My Last watercolour paintings workshop this year

Life is moving on so fast, they do say this happens more as we get older. 

I think I am starting to believe them. I find it difficult to comprehend that 

I am about to advertise my last workshop for this year. 

Where did the last half of the year go.Time flies time flies!!!

FULL DAY

WATERCOLOUR PAINTING WORKSHOP

ON 

SATURDAY 15TH JUNE

@

ANGELA EMSEN-WEST

STUDIO BALLINROBE.

ONLY 6 PLACES AVAILABLE

FOR MORE INFORMATION 

                                     CALL ANGELA ON

                                    0894134418

Another month on

Gosh! I have made it this far and I feel like the world is my oyster. O K maybe a bit too over the top but I do feel as if the world is opening it's doors.

I have lost another 7 pounds this month,1 stone 7 pounds in total up to now and  I am just starting to feel it, clothes that I would normally wear are loose on me, people are starting to mention " you look good or different" I don't think that my weight loss is enough to mention but people know they are seeing something different in me. 

How I long to go into ANY shop and look at clothes with the knowledge that yes these would fit me. I am sure it may seem  that I am a materialistic clothes mad woman but I am just someone that has struggled for a good while with life and ate to comfort this, anyway just to have the option to go into any store and know that there would be a piece of clothing in my size is the most fantastic feeling for me.

WESTERN RHEUMATOLOGY who I am doing this sponsored diet for are holding a small two painting auction. 

1

These works are studies for a painting I finished recently.

 Num.1, Is the progressional process of painting a cherry in polychromos pencil. They have been painted on 300 lb weight cream Saunders Waterford paper which gives the subject a softer more natural appearance. 

Mounted on raised conservation approved white mount board. 

Size= 22.5 cm by 45.5 cm 

I have had these paintings mounted untrimmed to show originality.

2

Numb. 2, The finished article 

cherries in polychromos pencil. Painted on 300 lb weight cream Saunders Waterford paper which gives the subject a softer more natural appearance.      Mounted on raised conservation approved white mount board.

 Size =28cm by 26cm

I have had these paintings mounted untrimmed to show originality.

Interested in putting in a bid ? all for charity.

please send your bids to 

angela@artmayo.com

or go into contacts on my site and mail me.

www.artmayo.com

Just over a month in to the 'D'

 Just over a month now since the 'D' started. Doing fantastic lost A STONE. Can't seem to eat  enough food, must admit my trolley looks so healthy
 Just have to tell you all a funny story. Tuesday comes (the day of reckoning  my weigh in day, I have a definite routine. Get up, have a cup of tea, go the loo, maybe too much information sorry, drive around to class or walk if its a nice day, go the loo again sorry, its an important comment to make.  I "go" to hopefully loose a gram or two more on the scale. I  then prepare to take off my coat, boots, scarf, cardigan and any other item with could possibly weigh more that a gram, and breath, then STEP ON THOSE SCALES and hope for the best. This routine came about of its own fruition but as I sit and wait for the class to start I came to the realization that most of us do the same thing. I suppose if I was weighed in with all my garments on and a full bladder each week it would not make a lot of difference but to be weighed in at just a few pounds less with out my cloths paraphernalia just makes it a bit better in my head.
I most definitely feel the difference in my cloths but really I don't think that it is noticeable to others yet. Unfortunately I have far too much to loose for others to see a difference. The annoying thing is Mike, my husband, is eating the same as me, well may be more that me but with only a stone and a half to loose (and he has lost a stone already) it shows so much on him. Things to come, that's what I need to keep thinking, things to come when I can fit into those dresses that I have kept for years 'just in case'. May be I need to ceremoniously retrieve them from their slumber and give them a wash , hang them up in my bedroom ready and waiting? Mmm maybe tempting fate.
I was visiting a friend today, who by chance is also on the same diet I am on.We got to talking about our cloths and just how loose they are becoming.
The strange thing was we both realized that, to our delight, we were actually able to breath when sitting down, without our skirts or trousers being determined to slice us in two. Something any magician would be proud of.
Our conversation gradually dissolved into this strange world of the unknown with comments like these are my cloth honest and they fit me NOW!!
Another thing was really funny (it felt like confession) we both had, tucked in to our bottom drawers, a pair of size 14 trousers from a time when I could run around sefton park circuit and then ceremoniously don a leotard and leggings (looking great if I do say so myself) just to walk sweatless, if there is such a word, in to a  keep fit class and dance away an hour with absolutely no chance of blackening both my eyes in the process's ,  Oh the joys of getting past it all.
Anyway thought I would leave you this month with the sobering thought:- one minute in the mouth is worth an inch on the hips
Picture of the month is Nancy's jug. See more?
click on the link                  www.artmayo.net

Coloured Pencil Workshop

   Full day      

Coloured 

pencil workshop

on

Saturday 4th May

@

Angela Emsen-West 

Studio Ballinrobe

ONLY 6 PLACE AVAILABLE

Find out more ? click on the link

www.artmayo.com

Slimming for Rheumatology

I just need to explain a bit about what I'm going to do then hopefully I can get on with giving you all a weekly update full of the general trials and tribulations of my daily life as it is.
 I have started a charity for Rheumatology patients and people in need of help with the condition throughout the west of Ireland. Rheumatology covers a multitude of different debilitating illnesses such as Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Sjogrens, Reynauds and many many more. All treated by a fabulous team of doctors and nurses in Merlin park Hospital Galway. The area of Rheumatology is badly underfunded in the West and I felt there was a need for me to help out.
So we have started to form a charity called.
WESTERN RHEUMATOLOGY.

