Happy New Year!

Belated Happy New Year

New Year, New beginnings.

 Last year saw us for the first time in 8 years not hosting art holidays and to be honest I was bereft.  Its what I do, its what I love….but….things move on and things change.

We are planning to move but in the meantime I decided to find more time to discover what I Iiked to create and discover new ways to do it.

I also had the opportunity to go out and do workshops outside Bandouille to teach and to learn taking in a part of France I did not know.  It was a joy. And I think that is where I left you.

  Sketch  into Castillon le Bataille

First was Chez Castillion on the grand Dordogne.  A beautiful venue specifically for writers as a retreat hosted by Mickey and Janie Wilson.

I met some wonderful talented people there.  

The weather was perfect, although maybe a touch on the "too" warm side and the scenery wonderful. The pool helped..

I have many sketches from there and many that I would like to paint at a later stage.

After this crazy week I spent a few days a couple of hours further south near Aiguillon where I painted for a day with Christian Couteau and a group of keen followers.  I stayed in this lovely abode which I found on Airbnb for 20 euros a night with my own pool.  Bargain and such nice people who ran it.  It was only 10 mins from where I was to meet my fellow painters. 

Again an amazing experience and so much learnt in such a short space of time.  Cant believe how many sketches we managed in a morning.  Here 3 of 7

After my short spate in the Dordogne I spent a week in the Bordeaux area with my bestie and my girls.  Another area I had not before investigated fully.  Our day in St. Emillion was particularly lovely and ironically 10 mins from Chez Castillon.   We also visited Saintes.

House sale
The house is now officially on the market after not succeeding in finding a suitable agent here sell it.  So we have found on online company who specialises in this field.  If you click here you can see what we have to offer.  So if you are interested please come through the site with your enquiries.

TRAVEL - Madrid

 After the worst cold of my life over Christmas and New Year I went to Madrid to visit my daughter and partner and was warmly welcomed into his fathers home.  I had never been to mainland Spain and the city was beautiful and so calm.  A very strange experience next to London or Paris.  We ventured out into the country and stayed near beautiful Toledo in Grandmas house and visited La Mancha, site of the windmills from the fables of Don Quioxte.  I was able to relax there and sit and sketch together with Jose (my daughters boyfriend) and we did these in very little time.  It was the first time he had sketched let alone plein air.  I love this work.

La Mancha                                                 Mine                                                                Joses

I have now returned home, armed with pictures that I want to sketch including a photo of Jose's Nanna Fernanda who passed last year.  This is a quick sketch before I attempt a larger portrait of her.

And a great pic of his dad to whom I am very grateful for his hospitality in his home.

A very special time was had there (even with the three of them ill with the same cold I had)..

So much to see to see....But I intend to be back very soon.

Now to plan the rest of the year.

I have been asked by Colourcraftltd.com to feature in their February blog.  So I have selected some materials from their catalogue that I have never used before….just for fun.

Watch this space…..I will send a link when I have completed the project.  I promise it will be fun and very much out of my comfort zone.

If you have not heard of Colourcraft before, they are the original producers and suppliers of Brusho, but that is only a fraction of what they supply. Please visit and discover the treasures they hold for the keen crafter.

I use them for nearly all of my creative needs. 

So with that in mind I shall be on again very soon and feel free to comment and ask any questions.

A Bientot 

Bix

Of course obligatory picture of my fluffy boy Arty!  Bx

Autumn at Bandouille

Autumn - from Spring.....where has that time gone....and so much has happened!

Yes, again my blogging skills have lapsed, but all the better to play catchup.

The 2016 Art Holiday season  was packed with fun and wonderful paintings from both Tutors and guests. 

Sadly because of the work that this entails I felt that I had to resign from my role as Creative Designer from the Gel Press Team to give 100% to the holidays.  I throughly enjoyed the short time I had with them and the people I met through them too.  But I am following their progress avidly on their facebook page Gel Press Junkies. 

No doubt now that the Autumn has arrived I will be printing madly again.

