Paradise Jamboree 2015!
It is here! I’m holding my 8th Annual Facade Academy Paradise Jamboree on 16th February 2015. This has become hugely popular over the past few years with record numbers of artists and their families attending. The cost includes the face painting jam and also getting into the Paradise Wildlife Park www.pwpark.com for a visit – so all the family can enjoy themselves for a day. We will have traders with paint, brushes, balloons and all the paraphernalia associated with face painters. Kit Envy lives here! Competitions, demonstrations, children’s entertainment, lots of chat, a fantastic raffle, painting on faces and bodies, glitter art, nail art, henna and much much more!
Holiday report
Phew! It’s the end of the school holidays and for me that is the end of 6 weeks of non-stop painting! It’s been a great season for me, doing festivals, teaching and all the other days painting at the Paradise Wildlife Park. I went to Camp Bestival – in Lulworth Castle grounds, painting with Naomi Gay who heads up a team of 25 wonderful painters. We work from 9 in the morning to 8 at night painting children and adults non-stop – always a queue, but never more than 15 minutes! Quite a task – Huge congratulations to Naomi. 🙂 Of course there is plenty of partying going on into the night! I then drove up to Lancashire and taught the teachers in a University – 2 days showing them face and body painting and putting my Power Point skills to good use. 🙂 The same evening it was back down south again to the next festival – again with Naomi Gay – this time Wilderness in Oxfordshire. Wow – what a beautiful setting, 1,000 year old oak trees, tranquil lakes for ‘wild’ swimming and of course some excellent music. We were situated in the Healing Area, in a deliciously calm atmosphere which made a change from the noisy position we had at Secret Garden Party the previous year! So – now September is here but I still can’t rest yet – it’s time to catch up on Admin and start back to marketing and working on the schedules for classes this term! I’ve had loads of enquiries asking about the dates for the classes this year, so I must now decide on dates and some new ideas for subjects. Please get in touch if there are any classes you would like to see. 🙂
June half-term week
What a non-stop week! Half term is now over and every day I was at Paradise Wildlife Park painting endless queues of children and adults – apart from the rainy days. But even then – the Brits are pretty stalwart and came out in their coach-loads braving the weather in macs and wellies! Paint the face and keep the hood up! 🙂 John Brough from Alternative Portraits will be sharing the booth with me, taking photographs and editing and printing on the spot! High speed beautiful pictures with a joke and a smile! I will be showing some of his work soon. In the meantime, here are a few of my own photos of some beauties who came to visit. 🙂
Paradise Jam 2014
Well – I can’t believe how the weeks have flown. Here I am in March already! February is traditionally a very quiet month for face painting work, therefore we tend to organise Jams and other gatherings at this time. Consequently I have been pretty non-stop since the Paradise Jam and haven’t done a proper report on it. 🙂 Following the Paradise Jam I went up to Showzam in Blackpool and was put on stage to do a demonstration of a Glitter Tattoo as well as some face painting designs. Showzam was a fantastic event sponsored by the Pleasure Beach who provided a £200 prize for the winning face in the competition! I was lucky enough to win that last year! Following that was a successful weekend at the FACE (the International Face Painting Association) conference. More news to follow! But do have a look at their new website www.facepaintingassociation.com – all sparkly, bright and new!
The Paradise Jam approaches!
Today, I’ve been trying to wrap up the details for the huge Façade Academy Paradise Jam that I am coordinating. It will be held on 17 February. I realised today that the first one I held was in 2009 – so this is the 6th! I can hardly believe that it is probably the biggest gathering of face and body painters in the country! We have around 130 names signed up, plus each person brings along up to 3 guests. Some of these are painters, and some children/partners/grandparents and other hangers-on. 🙂 It is the most fantastic atmosphere! Here are some photos from last year. We will have face painting demonstrations, live body painting, nail art, balloon twisting, glitter tattoos, henna, hair braiding and many more activities. Everyone gets their paints out, walks round, chats to others, shows off their latest paints, one strokes, brushes or sponges. There are many traders selling paint, prosthetics, balloons, brushes, henna etc etc! there will be childrens’ entertainment and also Festival Sticker Art. Heaven on a stick for any face painter! From midday the visitors to the zoo are welcomed into the Marquee and can be painted for £5 – proceeds go to the zoo charity. Looking through my files, it also dawned on me that this will be the 8th year that I will be painting at Paradise Wildlife Park. I urge you to visit it. www.pwpark.com They have the most beautiful collection of big cats. White lions, tigers, cheetahs, Amur leopards, snow leopards and lots of smaller cats. They are committed to a breeding programme with many of the endangered species. It is a wonderful place for young children as it is not too big so they can manage to get round and get really close to the animals! There are lots of indoor soft play areas, outdoor adventure playgrounds and a splash park for the summer. You can really engage in the life of these magnificent animals by taking part in a Big Cat Experience. www.whf.org.uk
Paradise Jam is on 17 February 2014
Any of you face and body painters interested in attending the Paradise Jam which takes place at Paradise Wildlife Park, Broxbourne, Herts – have a look here for more details: http://facadeacademy.co.uk/paradise-jam-2014/