Tina Ashton Blog

A couple of weeks ago Paul and I had a break away for a day at a Spa, complete with massage, Jacuzzi and a swim. It was just what the doctor ordered, and allowed us both a little escapism from what seems to have been a hectic start to the year. February is never my favourite time of the year, and I had been feeling particularly low this year so this day out was much needed.

I have also been struggling with my artwork this year, not entirely sure which direction to go in, and losing confidence over my work too. Having put it down to being pulled in too many directions and the time of the year, I mustered on and managed to produce my two Tuscany inspired paintings which I was quite pleased with. They did in fact help to lift my spirits a little too with their warm and cheery colours, and they allowed me a little escapism to that beautiful part of the world.

However, whilst at my spa day laying alone, in complete silence, on a Hot Stone Bed in the most architecturally stunning Spa interior I have ever had the pleasure of visiting, this idea came to me! I saw this painting in my head which came out of the total relaxation and tranquillity of the place I was in, plus the state of my mind & body at that point I think. I felt really good about this painting in my head, better than I had done in a long time, and even a tiny bit excited about it! When Paul returned from his treatment I announced that I’d had this vision of an amazing painting whilst laying there and he muttered “Oh…” as if he was thinking “Heard that one before and does she ever stop working?!” And I felt disappointed at his reaction since this was different, it was different because my mind felt so good again and so clear about this vision. I think the reality was I had relaxed completely for the first time in a long, long time and I must have needed this ‘time out’ more than I had realised.

Anyway just days after our return I set about a quick sketch of what I had seen that day. Days later I sat and thought through how I was going to approach it to achieve what I had seen, and then very soon afterwards I got started on it.

It came together very quickly indeed and was all finished within a couple of days. However, when I finished it I was really unsure as to whether it was complete? I stood back and looked at it and felt happy with it, but kept thinking it was a little too minimalist and needed something else adding. I left it for a while on the easel, and had almost decided that it needed maybe a few silver trailing leaves when I added a post to my Facebook page to ask others what they thought. The reaction from most was that it could do with something else and yet a few others liked it as it was.

Interestingly by late that evening I had decided that it was finished as it was, it needed nothing more and my decision for this was based on the fact that it completely reflected the vision in my head that day at the Spa, and indeed summed up how I had been feeling that day too. It totally encapsulates the serenity of the stunning interior, the tranquility of being in this huge space alone (and yet with Paul) in silence, and the fact that I had switched off from everything else. It was a reflection of how I felt completely. Job done.

‘A Journey through my Mind’ Acrylic on Canvas, 30” x 20” on a Deep Edged Box Canvas will shortly be for sale at my MiniGallery website.

As many of you will know, this year and into late last year I have been pretty tied up with commissioned work.  I even wrote my last blog post about my own struggles with commissioned work against painting from my heart you may remember not so very long ago.  However, I came to the end of my commissioned work a few weeks ago and at first I felt real relief that I was now ‘free’ to paint the stuff that was building up in my sketchbook and in my head, but somehow the passion that has been so strong for many years has been missing and I have been struggling with producing work.

I keep starting work and then finding it hard to follow it through, finding excuses to do stuff at home and in the garden for example!  This past week I have spent doing some much needed gardening at the front of our house and it has been exhausting work, but quite satisfying I have to say.  There is a painting sitting on my easel of two red kites against a lovely loose background, which I got so excited about when I started it, but then the enthusiasm just waned and it has just sat on the easel for more than a week now without me adding a single brush stroke.  This is unusual for me.  Normally I hope and pray for every single opportunity to get painting, even neglecting chores and day to day stuff that really needs attending to!

Perhaps next week I will get back to it.  I certainly hope so.

I know that I have been struggling with confidence, and sometimes I wonder why I’m in this game and the trouble is the longer I stay away from my easel then the lower my confidence plummets!  It’s a vicious circle really.

Maybe I should not be beating myself up quite so much, I have managed to finish a portrait painting in recent weeks, and I happen to believe it is one of the best I have ever done, even if I do say so myself!!  ‘Golden Girl’ is a modern portrait in my original semi-graphic style which I started some ten years ago now and this time I used the addition of 22-carat gold leaf to the acrylic paint.  I was really pleased with the golden highlights in her hair, it has given the painting an exciting new dimension which I love.

