I am delighted to have been asked to do a demonstration to Royston Arts Society on Friday 13 May from 8-10pm.

The organiser, Mike, has been really wonderful and the planning has taken a long time. My paintings are very detailed and I use a lot of brushes designed for miniature painting, a lot of these are made by ProArte and come in tiny sizes such as 5/0. I do use larger brushes for the initial stages, painting the sky and background but when it comes to painting the leaves and flowers and other details out come the really tiny ones.

When I am painting the tiny detail, I have a brush for each colour to keep the colours fresh which means I carry 6 or 7 brushes in my left hand while I paint with another in my right hand.

All this detail would not be seen by an audience especially as I work on a flat surface as I need to keep my hand steady. So the Royston Arts committee got together and bought a camera and projector. I think that is amazing. Really looking forward to my demonstration.

The photos show details of two paintings I will be working on.

I have donated a 2 hour art lesson for up to 3 people to raise funds to support a refugee family housed in Cambridge.

The silent auction takes place from 10am-1pm on Friday 29 April at St Andrew's Church Hall, Chesterton, Cambridge CB4 1DH. There will be a coffee morning with cakes, head and hand massages, and many items including a meal for 2 with wine, bird feeders, gardening equipment and a few paintings donated by local people and businesses to bid for.

More information at http://www.facebook.com/resettlechesterton

Due to the pandemic I had to temporarily close my art classes. Now that cases are less and more people are vaccinated, I have decided to open one class to see whether people are happy to come along and paint in a small group.

I have arranged for a set of classes over 5 weeks starting on 9 March and finishing on 6 April just before the Easter holidays. If you would like to join the class please email me at maureenmace@hotmail.com or phone me on 01223 500909.

The classes take place in my studio and we work together around my big table. There will be a maximum of four students so you will get lots of support and encouragement. We mainly do drawing and painting in acrylic, my students have a big input into what we learn; sometimes learning techniques, sometimes working on a theme and sometimes just experimenting.

The course will cost £125 for the 5 sessions and I provide ALL the materials so you only need to turn up in some old clothes and we can change track whenever we feel like it: e.g. if someone asks how to paint shadows, we may stop and do an exercise to show how to do this.

The sessions will initially be on a Wednesday morning from 10am to 12.30pm in my studio at 309 Milton Road CB4 1XQ. If you would like to visit before making up your mind and I would love to meet you and show you what we do.

I put all the work made by my students on: https://www.facebook.com/cambridgeartclass

Sometimes I am more than delighted, in fact I am really chuffed to have TWO paintings in the very first Newmarket Open in the very prestigious National Horse Racing Museum.

What is an 'Open' exhibition? It is when artists are invited to submit week and are chosen from a huge amount of work submitted from lots of other artists - which is why I am so pleased. This is the first time the museum has done this.

The paintings have been delivered, the organisers have hung them and on Friday 11 February there will be a Private View. Tickets are available here: https://www.nhrm.co.uk/event/newmarket-open

The exhibition opens to the public between 10am to 4pm on 12 February and closes on 24 April. Really looking forward to visiting, looking at the artworks and especially talking about my work during the Private View.