January 2010

Dear Painter,

I write in the middle of the ‘Big Freeze’! Looking out of the window I am confronted, like most of the rest of the country, with a white world! Unfortunately no sun today or I am sure Barry would be out there, complete with long johns, mufflers, boots, gloves, fishermans’ heaters and the like, all in the name of art!
However, for those who are not made of such stern stuff let’s turn our minds to warmer things!  I have the happy task of sending you a little taste of spring and summer in the form of our 2010 PAINTING DATES
This year we start with THREE ONE DAY WORKSHOPS. Firstly an oil painting course for beginners and !improvers. Barry painted in oils for many years before he got hooked on Pastel and has recently returned to it and is enjoying it enormously. The second in Pastel designed to help you bring more Life to your Painting by clever use of content, colour and contrast. The third, a Still Life using watercolour and gouache, will make much play on shadows and reflections. Something for everybody we hope.
Our RESIDENTIAL COURSES,  while using the Churchhouse as a base, are held as much as possible outdoors, exploring our beautiful countryside. Barry has been seeking out some new venues to tempt you and we look forward to a time of much merriment, good food and happy painting!
This year you will see we are returning in September to THE MILL AT POSARA in Tuscany. Owned by Bill and Lois Brecon we can thoroughly recommend this holiday. It is well run, comfortable and of course has the beautiful Tuscan scenery to commend it.  Details from Bill or Lois or visit their web site.
 OUR WEB SITE www.barrywatkin.co.uk  has proved interesting to many and forgive me if I am late updating it but I am just having lessons on how to do so! It is no doubt easy to those who are computer literate but for poor mortals like me I’m afraid it takes a little longer. In fact I should say a lot longer! Perhaps I should have stuck to cooking!
 BARRY’S EXHIBITION was more successful than we had dared to hope and this year in addition to his  ORIGINALS we sold a lot more  GICLEE (pronounced Gee Clay)PRINTS They really are amazing and undetectable from the original. The nice thing is they enhance the value of the original. We had two more printed for the exhibition, one of our two Airedales, Josh and Jake, who lots of you will remember and which hangs in our hall. We see it every time we come downstairs. The other of Muffett the cat, the original of which was kindly loaned to us by Robin and Anne Short. I hope to get these on our website soon.
In these days of modern technology it would be as well to make a note of our web addresss: www.barrywatkin.co.uk. And also our email barry@barrywatkin.co.uk  For those who want to pay by debit/credit card we have at last made arrangements to have our own  PAYPAL ACCOUNT which can be used for ordering online by going to www.barrywatkin33.co.uk clicking on required item and following links. Did I detect a glazed look coming over some faces? DON’T WORRY! For those who (like me) nearly have a fit at the idea of ordering online, WE STILL ACCEPT CHEQUES!!
As usual we are sending this newsletter first to our own students and those who have particularly requested a brochure. Last year we were lucky enough not to have to do any advertising at all as they filled up quickly which was wonderful for us so thank you very much. Hopefully you all enjoyed yourselves, learnt something and had some good painting and will feel like a further bite at the cherry! If you have a friend who could be interested perhaps you could pass on details or let us know and we will do so ourselves.
Barry joins me in sending all good wishes for a very Happy New Year and lots of happy painting.

With Kind Regards

Pippa & Barry Watkin