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.