The tutors we had this year were  Stephie Butler, Eugen Chisnicean, Joanne Boon Thomas and Jane Minter and they left their mark as usual by thrilling us all with their wonderful skills.

Stephie Butler

Stephie Butler

Here are examples of some of their work some of which we now have hanging on our walls at Bandouille

Eugen Chisnicean

Joanne Boon Thomas

Joanne Boon Thomas

Jane Minter

Of course all of our guest produced lovely works too and many of these can be found on our Facebook page .

Just select the album you wish to view and browse.  If you see any photo you would like to use as reference you may do so.

We announced earlier in the year that this year would possibly be our last at Bandouille.  I am pleased now to say that it wont be and business will continue as usual next year although we will be reducing the amount of weeks and tutors that we normally have.  So please be sure to check our website for available dates.  Or if you have a date in mind please contact us as none of the calendar is set in stone.

Also if you wish to bring a group let us know as we can organise group rates, pick ups and dietary requirements, which we do as standard.

The standard holidays essentially means that there will be no guest tutor and you are free to paint what you like with my guidance if required.  We will also go out visiting sites to either sketch, photograph or just enjoy.

Also the holidays are not restricted to Painting. Crafting, yoga, anything in fact if you need a venue for your groups.  Please enquire.

Arty is now just over 1 year old and is thriving in our environment and could not be a more delightful feline companion.  I shall leave you with a few pics of him too!  

With that said I will leave you for now and continue again in the next couple days upodating you on other things that I have done in the last 5 months.

A bientot

Bix x

Concertina Style Sketchbook

I am using my Gel Press™ prints for the covers of this concertina style sketchbook.  After an enormously inspirational day last week holding a Draw with Stitch workshop here at Bandouille with the lovely Jenny Harris last week my ideas are spiralling. 

The idea is based on Free motion stitching and the prints are perfect for this technique as the acrylic paint has given each print the stability to withstand the needles going through and added to that after the page has been glued to the backing card it is further stabilized!
Please click here to view the video slideshow


After I chose my base paper Gel Press™ prints I then embellished them by glueing on the two birds and embroidered around a similar flower from another print, cut it out and glued it on. I finished these off by sewing in Free motion around each element.

Select some card

Glue prints to the card after embellishment.  Here I have used another set of prints

You can add a pocket with clear acetate on outside back to collect bits of memorablia

The buttons and beads just added a bit of fun and the elastic holds the pages together when not in use.  The ends of the elastic are hidden by the first page of the sketchbook and will be glued into place also

Glue to pages onto the prepared card and fold over the edges neatly and also glue into place

Glue the embellished page to the front page of the book taking care to line it up and then glue the back to the back page.

Go as far as you want!

I hope you enjoyed this little project and will try this yourselves......

See you again soon

Bixxy x

Sketching in Lanzerote April 2016

Just a quick post to show that I still paint!  Of course that is something that I would never give up.

Having just been to Lanzerote I brought my faithful paints and brushes with me together with a couple sketchbooks.

I am still at a loss though with sketchbooks and will finally decide on the right one for me!  But at the moment just have some basic watercolour ones and a couple cartiridge paper ones which I like the effect of but not the buckling of the paper when wet.  I am also in the process of making my own sketchbooks, but that will have to be another post in the near future!

So here are some of my sketches.

The aim was no longer than 20 minutes and try and get some different heights going to exercise my perspective lessons.

Also bear in mind I was painting by the pool and the beach only in a bikini.....so I didnt want to hang around cooking only one side of me!!!!

Having just joined on a online perspective sketching course with Stephanie Bower (Craftsy - great value) I was determined to test some theories and was pleased with the results.

These are by no means works of art that are wall worthy or sale-able but did what they needed to do and that was to give me more confidence in recording what I was seeing and having a "reasonable" entry in my sketchbook.

All advice received gratefully on urban sketching and keeping a "good" sketchbook.  Its what I am striving towards, so that when I finally do more travelling I can record in fab detail the things that stir me!

So if you you didn't know we do Art Holidays visit www.francepaintingholiday.com and book a week with us where we can go out sketching and come back to do the painting from the sketch in the afternoon.

