Enchanted Forest

Enchanted forest I call it. My pet sister, always with so many ideas and imagination designed this cupboard. She wanted me to paint uprooted trees, broken branches, fallen leaves, critters and yet make it a whimsical place to be lost in. That left me in awe! Took me 6 months to put the design together , looking through books, googling, imagining, dreaming etc. Finally this was accomplished. It was a joy while painting and relieved when completed. And double joy when my sister beamed with pleasure as I sent the piece over to her house.

Workshop - Stacked Teacups

Workshop on 'Stacked Teacups'

SELANGOR/KL

Date : Saturday, 8th October 2011

Time : 9am to 5pm

Venue : Olive Blue Studio, Subang Jaya

NORTH

Date : Saturday 1st October 2011

Time : 9am to 5pm

Venue : Seberang Perai (contact Liza Zaid on facebook)

Open for bookings now. First 3 to register with full payment for respective venue gets

a gift each.

Organisers for other states/towns are most welcome. Call me at 0173144532, or email zaitunramli@yahoo.com or facebook (Zaitun Ramli)

My Workshop at OliveBlue Studio

My very first solo workshop conducted at my home, just a little room which I call the Oliveblue Studio.

With very little response ie only 5 students, I still pursued the workshop as the participants registered are very enthusiastic and keen to learn from me and postponing would just dampen their spirits.

Anyway, it was a successful one as they all completed (well, almost with little touches and varnishing to be done by themselves) the project and they all did well producing the Timeless red roses! Good job, Azlina, Shima, Sue, Zarina and Zie.

gifts for the early birds who registered

project piece

Every one with the completed project.

Busy in class....

Roses and lace

Roses and lace, a combination that has always captured one's heart be it when choosing china, clothes, furnishings and even wedding favours, gifts and 'hantarans'.

This plaque I painted recently was inspired from a friend who wanted me to design a long plaque with pink roses and lace.

The laces are from my earlier designs of teapots and vases on a shelf. The roses in this design are not the stroke and blend style. It is painted with shading and highlight all the way. And the rose petals are blooming irregularly, which I think makes it nice and natural. Again, I am happy with this piece. It is also up for sale on Ye Oliveblue Shoppe for those interested to order.

Workshop - surveying interest and pre-registration

I am planning to hold a workshop on this project ' Stacked Teacups'.

Dates : to be confirmed ( after Hari Raya)

Time : 9am to 5pm

Venue: Olive Blue studio, Subang Jaya

Contact me through facebook (Zaitun Ramli) or hp 0173144532 or email zaitunramli@yahoo.com

Other venues :

JB (facebook - Zalina Yunos)

Kluang (facebook- Norhasikin Hasnol)

Penang/Butterworth (facebook - Liza Zaid)

Perak (facebook - Norliza Hassan)

Oliveblue gifts

My friends plan to throw me a party on 4th July! Thats what they told me, but they kept the venue and guest lists a secret. I had to be blindfolded to the place! Its a girls closed party, themed Oliveblue. There were games, lucky draws amongst the itinerary, all organized by Shida and Zu. Among the gifts for the lucky ones are pieces that I painted. It was an awesome party!!

Choice of doors

Ever get tired looking at your plain cupboard doors? Transform them with a theme of the storage use for it.


Here, I am repeating the earlier designs of Vanity and China cupboard doors.





The latest I painted is all about golf.

old student, new student....

Over the years, I have taught decorative painting to hundreds of people, probably even thousands now. Some paint for leisure, some with a purpose to further develop themselves to teach in this line and some learned to paint merely as a business of selling the painted items. Whatever the intentions are, I am happy that I have fulfilled my job and mission to impart knowledge and skills in this area to others, which benefit them in one way or another.

I am concerned about imparting the correct technique of painting, usage of proper materials and tools, managing best colour combinations and upgrading one's skill.

Now and then, I will have new students, some learning from scratch while others have knowledge and skills from other teachers. But it always feels good that old students will come again and again.

