Jeudi Art

blisters and dust

look at these beautiful shiny pieces of furniture. Thank you Richard for taking the second French Polishing workshop. I forgot to take ‘before’ pictures. What an idiot!

this week

On Tuesday morning Brigitte painted another lampshade – this stencil is very popular. Jeanette has been working on this for months (well, years really) I said she must frame it when it’s finished. Jenny was playing about with leaves on a painted box – love the colours

Dawn (flowers) had continued the collage bug and then did a delightful chicken in water colour

I finished off my latest collage

Jane really does some beautiful water colours

Eric was revisiting an older painting and Jan was continuing with this beautiful picture

… and Patricia painted this in acrylic from a black and white image – love the sky

Acrylic collage workshop

What a fantastic day – and with brilliant results. It felt like we were back at school with all the glue that was being used. Lots of creativity – I hope you will all continue, maybe not with all the ideas but adding just a little bit of texture to an ordinary painting makes all the difference.

As promised here is the recipe for the olive cake – taken from Clotilde Dusoulier’s book Chocolate & Zucchini

Heat oven to 180 deg

150g plain floor

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

4 tablespoon olive oil

150g plain whole yogurt – Greek preferably

100g – 150g filling of choice:

chorizo, olives – green or black, sun dried tomatoes, mixed herbs – dried or fresh, feta cheese crumbled, parmesan cheese, nuts, cubes of ham etc. etc. (usually three main ingredients)

Use a loaf tin and line with baking paper – just squidge in, no need to cut to shape

Combine flour and baking powder – set aside.

Whisk eggs, salt and pepper, then whisk in oil and yogurt. Sieve in the dry ingredients and then fold in the added flavours with a wooden spoon. Don’t over mix. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake for 40 – 50 mins – check with a skewer. You could sprinkle some sesame or other seeds on top before baking.

Leave to cool for a few minutes before pulling out of the tin.

Easy peasy

lots of different stuff

Birgitta finished her rug

Dawn does some beautiful water colours

… and so does Eric

(the other) Dawn was experimenting with Klee-style paintings

Chris was doing a study for a doggy portrait

… and I was experimenting with fabric and paint

Lampshade workshop

A very productive day – sue even managed to paint three.

Christmas – aarrhhh

Jackie, Dawn and I were painting quite traditional cards ..

… and Jane decided to paint Christmas chickens – I love it

Chris was finishing off her beautiful shire horses

and it was good to see Steve back and enjoying painting those wonderful skies

Dawn was painting a card for a friend

This wonderful picture by Jan is going to be stunning

Eric has finished his interior picture and was trying to decide how to frame it

Sally Anne is still working on this – please hurry up and finish it as I want to see it framed!

Patricia was painting a very ‘green’ picture and was working on the shading

Gill has progressed with this – very Cornish

I was still getting to grips with the new gauche paints – I’m liking it more now but was ready to give up on it last week

Jenny was updating a wicker cheese dome with beautiful coppery paint

Getting ready for the lampshade workshop

works in progress

Rentré Mardi Crafts

A jolly morning on Tuesday with lots of different things going on – tiles, decoupage using serviettes, crochet rugs, painted furniture – it’s good to be back