colourful splendour on TV.

There are some highlights here and a slide show of the paintings that were done by the artists on tne day in spite of the wind and rain. Click here

I did however travel up on the Friday to see some of the boats assembling for the Avenue of Sail downstream of Tower Bridge and in St Katherine's dock.

I then read this post on Making a Mark and it inspired me to take part. I've worked on it over several days. Paint has gone on and come off and umpteen adjustments made and there are still things to do so it wasn't finished in time for the challenge. It did make me get down to work and although I wasn't there on the actual day, for me it does focus some of my memories and feelings about the river pageant.
Later in the evening I was sent this photo of the avenue of sail with Tower Bridge.