Melanie’s November Monthly News

Welcome to Melanie’s November Monthly News…Christmas is just around the corner!! Both Nicholas and myself have been really busy in the studio this month and we are still beavering away! We have a few paintings and drawings that we are unable share quite yet as they are for surprise presents, however we do have some that we can! Plus we have some amazing client photos! They will be added to our website soon.

Happy Clients

Jacqueline recently sent this wonderful photo. I drew Emrik for her a couple of months ago at 14 x 11 size. Jacqueline resides in Australia. It’s lovely to think my drawings are enjoyed so far and wide around the world.

Hi Melanie,
Oh I love it…..
Thank you so much for Emrik’s portrait. It arrived yesterday afternoon. ( Beautifully wrapped). It is lovely. Kind Regards,
Jacqueline 

Following on from Emrik’s drawing above, I received these amazing photos from Elaine. It is drawing I completed a while ago of the gorgeous dog called Simba. Marie commissioned this drawing for her mum Elaine and I very much enjoyed drawing Simba for them both. You can read a lovely email below too.

Dear Melanie,

My name is Elaine and a while back my daughter, Marie, had you draw a picture of her dog.  I “babysit” Simba all the time and love him dearly.  When she gave me your drawing of him as a gift I was so moved.  I finally got the piece framed and it hangs on the wall as you enter my home in Southern California.

It is such a beautiful drawing (see attached pictures) and you are VERY talented.

Wishing you much continued success…

Elaine Mijalis (Simba’s grandmother)

And finally the last photo to come in this month, was from a returning client Polly who commissioned Nicholas to paint her daughters dog called Wendell. Tiffany was delighted and Polly’s email was a joy to read!

Hi Melanie & Nicholas,
Just wanted to let you know how very much Tiff loved the portrait of Wendell. She said it looks just like him! She has picked out a beautiful frame and I will send a picture when she hangs Winki in his final place. Thank you and Nicholas for making Winki come to life for us in
the most beautiful portrait of him.
Tiff loved him so much.
Have a great day and thank you so very much.
Polly

Melanie’s November Monthly News – Lily The Tibetan Terrier

We have some very comical and cute photos of Lily this month, starting with one of her in the bath! She does really need another bath now….. but probably best not to tell her!!

I have been testing out the camera on my updated iPhone and took this lovely photo of her below. I had it on portrait mode so it blurred the background. Although her eyes are a little blurry, it is still very cute.

This photo was taken just after grooming and she was looking very tidy and sleepy! She was sat on my lap and I couldn’t resist taking this pic.

And finally…. the light coming into the studio was beautiful and so I quickly snapped this photo of her. We don’t often take side profile photos, however we feel it is beautiful. She was looking at the birds and movement in the garden, while sitting on her chair in the studio.

Oil Portrait of Hudson & Hannah

Kaylyn emailed us earlier this year to request a painting of her two stunning dogs called Hudson and Hannah in oils on canvas. Nicholas was thrilled to have the chance to paint them, along with the gorgeous background scene too. I took a video of the painting which I hope you enjoy watching, along with an amazing email from Kaylyn when she saw the painting.

Hi Melanie and Nicholas,

I love it! Wow, Nicholas did an excellent job, I cannot stop looking at it. I’m so excited. 

I want to thank you for this wonderful experience. In addition to the painting being so well done and beautiful, you’ve been great at communicating about the process and updates. I’m so excited to have this painting and will reach out for future portraits. 

Thank you very much, 

Kaylyn

Pencil Drawing of Meg

Meg is a very much loved and missed cat and I drew her portrait at 12 x 10 for Helen and her family. Helen and her family commissioned Nicholas to paint an oil portrait of their other cat a few years ago. We love working with returning clients. Helen emailed this beautiful reply when she received it. Thank you Helen!!

Hi Melanie, 

I just wanted to let you know that Meg’s portrait arrived safely this morning. 

I’m almost speechless at the likeness to her. It is superb. I could make a list of superlative words and none of them would be good enough to describe what you have created.

Losing Meg after almost 19 years was awful but her portrait feels as close as it can be to having her still with us.

Thank you once again.

Sending my kindest regards and best wishes to yourself and Nicholas.

Helen xx

Melanie’s November Monthly News – Festive Lights!

Our Local village has all of its lights and decorations up for the festive season and I took these photos one evening on a brisk walk around the village. Everyone has made a real effort with their shop windows.

The Cariad Glass shop looked absolutely beautiful! Visit their website Cariad Glass to find out more about their stained glass pieces – absolutely perfect for Christmas gifts too!

Melanie’s November Monthly News – This Month’s Running News

It is a bit of a tradition now to have an update about running. We have a Santa run coming up next month so I have just bought an outfit to wear. I was initially going to go as Mrs Santa however I found this fabulous Elf hat in Tesco and have since found leggings and a t-shirt to go along side. Photos of the outfit and the run to follow next month!

The winter has definitely arrived here in Wales and I do like to keep my feet dry. So I bought a new pair of Hoka’s called Challenger 6 GXT. They are a cross road and trail. These won’t replace my trail shoes (Saucony Peregrine GTX which I still love and wore today), but I have bought them for running roads with leaves. They are grippy… and indeed waterproof. I am always half a size larger in GTX shoes. So if you are thinking of ordering some, buy a couple of sizes to test out to make sure you have the correct size for you. Running in shoes that are too small can be very uncomfortable!

Trail Running

As mentioned above we have still been doing our trail runs and this was a lovely photo from one of our early morning runs. It was warm that morning… opposed to our trail run this morning which was freezing!

Harvey and I ran just over 5 miles (as we have a race on Sunday so didn’t go too far) and it was zero degrees and below and completely misty. As you can see from the photo below. Our hands were pretty cold by the time we got back to the car, even though we were wearing gloves!

The drive to the forest was beautiful. This was taken early in the morning just as the sun was coming up. We were high up on the mountain, you can see the mist is below in the valley. If we had of been sensible…we should have run where the photo was taken!! So pretty!

Following our runs we always make sure we have a hot cup of tea to warm us up, along with a cheeky bit of cake. This Swiss roll with jam and cream is one of our favourites.

Sue’s Birthday!

We also had a big birthday to celebrate this month as one of our running gang was 60! There was a celebration for Sue, who you can see sitting on the left of the photo. We visited our favourite coffee shop for tea and cake after our run.

I hope that you have enjoyed Melanie’s November Monthly News and if you missed last months, head on over to our Melanie’s October Monthly News to catch up! I will be back with a December blog, perhaps slightly earlier than planned as it won’t be long and we will be getting the tree and making our cottage look festive! Stay tuned!

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