We still have places left on Jane Minters workshop which I am really looking forward to this year so contact me now if you want to reserve a place.   You wont be disappointed!

Till nextime

Bx 

Our 2016 Season - Come join us  

Brochure

If you would like to find out more about us either click on the online Brochure on the right or visit us on our website. 

These will be our tutors this year and we also run our standard art holidays.  This leaves you free to paint when and what you want with the added bonuses of being taken out locally to visit our lovely towns and villages. Any queries can be covered by me if you need some one to one tutoring.  All this and the benefits of ensuite accommodation and full board.  

If you are a tutor and would like to bring your own group, please call and we can discuss the details.  Discounts will be available to 5+ people

Open access to the studio and materials also available

In addition to the above I will also be holding a Craft week to incorporate making unusual christmas decorations and other gifts and a Printing week, to include Gel Prints, watercolour batik, collagraph, decoupage and monoprinting.  Please email me at info@francepaintingholiday if you are interested.

Examples of my work are below: 

Two of these designs have been chosen to be used on fabric for clothes designs.  Take a look here

Thats it for today....two days in a row!!!!  Lets see when I next post.  

Bx

The Season has started.....

We have already had guests this May and this is how the schedule looks for the rest of 2014.  We are fully booked for Stephie Butler and Joanne Boon Thomas's workshops and for Keikos first week in July also.  We still have places for those shown below, but spaces are limited.

We are also taking bookings from artists that want to tutor and from groups too for 2015.  Please contact us here to enquire or make a booking

Although summer seems to be struggling to come to the fore we have had some lovely weather and quite dynamic weather too. 

Always an amazing sight from our terrace. Rainbows in abundance and 

 even managed to capture a lightening storm too.  I love and good storm and this one did not disappoint either.

All the flowers are having a ball, even though most are out too early but its lovely and colourful.

The ducks (4 of them) Chippy, Coco, Madge and Spot are all thriving nicely and two are laying and we are hoping that Chippy has done his bit, being the token male.  But we got in some guaranteed fertilised eggs, just incase the girls are disappointed in their 6 week gestation period and none hatch. Drew is such a good mommy!  Need to read earlier posts to catch up with that one.  So our lucky guests coming after the end of June will be able to watch the wonderful antics of baby ducklings, if Mr. Pike doesn't get to them first. Which sadly is a fact of life here!

KITCHEN

Been experimenting in the kitchen too and have discovered to make Greek yoghurt and cottage cheese. Sooooo easy and all the recipes found on Pinterest, my latest love.......  to see what boards I have created click here and browse, or take...what ever! Welcome to the wonderful world of sharing!  Bixxysbox

Also just made 2 litres of Elderflower cordial, ready to drink with some fizz for the summer.  Gorgeous!

Menus have been studied and tweaked for the coming season and rememb er that if you have any food allergies or dietary requirements these are all catered for too!

ART

Admittedly my creative flow started slowly this year due to my hip replacement recovery.  Which incidently has been a breeze and all is good there. But now having started the season, the juices are flowing and my little head is ticking over with millions of ideas and projects and techniques too.  Although watercolour is my first love I am also in love with Gelli Plate printing.   For those not aufait with this term, read previous blogpost!

To update those that are following, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR GELLI PLATE IN THE SUN - IT MELTS!  Try and keep your plate cool at all times, and now that winter is over, in the Fridge is best.  If you can!  I came into the studio the other day to find that one of mine, in direct sun, had started to travel across the Perspex sheet that it sits on.  BUT......no problem. Back in the microwave to melt down and place into the mould.  Be creative and check out the supermarket for interesting shapes and textures to use for moulds and different looks.  Even when one splits the effects can be great using the 2 halves.

Here are some example of what I have done in the last few days.  Bear in mind that some of these need further work and embellishment!  Which is the fun bit!

Great fun  - as you can see here and relatively easy to achieve..  

Just takes imagination and lots of paper.  Please feel free to leave comments and ask questions at any time!