In fact, I have wanted to keep this painting and have held back from adding it to my website and putting it up for sale.  It is not unusual  for artists to be ‘in love’ with their latest work I’m sure, but I’m in love with this creation and I know I will find it hard to part with her.  I do however have a couple of clients already expressing an interest in buying her, so I guess I will let her go and feel honoured that they have fallen in love with her enough to pay really good money to buy her.  Now that makes me feel like I want to paint again!

What I do know is that the reason I have struggled so much with painting in these past few weeks is because I have not been in a good place emotionally.  I have been feeling really low.  Some artists may agree that painting at a time like this is great therapy, a good means expressing those feelings and getting stuff out on to canvas.  For me that would not be good, my paintings are best when I am at my best.  I like to think my paintings have a ‘happy’ feel to them and that they reflect the way I am most of the time, so maybe this is why I have not been able to paint.

I started writing this blog article yesterday, and today has been a turning point for me emotionally.  My huge cloud has finally lifted and I feel alive and full of colour again, ready to to create some more happy work, work from my heart which is full of joy once more.  I look forward to sharing it with you.

My new commission felt quite exciting when my client approached me with the request so I thought I would write a little bit about it too.

A few weeks ago a new client contacted me asking for a painting of an ‘Angel’ in my style.  Immediately this captured my attention and it felt like a challenge I would enjoy so I had further discussions with the client to establish some more about exactly what he wanted.  He said that he particularly wanted this painting in the style of my portraits with the black line and he mentioned one or two that I had created previously like ‘Lillie’ for example, which he felt was fairly close in facial features perhaps.

Lillie

The client then went on to suggest that one way he could perhaps describe what he wanted was to ask that if Rossetti were alive today and was painting in my style, that he would paint the face of an angel.  I suggested that many of the previous paintings like ‘Lillie’ and ‘Hi Sexy’ for example were in fact quite glamourous and even sexy in appearance and he agreed that what he wanted was more spiritual than sexy.  He also confirmed that he wanted no wings!  Simply a close up face, with hair, and looking outwards towards the viewer.

After this discussion I felt I had enough information to at least create some sketches for him to see whether what I had in mind was the sort of thing he was after.  So, I then created a series of 8-10 loose sketches which I forwarded to him by email and I could only hope that I may have got the idea of what he wanted as a painting.

The client came back to me fairly quickly and confirmed that Sketch Number 3 was the one, “no doubt about it! he said and this was great news for me.  I then went about creating a much tidier, more professional sketch for him to approve, and also did a coloured version (with coloured pencils) using colours he had requested.  The client was delighted with these and felt they were even better than my first loose sketch so we were ready to go ahead!

Angel Commission Sketch 3a

I have now started the painting on a 36″ x 36″ square deep edged box canvas and the fairly large canvas size will I hope make for a painting with great impact.  I only hope now that I can produce in paint pretty much what I have achieved with a pencil sketch and still retain the overall look that my client is after.  I shall keep you posted and will let you see a photograph of the finished painting once I have the approval of my client.  Onwards with excitement!

Lately I have been fortunate enough to have had lots of commissioned work in, keeping me busy for most of this year so far, plus I have several still waiting to be done.

For many reasons this is great, a guaranteed income for one thing.  The money comes in and the bills get paid and ultimately this is why we work eh?  But for an Artist I’m not sure this is the reason that we work, and I have been thinking of late back to why I started out….

When I went back to college to study Art & Design I did it with a desire to fill a huge hole in my life.  I desperately needed something that would give me some real reason for being, and up until then apart from my two lovely sons there had been nothing in life that captured me in the way that Art did.  I started my course in September 2001, gosh almost ten years ago now, and I can honestly say that the impact my first week had on me was like being hit by a train!

I picked out Art & Design whilst trying to remember back through my life and into my childhood and schooldays to find something that I knew I enjoyed, but maybe never explored very far and ‘Art’ was it.  I used to love to scribble and draw, and I even won a couple of competitions, one for designing a Christmas card and another for designing a poster in the Eisteddfod!   I never explored it even into GCE O Level (as they were in those days!) since I was told by teachers that I needed to study academic subjects so that’s where it ended back then.

But, at approaching 40 I never believed in a million years that Art would have this effect on me.  I can only describe it as having been asleep for many, many years and suddenly my eyes were opened.  For the first time in my life I had something that I wanted to eat, sleep and breathe every day and I never wanted it to end.  To some extent I feel sorry for my boys since I am certain that I have not been as attentive in their latter years, but I can only hope that they have benefitted by having a ‘happier’ Mother in their lives!

