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This weekend I spent on the coast of north devon enjoying a business/holiday trip. Managed to get some good commissions as well as some much needed rest and a change of scenery. Was able to get out in the sea for a bit of kiaking and swimming which gave me the opportunity to test the water for some extreme watercolour painting which you should be hearing more about in the weeks that lie ahead.

I can also say that North Devon is the most beautiful place that I have visited to date on my promotional tour – it really is stunning BUT it is difficult to promote my work door to door. However, I have got my first commission through my telesales work which is encouraging and hopefully will pave the way for a transformation in the way I promote my work.

Last weekend, I attended this event in Macclesfield. A marvellous opportunity to paint on-location in front of an audience of classic car owners. Momentum in my car commissions has been increasing recently with a couple of high profile commissions. I expect this new line of business to rapidly expand as I continue to network and develop relationships in this area.

The location was fabulous – a beautiful country house and gardens in the heart of Cheshire. The only problem was the tempertaure – it was a little too cold to be out painting so I didn’t last the whole day!

It’s been a busy month. Making the most of the favorable weather conditions. I’ve traveled many a mile throughout the country including Nuneaton, Burton on Trent, Worcester and a follow up visit to Bedford and Aylesbury. In addition to all those places – Leighton Buzzard, which I do intend to visit again soon.

Today I was in Chester again. Had a very pleasant cycle ride along the river Dee which gave me the idea to do some on-location painting in the summer. There are some lovely spots to take advantage of.

Another development worthy of attention is the recent surge in interest from classic car owners and the relationships that have been developing with various leaders in the classic and race car industry. This could turn out to be an important change in the subject matter that I focus on in 2010. Watch this space.

Weather is very mixed so have to pick my moments carefully now. There was a bright spell this morning in Chester so headed out to finish off in the village of Mollington. Visited Grove Road before going off to try some properties along the river Dee. Great views overlooking the race course, which reminded me of my plan to attend the races at some point this year for an on-location painting sesh.

Since my last update I have rolled out the promotional tour extensively throughout southern Bedfordshire, Wimbledon and Aylesbury. At this time of year, peoples gardens are possibkly looking at there worst – right at the end of the winter but on the plus side, the weather is getting a lot warmer than it was and spring is just around the corner. I’ve already started noticing a few cherry blossoms starting to sprout and a few other flowers emerging.

Aylesbury is quite an intersting area – lots of small picturesque villages.

Wimbledon is a nice area of London, most people already have house and garden portraits though. I will definitely be spending more time in the London area this year.

Am still working on drumming up interst in my watercolour course – just need a few more peoplee to make it happen.

Once the course is running, I will then work towards my first watercolour painting retreat – probably in Devon or Cornwall.

Today the promotional tour rolled into Chester again. Two years after first visiting Chester in one my first outings. Unfortunately contrary to the weather forecast which promised sunny spells, it didn’t stop spitting all day and was very overcast. Fortunately, the light remained fairly bright until it started lashing it down at about 3.30pm. One man that I met informed me that there was a piece of software from Adobe that enabled you to put a filter on your photos to make them look like a watercolour painting. I thanked him for his tip and moved swiftly on. I don’t think he quite got it.

I have just exhibited some paintings at this years Listed Property show which went very nicely. It was the fourth year of the show and it had a 30% increase in numbers from last years event.

One of my promotions team members, Jo Birch accompanied me to the event and proved to be a tremendous help – negotiating a 150% increase in display space for the ‘Pete Chapple’ stand. The show did get off to a bad start due to insufficient Velcro supplies. Fortunately thisproblem was solved by me using the organisers secret velcro stash!

The highlight of the show for me was the fleeting appearance of Marco A Shrang – the legendary landscaper from Harrogate. He was rather unfortunately positioned in perhaps the worst spot of the show where I counted a total of 5 people stopped to look at his stand over the 2 day event. This number wasn’t helped by the way that Marco had a very negative view of his chances of getting any leads so decided to only be present at his stand for approximately 30 minutes for the Saturday and 5 minutes for the Sunday. Crazy.

For me the show was a success and I plan to be there next year. Watch out!

This week has seen a big improvement in the weather which has enabled me to go out on the promotional tour for three days. Monday and Tuesday in Wigan and today in Worcester. Got into a bit of a scrape today because it was too icey on several roads and nearly got stuck!

Today things got off to a great start today – first door of the day produced a commission.

Yesterday I returned to my home town, Worcester to continue the promotional tour. It proved to be a great visit with some hidden treasures that I was not aware of – mainly St Georges Square and Brittania Square which have some of the finest residential architecture I have come across on my tour to date.

The only problem that I encountered was a puncture to the Townsend. Fortunately I did not need it too much due to the properties being very close together. However, I took the opportunity of being close to a bike shop to get it fixed straight away. Quite  a funny conversation ensued with the bloke in the shop along the lines of -

After refusing my request to repair my puncture on his premesis, the very helpful owner of the bike shop informed me that for a fee, he would fix the puncture.

Me “How much do you charge to repair punctures?”

Bloke “Oh no. We don’t repair punctures”

Me “Well what do you do then?”

Bloke “We’ll replace the inner tube”

Me How much does it cost to replace the inner tube?”

Bloke “It’ll be £5 for the tube and £5 loabour”

Me “I’ll just have the puncture repair kit”

I then made a swift exit to fix my puncture which I managed to do successfully with a little help from one of my clients within half an hour.