Christmas Art Exhibition in Newquay

Christmas Art Exhibition

The art group to which  I belong  held a Christmas art exhibition at a local hotel. The dates were 21st December to 23rd December 2010.

The Centrepiece. The blue and red flower on the left is one of my paintings

We had hoped to set the whole thing up on the 20th. But that turned out to be impossible as someone had booked the room we were using on the 20th for the whole day.

That meant that we had to set everything up on the 21st. Setting up an exhibition takes time and so consequently we lost almost a whole day.

However we did eventual get up and running and quite a few people dropped in to have a look at our work.

Originally we had hoped to sell some paintings, but as we had lost a day and thus had to do everything in a rush, we did not have any time to do pricing etc., and so the work was on display just to be looked at. 

There were a few enquiries as to if any paintings were for sale, and the people in questions were told to get back to us. So when our art group resumes it's new year activities we will know if we have sold any paintings.

The local press turned up and we got a great write up in the local paper. So all in all we were all pleased. Roll on our next exhibition!

Great Mince Pie Recipe

With the festive season almost upon us, here's one of the best recipes for Mince Pies I know. (Curtesy of Tesco's Supermarkets)

Mince Pies

275g flour (9 3/4 oz)

40g castor sugar (1 1/2oz)

Zest of an orange

1/2 tsp salt

140g butter

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp cold water

1 egg

2 x jars mincemeat (home made if possible).

1. Put flour, sugar, orange zest and salt into a bowl or food processor. Add chopped cold butter. Either rub with fingers of pulse in the food processor. Do this until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Whip both egg yolks and water together. Add them to the flour mixture. Keep mixing them until it all blends together.

2. Turn onto a floured surface and form a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.

3. Heat the oven to 190C Gas 5, Roll out the pastry to 3-4 mm. Select two pastry cutters - one small for the tops. One larger for the bottoms. Grease a fairy case tin and place a pastry round in each hole. Press gently into place. Add a teaspoonful of mince meat to each. Damp the edges of the pastry and put the small round of pastry on top as a cover. Press the edges together. Make a small hole in the top to allow the steam to escape. Brush with beaten egg.

4. Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

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