Clares

Mine

With respect to other artwork that I have done recently, I bought Glyn Maceys Acrylics Unleased and was truly inspired and decided to have a play with one of my guests last week and boy did we have fun.  Although mine did not turn out as indicated (because I got carried away) I wasn't unhappy for my rare play with acrylics and we both like what we did.

And generally have been dabbling with watercolour techniques and getting the exercises ready for our next set of guests.

So lots of fun and looking forward to the rest of the season which is going to be very busy.

Blogs only really work if people comment, so please feel free to do so and I will answer whatever questions you have.

Shorters posts in future!!!!!  Have fun!

Bx

Yay! Summer has arrived......

Out and about near Chiche!

Welcome back to Bandouille everyone!

Again apologies for the delay in updating you all but we have been wonderfully busy and now that Summer has finally arrived properly getting more work done outside too!

ART/YOGA HOLIDAYS

We've had a few more art holidays between April and now and also a Yoga week here at Bandouille in July which was great fun and very exhilarating too.  Just by having different people here helped put us in a different perspecitve.  We had three lovely girls from Sweden and 3 other guest from the South of England plus their Yoga teacher Liz Warrington. The atmosphere that week was vibrating with peace and tranquility if thats possible. 

The weather although not the traditional scorchio up until now has been comfortable and pleasant for plein air trips and site seeing and overall considering have been very lucky..But looking at the Olympics at this time in London...haven't they been so lucky too!

We were also visited by two lovely American ladies who drove down from Paris and in the time that they were here in France (just over two weeks) they came with just hand luggage…We were very impressed! You can click here to see a compilation of their photos on Youtube.               

Lucy one of the ladies from Colorado even kicked me out the kitchen on the last night to cook for us some Creole Egg Plant which took her 4 hours to prepare and boy was it an interesting experience…Very tasty! And she had great fun doing it too!  Not sure due to the preparation time it will be going on my menu list though.

Having the yoga group here also encouraged me to develop a menu of Vegetarian recipes to see them through the week.  I loved doing this and working out new and exciting and colourful dishes and have now kept that as a format for another vegetarian group/week given that we are now advertising for more Yoga groups to come and visit us here at Bandouille.

We have also now extended our guest accommodation to the gite in the garden for 2/4 people and have installed a shower and sofa bed in the Studio for tutor accommodation so that we can now sleep around 10 people comfortably based on 4 people sharing.

GARDEN

The wet start to the summer sadly did not help with the development of the tomatoes and other such vegtables and this year it seems that we have little to practically no apples.  But we have been blessed with a profusion of little plums called Mirabelles.  Sweet and juicy I doubt they will get further than being eaten fresh from the tree..  Delish!   This is the first time in 5 years that we have got to even taste the fruit. 

MY ART

I have not done as much painting as I normally do but I have been zentangling though which I find very relaxing to do in the evening infront of the telly.  This is one that I just completed and is my largest to date.  Larger than A3 and incorporates loads of images that say Bandouille to me…For example, tiles on the roof, apples, cherries, flowers, rushes, chains, fish, water,  bubbles and many many more.  They are all in there! What can you see?… I also managed to do a quick warm up and paint an old lock from Judiths loose group on Paintmyphoto...Click here for link

Rodders perch!

FISHING

July saw Bastille night come and go and my birthday too..But I am rarely in France for my birthday but we were this year and we had some lovely friends (Rodders and Pauline) over for a couple of days and celebrated accordingly.  Rodders, a keen fisherman took great pleasure in fishing whilst he was here and was thrilled when he caught this perch.  Chuffed to bits he was!.

So with promises of regular updates - honest - we are going into a very busy period until the end of September with both Art and fishing groups.  Very much looking forward to these next few weeks. 

Now off to enjoy some more sunshine and get ready for our next guests and also to wish good luck to the remaining competitors in the future events of our surprisingly wonderful Olympics 2012 and catch up with you again in a couple of weeks.

Please feel free to comment and also visit our pages on Facebook to see all our photos

Adieu!

Bix x