These early weeks of my course were very emotional, particularly my art lessons and projects, and as my confidence grew I realised that maybe my love for ‘art’ was perfect for me since it was something that you didn’t necessarily get wrong.  My somewhat perfectionist personality hated things that I could easily fail at… Maths for example!!  Art was something I could never master.  Jobs I had done in the past became boring once I had ‘learned the ropes’ and were no longer challenging.  Art would never be boring; I would never, ever lose the challenge of trying to create something beautiful and different.  Suddenly I was driven by something that had never visited me before in my life.

So, I started painting out of a real passion and not because I wanted to make a living out of it.  In time however I began to be driven by something else too, I wanted to prove something to those people who saw me as perhaps ‘copping out’ when I became an artist and gave up paid employment.  Plus, in truth I wanted to prove to myself that in fact I could turn this passion into potentially a good income for myself.  I read a quotation one day which said the following and it has stayed with me ever since;

“There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love.  There is only the scarcity to make it happen.” Unknown.

In truth I think that other factors crept in too, my partner had been burdened with having the responsibility of making enough money to make up for my lack of earnings and I wanted to take that away from him too.  Plus, I had always worked and earned my own pocket money as well as contributing towards paying the bills, so suddenly having to ask him for cash for anything was a real struggle!

So in short, having already made this article way too long, now that I am in a situation where the commissions are coming in and helping me pay the bills, although I guess there is no certainty that it will last!  I start to think about why I started out and feel that commissioned work, to some extent, is stifling my creativity and even quashing my passion a little.

I think often about all the pieces I want to create, and in truth my stock of paintings created to sell has dwindled down to almost nothing, and believe me I am not complaining about this, I am very grateful indeed!  It is just that I have so much in my head, and in my heart, that I want to create and I am not finding the time to do it.  I get worried that I will run out of time to paint all the paintings I truly want to paint.

So what do I do, turn down commissioned work and therefore turn away a reliable source of income?  I’m not sure that feels right.  Plus the customers who choose to come to me for a commissioned painting are paying me a massive compliment and I really enjoy the challenge of creating something especially for them.  I think I just need to find a happy medium somewhere along the line and perhaps realising this now is the key.

Well, my ‘Tree’ Competition is finally over and I announced the results on my Facebook page yesterday.  It was such a tough one to judge since in all I received 52 entries, which was most unexpected, and I can only say a massive THANK YOU to all those people who sent in their photos! 

There were some gorgeous trees, all so very different for many different reasons, but all of them beautiful in their own right.  I could really see from each entry what appealed to the person who sent it and that was particularly meaningful for me.  After much deliberation yesterday I first of all I managed to get a shortlist together of 12 entries, and by way of maybe showing you why they particularly appealed to me I have added a comment to each of those shortlisted entries on the Facebook album titled “Tree Competition – Spring 2011″ in Tina Ashton Art (link below).

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=94478746476&aid=328392

It was then an even tougher decision to pick 3 winners out of that final 12, in fact I had 4 which I mulled over for ages and swapped around the order several times before coming up with the following decision.  It was key for me to then make the announcement immediately before I changed my mind again!!  Believe me, they were equally winning entries!

1st Place went to Jurgen Dabeedin for his Entry 2 – Field with Sheep

2nd Place went to Duncan Heyes for his Entry 3

3rd Place went to Julie Routley and her Entry1

I think you will agree they are all stunning photographs for certain, but I must stress this was NOT a photography competition but a competition to find a photo of a tree that I felt would best make a great painting.  It just so happened that the 3 winning entries happened to come from three very talented photographers!

The winning entries were picked because I could very easily visualise them as paintings, in my own style of course, and I had even almost sketched them out in my mind to get a feel for how they would look.  I was focusing very much on the shape of the tree, and how it would look with foliage if it was bare, plus I seemed to have a pull towards those trees that leaned in one direction and were not too symmetrical.  I think this is because I feel it makes a much more interesting composition on canvas.

The winning entry had the added appeal for me in that the foliage showing in the photo appears to have these lovely spiny or spiky edges which will give me an additional challenge when painting it, without departing from what I feel I like to represent as foliage by way of different shapes in varying sizes.  I can’t wait to get painting it, although I am busy with commissioned work currently and need to get this finished first.  It will be an exciting project starting the new tree from Jurgen’s lovely photo I know.