For instance, this morning, my long lost student, Tengku Norashikin, came for an upgrading class on roses! Shikin who now teaches from her home and commissioned to paint for customers was my first batch of students way back in 2003. She took 2 years to learn roses alone. In between she picks up on different flora and other subjects too. She also learned from my other fellow artists. After a couple of years she comes back to me for roses which I have different techniques and style from the ones she learned earlier.

Joining her this morning is Kamaliah (Kay), a considerably new student who religiously comes to my classes every Sunday or even on my Thursday class when she is on leave from office work. This morning Kay continued her painting on cloth pieces for her curtain. She is currently into teacups and teapots. She completed a couple of projects with me, amongst them is a plaque with china on lacey shelves.

There are many other stories of students to tell. That would be another chapter.

Keep on painting with a smile....!

Restoring Sentiments

Alas! I have completed restoring these 2 old tempayan belonging to my brother and family. These tempayans has sentimental values to them. They painted the tempayans together way, way back in 1996 and 1998. At that time the siblings were little children.

It must have been enjoyable for you guys, Ibah, Boy, Mim, Is, Yaya and Ayap. So here, Achu (moir), selected the colours closest to the originals, maintaining the design with a little improved shading and highlights.

You guys actually did splendid job, when I observed closely as I was painting.

So here it is, all done up now for one of you to come and collect.

This is the other tempayan.

the old and the new

Workshop 'Timeless Red Roses'- open for bookings

Decorative Painting Workshop
'Timeless Red Roses'

Date : Saturday, 16 July 2011
Time : 9am to 5pm
Venue : Oliveblue Studio. USJ. Subang Jaya

Now open for bookings. First 3 to register with full payments gets a gift
Contact me through facebook (Zaitun Ramli) or hp 0173144532 or email zaitunramli@yahoo.com for details.

For other venues, please refer to the respective organisers.

Johore Bahru - facebook (Zalina Yunos)
Kluang - facebook (Norhasikin Hasnol)
Penang/ Butterworth - facebook (Liza Zaid)

Workshop -Timeless Red Roses

At last, with less painting at the furniture shops, I have the time to sort things out and am now able to start my solo workshops. Besides the regular Impiana workshops, my teaching partners, Aniza, Nora and I decided to conduct our solo workshops, something we thought about 3 years ago but did not get to do them yet.

It is encouraging to know that more and more people in Malaysia are into decorative painting and some even has become teachers themselves in this area, more so in the last 2 to 3 years.

With my painting knowledge and experience thru painting, reading and teaching, inputs and requirements from customers and advice from those with more experience has inspired me to impart the knowledge and skills further to the up and coming aspiring decorative painting artists and enthusiasts. There are many tips too to be shared as I teach.

I have painted thousands and thousands of roses. in various colours , shapes and sizes. I thought red rose is something I want to start-off with in the series of workshops I planned for.

The choice of wood piece (wall clock plaque) is something I chose based on my interest in unique designed clocks and something that the participants will find useful and decorative at the same time.

I hope there will be good response from all of you out there! In the mean time, I will also plan for basic modules to decorative painting for those who just want to try out 1 or 2 projects before they decide whether it is something they want to continue with.

Contact me at 0173144532 or email zaitunramli@yahoo.com

More Wedding Favours

Designs on these boxes are bamboo with simple stroked flowers, which is inspired from a Japanese book on decorative art.

These oval paper-mache boxes are painted with simple side-loaded stripes and some floral designs on the cover.

These are little bears and teapots fridge magnets.

Bunga-bunga melayu

My brother's orders for plaques of traditional flowers or as I call them, Bunga Melayu (Malay flowers) for his new house, is a refreshing change to the usual flora and fiona I painted. Most of the malay flowers are scented ones which are the Melur (Jasmine), Cempaka, Melati and Mawar (Roses). I had to google for pictures of Melur, Cempaka and Melati to get the designs.

The Bunga Raya (Hibiscus) which is the Malaysian national flower and Anggerik(Orchid) are Shelly Nelson's designs.