Sunday 25 September 2011

56...The Brighton Art Fair and it's cast of colourful characters

On my stand 
This weekend I've been working at the annual Brighton Art Fair. I always enjoy this show as it is close to home, and run by a friendly team of people who make sure it's a show for both the artists and visitors to enjoy. This year it was particularly well curated and there was a stunning variety of work including lots of 3D as well as 2D work.
I borrowed a large painting from my friend Jane Denman as a backdrop to the stand...and sold it almost straight away!
Spidery Poppy
I had several new pieces of work for sale as well as some old favourites, and took a huge order for 8 sculptures on the first day to go to a sculpture park in Surrey. That'll keep me busy this winter.

Sophie Abbott     www.sophieabbott.net
When you work at an art fair for several days you get to know your neighbours really well. This year I was lucky enough to be next to Sophie who after seeing me standing for a day, bought a stool in for me to perch on. It makes such a difference when you are with people who you really get on with...although actually, most of the artists are great to talk to as we all share the same sort of life and have the same worries and experiences to discuss during quiet moments....and usually a warm bottle of wine hidden somewhere in the stand for the late afternoon when you are flagging!


Shyama Ruffell      www.shyamaruffell.co.uk
Both Sophie, Shyama and I are part of Four Walls, represented by Lara Bowen who takes our work to the big art fairs in London. Of course when our work is sold through an agent we pay a large amount of commission but that in turn makes it a risk free show for us, and we don't have to stand and sell our work for 3 days which is a killer on the feet and back.


Adrian Turner    www.theopengallery.co.uk
 This was my other neighbour who coincidentally also lives at the bottom of my road in Brighton, as well as along the road from me in France. He photographs the sea from opposite sides of the channel, and creates large, serene images by some complicated method that I don't understand, but which are very effective. The image he is standing in front of is St Valery en Caux on the Normandy coast.


Alexander Korzer-Robinson

    This was one of the most  successful artists of the show, he transforms old books into works of art by cutting out all the text, page by page, and leaving the images behind. What is left is a miniture world inside the book. They are georgeous and were flying off the wall. By Sunday there were only a couple left. One day I would love to buy one of these.

Maria Rivens
This artist is my favourite. She make beautiful collages from old books and the pictures nod heavily to the 50's and feature plenty of mushrooms. Some of the images are quite trippy. I have bought a small one of hers and hope to invest in a larger one someday soon.

Alexander Slatter    www.alexanderslatter.co.uk
This is Alex, a regular at this show who always has a ready smile, especially when standing at the wrapping table having a sold painting bubblewrapped.

Organisers, Anne Marie Francis, Sarah Young and Jon Tutton
Finally it's the end of the show and the organisers who have been running around keeping everyone happy all weekend get a chance to take the weight off their feet for a moment...and probably contemplate the next show, in only 10 days time in Fulham. www.palaceartfair.co.uk

And that's it for me. Dinner is being cooked and I am going to crawl onto the sofa, put my feet in a bowl of warm, minty water  and watch (ahem) a bit of X Factor.                                            

Sunday 18 September 2011

55...A monster mushroom, a disaster and Le Chateau de Vascoeul



How to stuff a giant puffball

Take one Puffball as big as your head

Cut out the middle and stuff with lovely things
(in this case onions, chestnuts and apricots)
Tie up with string and smother in lashings of butter

Bake until brown......Mmm, Mmm


An infuriating week in the studio. Lots of help from my two students but a disaster of my own making.

Jade and Megan
Being distracted in the studio, I picked up the wrong glaze and spent a day brushing it onto this Bishops Pom Pom before realising right at the end that it was the wrong glaze.

Half done


It took us another half day to wash most of the glaze off again and the rest of the day to replace it with the right one. In the end however, the sculpture did not survive the firing. A couple of the petals pulled away from the side and stuck to each other in the kiln, this happens sometimes, and it is usually my fault as I have probably dried it out too quickly or unevenly. I would like to say I live and learn....but I don't. Ah well, it will look nice in my garden with all the others!