The 3 winners will each receive a Limited Edition Print of the final painting created from Jurgen’s tree photo, although it could be some time before it reaches them!  Well done to all 3 of you for recognising exactly what I was looking for and  presenting it in the form of the most beautiful photography I have seen of trees!  Do take a look at Jurgen and Julie’s work, they are both very talented photographers and have lots of stunning work for sale online.  Duncan I know is currently developing his photography which is a hobby and his recent landscape work is simply stunning.  I can see that he will soon have lots of lovely work for sale too!

Jurgen Dabeedin’s Website http://www.blueshiftgallery.com/

Julie Routley’s Website http://www.photofusions.co.uk/

Having this morning received the lovely news that I won a competition run by a talented artist from New Zealand, I decided that it was time I set you all another challenge to win a prize from me.  Thanks Michelle for planting the seed! 

Spring is well on the way and I was delighted to notice this morning that the Catkins and Pussy Willows are appearing in abundance.  So my theme for this competition, and one very close to my heart is….. Guess what?….. TREES!

 Inspiration for the Spring Competition 

Spring Tree Competition

While out walking my dog this morning I took another photo on my phone of a tree that I loved the shape of.  This is something I do quite often, and I have now gathered a good selection of reference photos to help me create future tree paintings.  Many of my paintings these days come straight from a sketch that has come out of my head, but if ever that dries up I have lots of inspiration in my “Tree Designs” folder.

 At this time of the year, since the trees are still quite bare the shape of the trees and their trunks are particularly obvious and these shapes, interestingly, I find even more inspiring to create paintings from.  They allow me to use more imagination for the foliage of the tree too, which is really nice.  I have attached the photo here that I took this morning for you to see, and there may well be a painting from this some day.

So the idea was born.  How lovely it would be to see what tree shapes inspire you all, my friends and fans.  Plus, what a crafty way of adding some more photos to my collection in the tree designs folder, with your kind permission of course!

 The Competition

 What I would like you to do is to send me a photo of a tree that you like the shape of.  Feel free to go out and look at lots of trees if you fancy, and you have the time!  Just send me the one that you like the best.  Or even if you quickly snap a shot with your phone when you’re out and about in the car, not whilst driving of course! 

 Each tree photo will be 1 entry into the competition, and please only send a maximum of 3 entries per person so that I am not flooded with photos.  Having said that I might find I don’t get one single photo!  How sad would that be?!

 The quality and resolution of the photograph is not that important as long as I can see the basic shape of the tree, so if you take the photo on your phone then that’s fine.  Just make sure though that there is clearly one tree in the shot if you can.

 Originality

 Please do not go searching on Google for images of trees from photos by others, if I find that any of the entries have been downloaded from the internet or stolen from another artist or photographer they will be eliminated from the competition.  I want original photos of trees that you have spotted that appeal directly to you personally.  Originality is key please folks!

 This is not a photography competition so I will not be judging the photograph but the actual subject matter.  The tree and its shape is the important factor here.

 Competition Dates

 I will run the competition from today, Wednesday 9^th February 2011 through to Monday 28th February 2011 inclusive.

 The winning entry will be picked out by myself and announced on St David’s Day, Tuesday 1^st March 2011, along with two runners up.

 So you have just 3 weeks to get those photos in! 

The Prize

 The prize will be a signed Limited Edition Print from the Original of a Tree Painting created from the winning photograph.  Plus an additional little surprise from me.

 The 2 runners up will each win a smaller, signed Limited Edition print from the very same painting created from the winning photograph.

 *Please bear in mind that there may be a delay in receiving the prize of up to several weeks after the announcement of the winner, since I will have to create the painting first and arrange for the printing from it once the artwork is completed!

 To Enter

 Please email me with the photograph as an attachment direct to;

  tinaashtonart@googlemail.com

 Don’t forget to add your full name please!

I will acknowledge receipt of your email and photograph and I will then post it in a folder titled “Tree Competition Entries”on my Facebook ‘Tina Ashton Art’ page with a credit to you.

 Please do not post any photos direct to my Facebook page.  Thank you.

I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO RECEIVING YOUR PHOTOS!

I find it very hard to know whether or not to go ahead and make changes to what seems like a successful series, and yet something inside me tells me that I need to give it a try.  Making art is very much about making decisions, decisions about mark making, which brushes to use, which colours to choose and many more along the way.  And then of course, when the painting is coming to a conclusion and it has all the components that you set out to create the toughest decision of all comes, the decision on whether you think it is finished or not!

