27...Working....working and carnage in the kitchen

With so many shows coming up, work in the studio is full on at the moment, there is hardly time for anything else. Last week I sold a large sculpture that I had earmarked for the Chelsea Flower show, so I had to squeeze in time to make another.....luckily with Jade my student here I was able to do this.

putting last petal in

Ceramics is a slow old business. The sculpture above will take weeks to dry out as the moisture in the middle and underneath takes a long time to come out  and can't be rushed. This means that the studio is full of drying out sculptures covered in plastic and we have to be careful how we move around as they are so delicate at this stage.

One of the things about living in the country is the continual battle against the wildlife trying to get into the house. Last week it was this little fellow,

carnage in the kitchen

he got into my mouseproof cupboard in the middle of the night...found his way along a pipe under the insulation. Then he gnawed through several boxes and packets before eating his way into a bag of walnuts, taking them out one by one and piling them up in a corner. Of course he hadn't figured out how he was going to get them back along the pipe. This went on for hours...but I couldn't do a thing about it as I am terrified of them...don't even like looking at them (they run up your trouser legs or go for your eyes!)  Anyway Jade caught him the next day and got rid of him in the woods...now we have to re proof the cupboard and the traps are set in case he sends his mates along.





I couldn't resist another picture of the woods. At this time of the year everything is manageable in the garden and I can just look around and enjoy it. However all the trees are covered in their green fuzz of buds about to burst open and soon the bushcutter will have to come out for the first time. But for this moment I can just bask in the sun and the view.

26...Shrines and Beautiful Normandie

Mary in a box

Although a secular country now, many if not all french villages and towns have these shrines built during the time they were a proudly Catholic country. Some are rather interesting designs...........

Pink Jesus



 The one in our village has just been painted and he has become very salmon pink!

Suddenly, sunny days here have bought a lovely warmth and the countyside all around us is blooming.



Cherry Blossom



Apricot Blossom

In my garden every day brings new suprises.

Wood anenomes, Celandines and Daffs

The whole of our woods are a carpet of these flowers...I forget every year how georgeous it is.



St Germain d'Etables

Over the hill and not far away is a wonderful viewing point where you can sit and look up and down the valley. On the other side of these hills is the Avenue Vert where you can cycle from Dieppe to Paris. We last did this cycle with friends in June a couple of years ago, and in parts it was like cycling through a little paradise.

Jade my work experience student is back for another two weeks, so tomorrow it's back into the studio for a full on week of potting and gardening.

25...Pond cleaning and keeping warm

The weather has been glorious this week, although freezing at night the days have been so sunny and bright that coffee and lunch have been outside every day, and I almost have a march tan on my face. It feels like the growing season has started too. In France everyone grows their own veg, and because of this there is a huge trade in plug plants at every market you visit. So for all the usual veg, lettuce, brassicas, tomatoes, strawberries, etc., you just buy 12 or 24 little plants and pop them straight in, Easy peasy and sold just at the time you need to grow them. This leaves more time for growing on seeds of more unusual varieties.

Somewhere in here is a pond

The improving weather has spurred me on to cleaning out the ponds. A bit late perhaps in the season, but I couldn't face it when it was colder. Anyway, there was no frog spawn yet so I went for it. This pond was more sludge than water, and by the end of the afternoon, so was I. Hundreds of grumpy newts headed for the hills and at the bottom was the hugest yellowest frog I've ever seen. It'll all look lovely again in a week or two.

In the studio work continues at a pace. This week I've thrown these two large 'Angels'. One of them will be a blueish colour, and the other I'm still thinking about.

I'm keeping myself warm in the evening by crocheting a blanket.

This is an ongoing project. Winter time I sit in the evenings listening to the plays on R4 (french telly doesn't do it for me) and knitting lovely jumpers. There is always wool left over, so at the end of winter I crochet some more stripes onto the bedspread...it keeps my knees warm too!

24...Does art transcend language?

I have been living in France on and off for 30 years, and trying to learn the language for most of that time...very slowly. I have a very poor knowledge of grammer (70's schooling) and a reasonable vocabulary can only get you so far without a sound understanding of grammer to back it up. This means that making friends over here is also a slow business, especially in a small town where people can be anxious about engaging you in conversation because of the effort needed to keep the conversation going. Last year however, I organised an mixed exhibiton of Brighton artists and we showed at a Chateau in the next town. This got some local publicity and all of a sudden people were able to identify me as an artist. As far as they were concerned, this probably explained a lot! But it has meant that people are now more chatty...they know what they can talk about and next month I have been asked to show my work in the local Expositon d'Art at the Salle des Fetes, which means the chance of meeting more like minded people.
One of the local artists that I met through doing the exhibition at the Chateau de Bosmelet is a lovely lady called Gabrielle. She is a painter, and teaches art in Dieppe. She also organises many of the local exhibitions. She does that difficult thing of trying to work, look after a family and make paintings...I never know how people can do all three..what a juggling act.