I was not too sure what to do to start off, it is a difficult time for every one and I do realize that asking for money at this time, may be a hard pill to take. So, I have to do something to prove that I am determined to make this charity take off, even in this most difficult of times,
 I'M GOING ON A SPONSORED DIET gulp!!!!!!!! 
Now I've said it out loud to every one so I have to do it. And those of you who know me will realize just how serious I am if  a diet seems to be the only way. Now that's the last time you will read that dreaded word again I will rename the "d" word  with something comforting and nice. Ive not yet thought of a new name for the "d" word  but over the next week or so I will. You never know it may just morph from out of the blue into something different.
I plucked up the courage and took the time out and went to slimming world this Tuesday morning weighing in at!!!!!-------well you don't really want to know the nitty gritty bit about my total size do you? suffice to say 4 and a 1/2 stone has to be shredded from this mere mortal. Yes I know but if I take it 1/2 a stone at a time I feel Ill manage Just as long as it all comes off in the first week. Mmmmm maybe that's not the way its meant to be.????
So I went, I sat, I listened and hopefully absorbed all that was said to me and the other ladies in the meeting, Ladies and myself included, were all sitting erect and uncomfortable in the plastic chairs arranged in an arc around the Order of Malta  room. OK do a shop, veg, veg and more veg oh! don't forget the veg and then the salad and fruit. Quickly past the chocolate, biscuit and cake aisles. God this trolley looks healthy.
I have a real fear of not being able to fulfill this promise I have made but I promised myself that I can only do my best and just think of all the clothes I could wear, which is a thought that would encourage any woman to achieve their goal. I'm tired of pretending that "yes this size will fit" without the need to try on (IN THE DREADED CHANGING ROOMS) (If I was more adept at computers and things at this point I would have had the Jaws theme sound screeching at  THE DREADED CHANGING ROOMS but I'm not that good as you can tell) and then to realize that really two sizes bigger would have been the better option. 
Tired of scrunching myself up in the furthest corner of one large changing room with my back against the wall so I can keep a good look out for those skinny floozies who flaunted in to the room and  slide off their tops without a struggle. I think that may have came out wrong? I'm keeping an eye out for the skinny ones so I don't  feel even worse while I struggle to RELIEVE myself of my top, and in saying this I hold no malice toward skinnies only to say that I am Goddamn jealous. OK my own fault, I put the food in my mouth and I sat on the couch instead of taking a brisk walk fortunately I do and always have realized this point and truthfully don't get jealous at other peoples slim figures but I do become despondent with myself  for allowing myself to get this large. I am sure there is lots of psychology about to explain reasons why people over eat but the only thing I am sure about is that to loose it and to take control of my own life again I have to like myself.
Whooooo that's a statement and a half to make but I know that it's what I have to do so off I go on a journey and I would really love it if you could come along with me.

 I will do my utmost to post weekly and try my best to bring a bit of fun to each week.
This weeks picture will show you all just why 4 and a half stone has decided to take refugee around my body and maybe I need to start looking for other subjects to paint?

www.artmayo.com

well it's finished!

Well it's finished it seemed like a mammoth job but I did it and boy did it feel good!. I love the finished article, the colours, the textures and the hint of flowers mix in with all the swirls . I have always know that all colours are made from the three primary of blue,yellow and red but what made the theory come alive for me was my experiment. I find it strange that some times I know things but have not connected them to!!! reality maybe?
I have not put two and two together and made five I have just noted part of the equation and ignored the vital point ,THE ANSWER. I am pretty sure that's what I have done lots of times through life, I have seen the problem but not equated the answer, if there ever was to be an answer.

Any way back to the painting, I have used techniques that are strange to me pouring paint, cling film, salts and most defiantly different part of my brain as I was really thinking in an unusual way to normal. What allowed this painting to develop was the fact that I had to stop after each stage. I therefore had lots of time to watch as the paint and colours played their merry dance on the paper. It is incredible to watch as yellow slides it's way into blue to give birth to green, miraculous how red can renew it self with orange then take it to the extreme and renew in to purple. I truly could have watch all day and some times I did.
I really would love to hear what you may think of my "Angel petals" (There is another story about the title ) for another day maybe.

moving into scary worlds.

Moving into scary worlds is a bit of a dramatic statement but as I am so comfortable with what I paint and could most probably paint with my eyes close as each stage is ingrained in my brain, to change tack and to move towards new techniques and remove the CONTROL element within my work is a difficult process for me .

So here we go, I thought that it would be quite good to chronicle my processes.   This fist element I poured on the paint just using the three primary colours . I then let it dry with cling film and salt. May be you can just see what is emerging (or may be not)

Number two.

 I started to paint in my roses I did not want them to be too distinct so I kept the tonal values similar to the surrounding areas. 

Number three. 

This took some time to do but it seemed to arrive at the result I was after.

Number four. 

Finished the roses now the fun starts I want to build colour and depth but not totally sure what I'm about to do. so fingers crossed.xxxxx

                                                                       Number five.

I poured the three primary's over the painting again in the hope of developing some depth, I feel that it worked ? I will now bring back the roses again and  see what happens, maybe add another layer of poured paint .

The last few are still in the process so I will post shortly.