My recent tree paintings have proved quite successful in that people seem to be buying them almost as quickly as I am creating them, and indeed my stock has dwindled downwards quite rapidly.  I have to admit I feel very grateful for this, and count my lucky stars that people should choose to buy my work over the millions of other beautiful paintings that are out there for sale.  This kind of confirms to me that I must be creating something that has to have, to some extent, a winning formula, and yet I now feel the need to move forward and change them.  However, in turn I then feel concerned that if I do this I will lose those loyal customers who have been buying, and collecting pieces from me in recent years.  I appreciate their love of my work so much, more than I can maybe express in words, that I feel like maybe I am being a bit disloyal to them by doing this.  All the same, I guess an artist has to move forward and do what the soul is feeling the need to create.  Perhaps time will tell, and when I have a studio full of the new pieces and no buyers I shall re-think through this decision!

For the first time with my tree paintings I decided to add in more of a background, kind of an imaginary landscape, a little inspired by the ‘Colour My World’ series but much less abstracted.  It was quite a tough challenge for me since my love of all things minimalist was giving me a bit of an internal struggle when creating it!  I started by sketching on to the canvas a few shapes to create the hills and a setting sun and then went about painting in the background fully so that I could then overlay my tree.

The background started off well and I have added a photo of it here for you to see.  This was when it was at a fairly ‘yellow’ stage, but I quite liked it and felt ready to sketch on the tree.  You might just see the faint pencil marks of the tree drawn over the top of the background.

The initial background for 'In a Happy Place'

I then painted on my tree and once the tree was done I then felt I needed to go back and re-work the background.  I kept adding glazes of colour, almost losing the yellow completely and at one stage I could have almost cried because I felt that I had ruined the background altogether!

What I struggled with the most was this feeling of my tree being ‘untidy’ and it kind of brought it home to me that no wonder my boys think I am painfully obsessive about their tidiness at home!  I hate having lots of ‘stuff’ around since it makes my mind feel very cluttered and it is almost impossible for me to work without first making my surroundings nice and clear and tidy.  I am still not sure about this new painting with a background, it feels as though it has lost a magical quality of peace that the previous paintings had about them.  This is not to say that I don’t like it, because I think I do.  It is for certain a happy painting and it makes me kind of glow when I look at it so I can only hope that someone will share this feeling enough to want to buy it one day.  I will let you make your own decisions about this slight change of direction, and I shall wait and see what decisions I choose to make when it comes to planning the next new tree painting!

The final finished painting titled 'In a Happy Place'

The dining room xmas tree.

You all know how much I love trees so I thought I would write about my ‘Christmas Tree’ thing, and at the same time see if anyone else out there, particularly you arty types, has been through the same!

 Last year after moving into my new house I decided to get a couple more artificial Christmas trees in addition to the main tree that I usually put up in my lounge.  I am pleased to say that in our new house we do have a little bit more room to enable this, although I knew I could not look for anything grand since we have not gained that much more space!

 So I went in search of a tree for my dining room, since after all that is where we will be sat eating our festive meal and therefore I thought it would be nice to have that lovely warming ‘christmassy’ feel of a pretty tree all lit up.  Also we now have a fairly decent sized hallway and I have always loved the idea of a tree in the hall to greet people as they arrive, always thought of it as a very romantic yet homely touch! 

 It was pretty obvious to me from the outset that a large tree was out of the question, and bearing in mind the space I had allocated for the two extra trees I knew they needed to be fairly slim line in order for us not to be knocking baubles off left, right and centre!  On top of this, being a bit of an arty kind, and knowing what I hope to achieve with my art, I wanted something quite different.  Have you ever tried looking for a ‘different’ Christmas tree?  Well, believe me there are very few options around!!

 There are upside down trees, which quite frankly look horrendous if you ask me!  There are spiral topiary trees, which in my opinion look a little like a piece of topiary and don’t really look very Christmassy.  However, I guess once dressed they may well improve their character and appeal!  I knew I also wanted something fairly contemporary and maybe even a bit minimalist so I kept up my search.

 I googled and trawled the world wide web for hours and hours, and there was little point in trailing around the retail outlets since everywhere I went they simply had traditional styled Christmas trees, albeit in green, white, silver, black and in fact just about every colour imaginable!  There were large ones, small ones, slim ones, pre-lit ones and fibre-optic ones and a few variations in between but nothing floated my boat!!

