New paintings and regular art updates.
Hope this will be a feature for my garden. Just made today, a planting pocket at a BCB workshop in stoke. Really enjoyed it. Now waiting for firing. The blue and orange are slip colours, there’s a little cat scratched into the left bottom corner. The black and white patch is newspaper holding the planting pocket open until the clay is hardened. I used leaves impressed in the surface for the design but the wet slip obliterated a lot of the details so then I scratched them back into the surface.
A really old painting I did from when we visited a BCB exhibition at Spode I think. I really liked this watercolour so I thought I’d share it. This was my selection for today’s #bandofsketchers prompt “pots”.
We were in the garden today topping off the new bamboo fence with chicken wire to extend the height. As we stood next to the old pond I wondered if the frogs have snuggled down in the mud for winter? We need to replace the liner, but it’s going to be too cold for a few months. Perhaps we should wait until after frogspawn season.
Frogs seem to have controlled the slug population, we have Hostas happily growing next to the pond, and the leaves look healthy. Now we’ve got on top of the fencing issue I feel a little safer.
Although a man did walk along the alleyway today as we were working, hubby told him to go away in no uncertain terms!
There is a word I remember from my childhood. TRANKLEMENTS. It means, thingies, bits and bobs, a collection of stuff, not necessarily useful. Just things that you have got together over the years. I haven’t looked it up in the dictionary, so it might mean something entirely different to that, but this is my understanding of the word.
The photo of horse cornucopia sort of feels like that. A thing that isn’t really useful but is interesting. And how would you display it? They clearly have a stand to sit on…. But it’s like a unicorn with the horn at the wrong end, or a seahorse with a shell for a tail? How do people come up with such strange and wonderful ideas?
Just looked it up. I was right, it’s a black country word (west Midlands in the UK) meaning bits and bobs. I remember my gran using it!
Photo from the BCB
A giant lies upon it’s back
It’s hop has gone, it’s knocked flat!
A human male looks on
At where nature has gone?
Ceramic frogs don’t jump
They don’t have a heart to pump.
But life has a way of staying
If we from nature aren’t straying.
So give frogs a chance
Put in water plants
Dig a new pond
If of frogs you are fond?
Protect anphibians
Their survival’s in your hands!
Today was the last day of the biennial exhibition. We only managed to get to the one venue at All Saints church on Leek Road Stoke-on-Trent. The pottery and ceramics on display were remarkable. From abstract to classical, but all with a modern twist. I wish I’d managed to get round the other venues, but I didn’t feel up to it. Anyway I bumped into a couple of friends. I will probably post a few more photos later.
A view of St Austell in Cornwall that was at the BCB exhibition recently at Swift House, Stoke-on-Trent. With subtle tones of sepia colour it depicted a semi industrial landscape. I didn’t see a notice but I’m guessing it was made of China clay which has been quarried there for centuries. One of the sites was used to create the Eden Project, a set of giant domed greenhouses or ‘biomes’ which house tropical and arid environments from more equatorial climes.
St Austell is a town in Cornwall inland from the southern coast, in a landscape dotted with abandoned tin mines. It was once the home of a famous poet called Jack Clemo. He was blind but managed to write his poems while supported by his mother in the 1950’s?
Just back from the last day of the BCB (British Ceramic biannual). I would have gone before but my leg restricted my movement. The exhibition was over three floors but luckily there was a lift. Of the numerous ceramics my favourites were a series of mosaics by a ceramic artist called Cleo Mussi. I will post other photos but I wanted to share these.
One thing I did do yesterday was make a couple of pieces clay that might be used as part of a tiled piece at the BCB (British Ceramic Biennial in September at Spode in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. They will be fired up and someone else may end up glazing them.
I made lots of marks using old buttons and metal rings. I tried to give them a three dimensional look. I hope they won’t explode on the kiln.
It’s good finding different things to do when you are having a day out.
The BCB, British Ceramic Biannual, was on in the Spode China Halls last year. Fine China and art pottery cheek by jowl. I do hope it happens again next year. Bringing art into Stoke-upon-Trent and the rest of the city of Stoke-on-Trent and spreading creativity that sadly seems to have been forgotten by government during this pandemic.
Art has just as much a right as any other industry to continue in this world. Creativity and the power of the mind are linked. Science can go hand in hand with art. What we need to do is try and support everyone, not be selective towards the richest and devil take the hind most.
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Mallaband-Brown