Delicious Art now lives in Toowoomba

It’s been far too long between posts, so I’m here today to reignite Delicious Art Classes in our new location, Toowoomba Queensland!

After teaching for 6 years in Brisbane, hubby and I have now ‘retired’ to Toowoomba where the air is fresh, the grass is green and we have a lovely home with a wood workshop for him and art studio for me. I have a lovely space all ready to welcome new students when my art classes for adult beginners commence again in February 2023 and I can’t wait! I’ve really missed teaching but have used the time off to navigate our new home town, take some time to rest and recalibrate and enjoy the flowers.

And if you’re keen to get started on classes before 2023, I have a six-week Intro to Pastels course commencing in July 2022. Here’s the link for details https://deliciousart.com.au/workshops/

Meanwhile, take care and stay warm as a very chilly winter begins (another lovely thing about Toowoomba).

Blissings, Jeanne

8/6/2022

 

Art classes are online and it’s all working out fine!

It’s amazing how quickly we adapt don’t you think? If you’d told me that my art classes would be online and flourishing by April this year, I would have scoffed and said ‘yeah, right. Who’s got time for that?’. And then, just like that, here we are! We’re online and doing fine. In fact, it’s better than I thought and the lovely thing is that past students who now live in other places have turned up online. I love that, it’s like a reunion every week! We’ve also welcomed new students who have been wanting to come to classes but couldn’t travel or don’t live locally. It’s a win win!

And so on we go, with two classes every Friday (for now – I say that because you never know what’s going to happen next). We have Intermediates in the mornings and Beginners in the afternoons. So if you’ve been thinking about it and want to come along, just head over to the Book an Art Class tab and find out all about it. We’d love to meet you.

We’re off and running for 2020

The year has kicked off with full classes and loads of art. It’s been lovely to welcome back students from last year and also a few new faces.

The Intro to Pastels for Beginners workshop on February 2nd was a bumper day, I also ran an Intro class for teenagers at the end of January. I’ve really enjoyed going back to the basics and looking at the colour wheel, discussing tones, complementary colours, texture, stroke and how to manipulate the pastel to get the look and feel you want. The Friday afternoon classes are all about the basics, so if you want to come along and would like to start at the beginning, this is your chance.

Below I’ve added a few photos from classes and workshops that we’ve done so far. 

Art Classes 2020

Welcome to Delicious Art 2020 – this is our fourth year and we’re still going strong!
Classes are back next Friday 17th January and I am really looking forward to another year of delicious art with you. This year there will be two classes on Fridays; 

Intermediate Class in the morning (9.30 – 12pm)
Beginners Class in the afternoon (1pm – 3.30pm).

How do you know which one you are?
Intermediates are those who have been coming to my classes for a year or more, you’ve done the colour-wheel class, pears, trees, apples and Uluru landscape.
Beginners are those who haven’t done art for years, have just started classes with me and feel you want to learn the basics before going forward or want to begin learning and have no experience. If you’ve been thinking about coming to class, this is the perfect opportunity to start with others just like you! It’s a new year, time for a new adventure!

Over the Christmas break we drove to Canberra to visit my sister, Claire, and I finally got to deliver my painting to her. ‘The Pears at Claire’s’ was inspired by a photo that Claire took of pears on her dining table. It won first place at the Brookfield Art Show 2019, and I am so thrilled that it now lives on Claire’s wall. Amazingly the colour of her wall compliments the painting perfectly!

 

The Pears at Claire's pastel painting by Jeanne Cotter

Christmas Class – 13th Dec 2019

The last art class for 2019 was filled with Christmas cheer! We painted Christmas Puddings and they are all delicious – see the photos below.

I’d like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who came to my classes or workshops during the year. I know how much courage it takes to step into the unknown and constantly wonder if you’re ‘good enough’. We are all good enough and I love that you turned up and had a go. I love that so many of you keep coming back week after week, and I love those of you who book in for my workshops and gift yourself a Sunday for art.

No matter how much or how little you do, art is something that comes from the soul and it’s my absolute honour to be able to give you the space and time to replenish your heart and work on your art. 

 

Kookaburra Class – Dec 11 2019

One of the favourite subjects we’ve painted at Delicious Art is the Kookaburra. Thanks to Rob Crutcher Photographer for the beautiful image of this Kookaburra, it really was a joy to paint (or draw) last week. A bit more about that… Even though I say ‘paint’ most of the time, essentially we’re drawing with pastels because pastels are sticks of colour that you draw with and then, if you like, you can blend the colours together on the paper’s surface with your fingers or a blender. In the end I think most of my paintings look more like a painting than a drawing, so that’s where the different terms come from and that’s why I say ‘paint’. It can get a bit confusing sometimes! Below are some of the student artworks from our class. To see all of them please go to my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/deliciousartclasses/

 

Orange Trees Class – Dec 4 2019

I hope you’re having a good week. It feels like summer is well and truly here, it’s so hot here in Brisbane! It’s going to be a long dry hot season I think, so remember to put a bowl of water out for the birds. The other week we spotted a magpie trying to get cool while sitting in the hot sun with it’s wings spread, so we gave it a drink and then turned on the hose for it to cool off. A few seconds later we had 4 magpies all warbling and flapping about with delight in the hose water, they were so happy to cool off. Such a lovely moment.