 In the end, and with timing getting a little too close to Christmas I settled for two 6ft slim silver trees and hurriedly found the baubles etc in colour schemes to match my interior design at home in the respective rooms!  Once up and decorated they looked very nice I have to admit, but sadly did not meet my expectations of the vision I had created in my mind.  Isn’t it frustrating when you have a picture up there in your head of something you would like and then you search everywhere only to be disappointed?  I have had a similar feeling when hunting for shoes to match a dress before, but not on this scale!

 Anyway, this year I dug out the silver trees and this past weekend I decorated and put them in their spaces, feeling quite chuffed that they did look nice.  Not to be content with 3 Christmas trees around the house I then decided that there was a perfect space on the first floor landing in front of our long ceiling to floor window where a tree would look fantastic!  Of course, it would have to a be a slim tree again, and it needed to be contemporary and extra special since it would be seen, especially lit up in darkness, which let’s face it is most of the time currently, by all who pass our house!

 So, for the second year in a row I went on a Christmas tree hunt, and after many hours again I experienced exactly the same problem as last year!!  I did find one unusual contemporary tree and I quite liked it, but the price was just ridiculous!

 I have therefore come to the conclusion that I am going to make my own!  Why ever did I not think of this before?  I can see in my mind exactly what I want so I am going to give it a go, although this 3D experiment is on quite a scale since it needs to be at least 5 or 6ft tall.  I think I might start by building a model!

 To be honest I am not quite sure it will be ready for this Christmas, but I will keep you posted and once completed I will even post some photos.  Now then…where shall I start??!

I have recently finished some new paintings which will be showing at a new group exhibition at ‘The New Art Gallery’ , Tecton Centre, Church Street, Fenny Stratford, Bucks MK2 2NY.  There is a lovely display of work from several artists in many different styles and media and the exhibition is now open for viewing.  There will be an opening night on Saturday 4th December from 5pm to 8pm and if you are interested in attending I can send you an invite which also has attached to it a £5 off voucher!  Do drop me an email and I will send you on an invitation.  The exhibition will continue to run through November and December up until the end of the year.

It is a nice change for me to have some work showing at a very local gallery (only a 5-minute drive from my house) and Maria, the lovely lady that runs The New Art Gallery has done a wonderful job of hanging the paintings and displaying the lovely glass, jewellery and hand-made items.  There are lots of lovely things to view and buy so it is certainly worth a visit!

I thought I would write a little post about my trip to the Ballet last Friday evening, and although not directly related to my art it was most certainly a very inspirational, cultural evening!

Last Friday I attended the Northern Ballet Theatre’s production of Swan Lake at Aylesbury’s new Waterside Theatre and what a wonderful evening it was.  Firstly visiting the new theatre was in itself an inspiration.  What a gorgeous building and the inside was just stunning  and architecturally quite a statement!  You must pay it a visit if you get an opportunity.

This being my first Ballet ever I was a little concerned that I might find the whole experience a bit disappointing, but fortunately I was wrong.  I was captivated, and certain that I could easily have been caught with my mouth open in awe for much of the evening!  For me it felt just so amazing that simply with music and movement and no words whatsoever, a story could be told in such an expressive way.  It was elegant and graceful and delicate in so many ways, much that I would have expected from a Ballet maybe, but with clever lighting and an outstanding orchestra the atmosphere that was created was far beyond what I could have hoped for.

What did surprise me was my own reaction towards the scenes in which we saw the men dance together, the scenes that touched on the possible homosexual aspect of their relationships.  For the first time I have to admit to seeing real beauty in the closeness of two men, and this moved me in a way I had not quite expected.  Seeing these two very masculine, handsome, beautifully toned bodies dressed delicately in white dancing in a way that was so expressive opened my eyes and awakened my senses in a way they never had been before.

Despite this wonderful experience I was a little disappointed that the men were not wearing tights.  However I have to admit that their very toned “‘derrieres” were nicely apparent through their white trousers and made us girlies smile!

I tried to add a couple of photos here for you but did not have much luck, I am still new to this blog and am not sure what I might have been doing wrong.  I must try and work it out for future posts so that I can add photos showing you new work and work in progress etc.  If in the meantime I find a way of adding some photos to this posts then of course I will.  Hoping you enjoyed reading about my experience of the Ballet, and I already have a painting in progress inspired by Swan Lake!