Megan painting cherry red

Happily this Poppy Pepper Pot which is a commision for a new client is coming along nicely. It is being painted cherry red before it goes in for its bisque firing and it will be glazed with a translucent blue glaze which will make the red come alive.
James and his tile
In the middle of the week we were visited by a warmshowers guest (www.warmshowers.com). This is James who had cycled over from Durham and is at the start of a 2 year tour. After leaving us he went east towards Strasbourg where he will pick up a well known cycle path that follows the Danube. Then on through Eastern Europe..Turkey where he will pick up some work on a farm, then onto Iran and China! He is raising funds for charity as he goes and has a blog documenting his travels which we will be following with interest. His budget is £5 a day. He is only 24 and a really nice bloke....we wish him well and a Bon Voyage.  www.therideround.com

Pineapple Lily at Chateau de Bosmelet
Over the weekend we had some guests staying with a car so it was nice to be driven around to see some new places. We popped up to the Chateau de Bosmelet where I had an exhibiton last year with the 5Ways Artists from Brighton, and it was nice to see one of my sculptures being displayed in one of the lovely rooms in the chateau. Afterwards, we went onto the Chateau de Vasceoul which has an annual exhibition of an Internationally well known artist. This year it is Corneille.
Madame Citron
Around the grounds are some fabulous sculptures by artists such as Dali, Bracques, Volti and lots more;

Bisexual dragon and children
La Vie en Rose

The weather this weekend has been biblical. We are flooded at the back of the house and discovered two roof leaks......Oh joy.

However we were rewarded with plenty of rainbows...I saw this one when sitting on my kitchen doorstep.
My blog is one year old this week. I have enjoyed writing it over the last year and I'd like to take the chance to say thanks to everyone who has left nice comments and encouraged me to keep on writing it. It's a great way to keep a journal and so I shall move on into year two and hope to take you all with me. Thanks and Merci a tous.

Friday 9 September 2011

54...Getting ready for the autumn shows


This is the beginning of a busy autumn period now with 3 big shows on the horizon. I have to be thinking up new designs all the time so that my displays look fresh..and because some people come to most of my shows and want to see new work. Sometimes I have ideas bumping up against each other in my head, usually as I work on something else and other times my mind is a blank and I have to go out with the camera or reluctantly get out the sketch book (I'm a terrible drawer and can only really work well with charcoal). This week I started a new sculpture that I have been turning over in my mind for a month or two.

Like much of my other work this design relies on an understanding of the Fibonnaci sequence. This one was coloured as I went in a two tone of dark and lime green, it will be finished with a translucent blue glaze. I was pleased with the finished form (I'm not always!) and decided to make a collection of these, but playing around with colours.
Starting blue seedcase
So today Megan (my work exp student) and I started on a blue one. The internal form is thrown a couple of days in advance. We have to have a little production line going as each sculpture uses hundreds of little components that have to go up and down in size, so we sit together listening to Radio 4 and get stuck into a day of close work and building up of form.


By lunchtime after an intensive morning we are halfway there,


and by tea time it is assembled. Now it has to sit and dry for several weeks before it can be biscuit fired and glazed. Next week I want to make another one in a third colour, but I haven't decided which just yet.

Trombonchino
Out in the garden my monster squashes are inching their way towards the house. This variety are Trombonchino's and they are becoming a favourite. They can grow up to a metre long, and are both a summer and winter squash. I have been baking them in slices all week with olive oil and rosemary....delish!

Sunday 4 September 2011

53...Channel Hopping

Lollipop PomPoms
This week has been back and forth across the channel. To France last Tuesday to pick all the veg in the garden and to start on a new commision, back to Brighton Friday night to steward at Firle on Saturday and at the Sussex Prairie Gardens on Sunday and back to France tomorrow,  Monday morning, where my studio and a work experience student await.
Bells of Ireland
The Plant and Art Fair at the Prairie Gardens was a great success, even though the heavens opened mid day. There were several thousand visitors most of whom seemed to be staggering around with bags full of grasses or other plants which they had bought from one of the stall holders. When the rain came the barn which had been set up as a covered eating area with straw bales to sit on, was suddenly full of people munching on the lovely home made cakes from the tea rooms.
Pink Tip Angel
I have really enjoyed having my sculptures on show in these gardens, the planting is very special and my forms work well tucked in amongst all the plants. They will still be on show until mid October.

Meanwhile in the French garden the fruit and veg are all ripening early this year. I am already storing apples and pears in the cellar and the garden is full of the sweet perfumed scent of ripening Quinces, it is such a beautiful smell. I am eating beans twice a day, freezing and pickling them. The Squashes are threatening to take over the garden and there are Strawberries every morning for my porridge. It is very satisfying although there is also a slight sense of panic as I try to bottle and store everything as I hate to let anything go to waste.
Giant Puffball
The mushrooms are all coming up early this year too. I have found some Boletus in the garden where I haven't found any before, and these giant puffballs are popping up all over the place. They are edible but huge, and you get fed up eating them pretty quickly. It's a pity these can't be stored......