Wednesday 27 July 2011

46...A productive week in the studio

Megan painting rainbows

Have been full on back in the studio for the last 2 weeks with a couple of students from Brighton Uni.
The autumn shows are looming and as I am finally going to be able to take a couple of weeks off in august, I am trying to get a bit ahead of myself. Luckily one of the students, Jade, has been with me twice before and works as quickly as I do so we have been able to zoom along with the work.

Another Bishops Pom Pom

These are one of my most popular sculptures.....but they can be tedious to make by myself so it has been great having 2 people help me construct this one. Also, everyone who helps forms the petals just a little bit differently from the next which makes each sculpture slightly different too....I like that this happens.

Constructing Dreams of Darkness
Poppies feature heavily in my work...I like them as a subject because they are such an iconic plant. They are probably one of our favourite plants in field and garden, yet they have also many dark associations with both war and the opium trade.
Primula Vialli

I love these flowers!  They are tiny little things in real life, but SO vibrant. I had already made some recently....but wasn't entirely happy with the finished result. Then I saw lots of them at Chelsea flower show and realised what I had been getting wrong. These are much better and once glazed will be attached to rods and drilled into wood so that they will be lifted up among the plants in the garden...whereas the real ones are hidden down on the ground.

Painted lady runner beans
Out in the garden all is growing well. I have this georgeous tripod of runner beans with red and white flowers.....it would be worth having even if it didn't produce so many beans. My apricot tree which I have been watching obsessivly for months as the fruits have been growing, has turned out to be a Nectarine....I've been done! Actually, I'm quite happy as it is actually producing fruit that looks like it will ripen soon, but it just goes to show you can't even trust the big nurseries....this one was definetly delivered as an Apricot.

Megan shinning a tree
One of our hedges has turned into a line of trees, and we are slowly cutting them back down. Not always easy as they tend to lean the wrong way. This one when we finally got it cut down, hung itself in the pear tree and we had to cut it away slowly bit by bit. However very usefully our young and agile student Megan was able to climb up the tree in no time and secure a rope.Not sure that was in her job description....but she enjoyed it anyway.
Out in the fields the harvesting is in full swing as the combines work to cut the Lin and the Wheat while it is dry. It has been raining on and off the last couple of weeks....so a couple of days of dry weather has them all springing into action. As you lie in bed at night you can hear the hum of the Combines from all around. It seems to me to be earlier than usual this year, but then the garden is too as we already have our first apples ready to eat.

Thursday 14 July 2011

45...Mayhem in Longueville

Teaching the next generation
Absolutely no work done this week as godchildren and friends visiting, 20 for dinner on saturday night! However the children LOVE being in the studio, so we had a couple of days making more tiles for the guest tile gallery, and flower bowls for them all to take home.
Hannah..yellow flower with Bumblebee
Kiku designing a ladybird
Kazma
It's great to see how quickly the kids pick up the technical  terms and know how, and to see how different their work is each year. They don't agonise about what to put on their tiles as the adults tend to, they just put on as much as they can and colour it in. They will happily spend most of a day in the studio now that they know the magic of the transformation of the mallable white clay into a bright, shiny object.
Mika making a tartan flower
Nobody escapes having to make a tile when they come.........
Ryan aka Clint
even Ryan our couchsurfer who is taking a break from cycling around europe made a tile. These little momento's are better than photo's and it's amazing how much of ones personality can be condensed onto these little squares.
Ryan has been documenting his travels on his blog   www.finstowings.blogspot.com

Wednesday 6 July 2011

44...A train to Marseilles for a wedding

 Lots of photo's this week as we've been away to the south of France for my nephews wedding. We decided early on to take the train as we're not keen on flying, and anyway train journeys are great. As in Britain, if you buy your tickets early they are cheap, and we were upgraded to 1st class which meant wide, comfortable seats. The journey was 4 1/2 hours from Rouen.
Through Lyon
The best thing about long train journeys is the view from the window, and watching how the countryside changes......
Sunflower field
...and you know you are in the south when the Sunflower fields appear........
....and the hills become mountains.
sur le pont d'Avignon
And then we arrived in Marseilles. This city was a surprise to me, more north African influenced than I had thought. Hot, dirty, busy but I'm glad I've seen it. We spent a few hours here then got another train to St Cyr to stay with the parents of my friend Gabrielle.
They live in a gorgeous place right by the Med, and when we arrived hot and thirsty, we were able to pick lemons right off their tree to make a citron presse....how amazing is that!  Then we had grapefruit from another tree for breakfast.
I have never been down this far before and had not realised quite how different and exotic the south can be...I always think of France in terms of Normandy and Paris, so it was great to be able to see the other end of it.
sparkling Med
My first view of the Med and couldn't wait to go for a swim,
and it was cold!  The Mistral had been blowing and to be honest I reckon the channel is about the same temperature.....I'm sure it must get warmer.
We went for a walk around to a hidden smugglers bay, and it actually does look green. It is very beautiful, and the water clear, although I'm told the reasons for this are not particularly good.
Of course the planting down here is exotic too, these trees were just outside Marseilles station...I'm not sure what they are although the leaves look familiar.
St Maximum la Baume
After all this fun we were off to the wedding which was across the mountains and up to St Maximum, where allegedly Mary Magdalen ended her days, and indeed they have some/her remains in the basilisque here.  It is very Jean de Florette country around here, mountainous and dry, yet green too. I imagine they have a lot of thunderstorms here, and in fact we left in one.

all dressed up for a wedding
Had a scoot round a pottery here, but not really my taste. However the markets great, although so not Normandy...no creme fraiche or butter, but plenty of olives, goats cheese and lavender. Wouldn't swop it though, and rainy as Normandy may be at times, it is lush and rich and the cycling a bit easier than it would be down here. Having said that I would like to come cycling down here so that may be a plan. perhaps from the south back to the north. Well, we saw a lot over just a few days and for that I must say Thanks! to Isabelle and Andre who were so generous with their house and time.