There’s only 1 seat left for the Intro to Pastels for Adult Beginners Workshop on Sunday 2nd February, so if you’ve been thinking about it, don’t delay! Here is the link to book your seat.
SUNDAY INTRO TO PASTELS WORKSHOP

Below you’ll find photos from last week’s class. We painted an orange in a tree first blocking in the darks and lights in the background and blending the edges so that everything was out of focus and soft. Whilst doing this it was important to just paint the colours and shapes as we saw them, it’s amazing how everything makes sense at the end when you don’t get caught up in what you ‘think’ it should look like and what ‘is’. Once the background was done, then it was time to focus on the orange and the leaves in the foreground, these areas had more detail, contrast and sharper edges. Each pastel painting looked great, well done everyone! 

Take care, go gently and I’ll see you soon.
Jeanne x

Thanks for a great year!

My intention of blogging regularly hasn’t really worked so well, so it’s irregular and random – which suits me perfectly!

If you haven’t been here before, welcome to Delicious Art. Delicious Art began as a small group of friends who were happy to sign up with me for a few weeks and try pastels – so I could see if I was any good at teaching, and they  could see if they were any good at art. I am forever grateful they did. Thank you!

We’ve now arrived the end of another wonderful year of art classes and today I am inspired to write a few words for whoever cares to read them.

Since I started teaching art classes sometime in 2016, or was it 2015? I can’t recall, I have met so many amazing people. It’s not easy to muster the courage to learn something new, to be vulnerable and have a go in a group of people you’ve never met, and it’s been such a delight to watch my students grow, develop their art, fall in love with pastels and come into my home every week for a few hours to keep learning and trying. T see photos of student art head over to the photos page on my website.

Have you seen the movie ‘The Bucket List’? It’s an all-time favourite of mine and there’s a line in that movie that asks “Have you found joy in your life? Has your life brought joy to others?” I can joyfully, hand on heart, answer yes to both. It really is a great honour to help fellow humans find joy.

So to my students who have trusted me on their art journey, whether it was for one day or many, I want to say thank you. Thank you for helping me create our little community, thank you for showing up and being vulnerable, for practising and finding your inner artist. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, I am so excited to see what we can create in 2019!

The ‘gasp’ moment

Last night we had a new lady come to art class. She arrived early and we fell into an easy chat before everyone else arrived. She told me she was scared and nervous and not very good at art and she showed me some of the drawings she’d done recently, and she said she wanted to learn and be better. So we had the class and before long she was relaxed and chatting and enjoying herself. I could see that her painting was going to be beautiful, but she didn’t believe me and said I was being kind and nice (which I am, usually).

So one of the things I do many times during my classes is I hold everyone’s painting up so they can see it from a distance, that’s when you can see how your art is progressing and what you need to do to keep working on it. So that’s what I did. I asked this lovely lady to close her eyes, I picked up her painting and stepped back and held it up, then she opened her eyes wide and literally gasped with wonder. I truly love those ‘gasp’ moments, that’s when you realise that you CAN do it, that you can make a beautiful painting.

And she left at the end of class with a huge smile, a bit more confidence and a vow to come back and keep learning. That’s why I teach art, it lights me up and gladdens my heart, I just love it.

Parisienne Pastels and Serendipity

A little segment about my visit to La Maison du Pastel in Paris, the oldest pastel shop in the world where pastels are hand made and used to cater to the likes of Degar.

It was Saturday 16th December. We’d arrived in Paris the day before and my hubby and I were at the beginning of our European Christmas Adventure and one of the places I wanted to visit was here. I was beyond excited to see this place. We’d walked for hours to find it and arrived at 1.45pm. But the doors were closed and the curtains drawn so imagine my disappointment when we arrived to a closed sign on the door -oh no! The sign said they only open on Thursdays. I think I nearly cried with disappointment… But wait, there was a little note stuck to the glass that said they were opening for only 2 Saturday’s in December, the 16th and the 23rd, from 2 til 5 and it was 1.45. Joy!! Oh I was so excited (again).

So we checked the date and the time just to be sure and decided to go find some lunch then we’d come back. As we walked away I glanced back at the shop and saw a lady (who turned out to be Margaret, one of the owners), parting the curtains and gesturing us to come in. Oh my goodness, yes please!!!! In to Pastel heaven!! I don’t have words to describe how awesome it was to be there and I did cry when she showed my the new selection of reds they’ve made, so beautiful.  The shop was lined with beautiful old wooden drawers and they were all full of hand-made pastels – 1200 colours – it really was a highlight of the trip for me. Of course I bought the set of reds, they were just too beautiful to leave behind. How amazing that we happened to arrive on the right day at the right time – serendipity at its best!