Anyway, here are a couple of her paintings,

Le Fichu Rouge

La Bonne Mere

She also nipped over to my studio yesterday and drew me while I was constructing a sculpture

It's my hair she wants in the painting really!

Meanwhiled the action in the studio is hotting up. I'm still keeping to my daily list of things that have to be done before I can stop for the day.

This week I had a glaze firing out

and a bisq firing in. Sometimes packing the kiln with my spiky things can be fraught, they are not always easy to fit in and can end up perched on wobbly shelves.

Next weekend I will showing with Four Walls at the  Affordable Art Fair in Battersea. http://www.affordableartfair.com/
http://www.four-walls.co.uk/

23...Painting Poppies and Georges Braque's windows

This has been a very floral week. I am making a sculpture based on the three iconic french flowers, the Poppies, Marguerites and Cornflowers. These three flowers which represent the blue, white and red of the french tricolour are seen on packaging everywhere in France, especially on the bags that breads and patisseries come in.

The detail for these flowers is too fine to be modeled, so I use a piping bag and some finely sieved slip.

 These ceramic flowers are part of a tradition in France to decorate the graves and you will find them in all cemeteries. There must be different studios around the country that make these flowers, as you can see that there are quite different styles in the modeling and painting.

Some are rather garish, but others are quite beautiful.
These particular flowers are in the graveyard at Varengville, just along the coast from Dieppe. It's a place I often take visitors to as the church is perched upon a cliff overlooking the sea and the port of Dieppe. It is also where Georges Braque is buried, and the church here houses the most lovely windows that he designed.

The church itself is often dark inside which contrasts spectacularly with the glow that comes through these windows, especially the red ones. There is a large window at one end that depicts Jacobs ladder, but one that I always find curious is this sketchy window in black and white.

              
Back at the house, this has been a particularly grey and mizzly week. Wet air, wet ground and wet washing. But then on Thursday, at the end of another damp day, the sky suddenly cleared and the most gorgeous sunset bloomed and helped to lift my heart.

Find me now over at http://theceramicgardener.com

22...The boyz come to visit



Attaching last piece

With the Brighton Festival and Chelsea flower show looming I've been working like a demon in the studio with my lovely work experience student who has been brilliant. She sadly went home at the end of the week, but is coming back in a month by which time I shall probably not be going to bed with the worry of getting enough work made!

This weekend the boyz came to stay for a birthday weekend. As always we got them up in the studio making their visitor tile for the studio tile gallery. It was two hours of total concentration and the quietest part of the weekend!

I really like this funny bowl of pasta.



Bowl of spaghetti with meatballs



Drying and waiting for glaze



These tiles will really come alive when they are glazed.

In the garden we have had our first primroses of the spring

 and the first daffydowndilly.....soon our woods will be a carpet of yellow as the Celandines join these two to herald the spring.

Meanwhile we still have banks and banks of the creamiest little snowdrops which for the second year running will be out in full bloom with the daffodils.





21...Sunshine, Jade and a big green pom pom

Jade modelling clay

This week I have been joined by Jade who is doing a degree in 3D design at Brighton Uni. She has come over for a couple of weeks work experience and to learn how to throw. I have one or two students a year and generally speaking it is a good experience for us both. I get to talk to someone else rather than just myself (or shouting at the radio) and if I am lucky they have enough skills to be able to help me move on with my work a little quicker than usual. They get to hone their skills and learn about the reality of working for yourself. They also get one to one throwing tuition which is something that is no longer provided on a general design course...mould making and slip casting has become popular as it initially gets quicker results. Luckily for me as I am in the middle of what needs to be an extremely productive time, Jade has turned out to be a whizz in the studio, tidy and quick to learn.

So, we have been constructing this Giant green pom pom which is a commision piece. The internal shape was thrown last week and dried slightly over the weekend (otherwise it can collapse with the weight of the additional clay).

This is day two and the end is in sight.

The very last petal! Now the whole thing will be wrapped up and left to dry for weeks.

This week the sun came out and we have been eating our lunch outside. I don't think you ever enjoy the sun more than the first time you can sit out in it after the winter....certainly it made us very happy.

 Louis and his tractor

Also this week Louis from the vallage came up to cut down a few of our trees. We have many self seeded ash and wild cherry in our woods, and there is too much competion for space. Consequently the trees all grow straight up and do not have many lateral branches...hopeless if you want to hang a swing! So once a year Louis comes up and fells a few. He chops them into managable size logs, leaves us half and takes half as payment....a perfect system. This year we have a lovely Hornbeam which we want to give space to, so he has been clearing all the small trees around it. Note....no goggles, no chaps, no helmet, nothing.

Find me now over at http://theceramicgardener.com