43...Sculpture Trail at Sussex Prairie Gardens

View from studio window, summer solstice

This week I have had to leave my rose laden garden and pop back to Brighton. Midsummer day arrived and as usual was chilly and overcast, but as if on cue, the summer has arrived again today with a bang and everyone has gone floppy with the dramatic rise in temperature.

The Bishops Pom Pom

Yesterday I set my sculpture trail up at the Sussex Prairie Gardens  www.sussexprairies.co.uk.
The planting is amazing and my work look great nestled in amongst the flowers.

Bells of Ireland

The work is going to be on show all summer long until their Unusual Plant and Art Fair in september.

Picardie Poppies

There is also a tea room with a lovely courtyard and the best home made cake, plus the poshest birdboxes this side of Miami! Do pop along and check it out if you get a chance. They are very welcoming, and its a great place to take a picnic and hang out for the afternoon.

These are just some of the extraordinary flowers they have en masse up there.

On Friday I was back at Hoddern primary school. This year we are making ceramic mobiles with a South African theme.

We had made the double sided plants and animals two weeks previously, and this workshop was to paint the colours on and glaze them. They will all be strung from clouds which I shall make from thrown ceramic bowls once I get back into my studio, then they will be hung from the trees in their school garden.

A friend posted this on facebook Saturday night and it had us dancing around our living room. I couldn't resist passing on the link!   Watch it full screen with the sound turned up.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=C5-ClvcHtK4

42...Blooming June



Apple Blossom Rose

 Back to France this week and the garden was a joy to come back to. I've been away for more than 3 weeks and the garden would normally be a jungle by now, but luckily a local friend, Sebastian, has been looking after it for me.

Pink Pom Pom Rose

The thing about gardens is that it's really difficult to enjoy your own as all you can ever see is the work that needs to be done. However, I find that because I come and go so often, for the first half hour when I arrive back, even if I have only been away for a couple of days, I can view the garden with fresh eyes and just enjoy the changes that have happened especially at this time of the year when it is all growing so quickly.
This got me thinking about my work too. Most artists I know find it difficult to view their work objectively. You can look at it and see all the work that has gone into it....but always with a critical eye. The only time I find that you can see it as others do, is to come upon it unexpectedly..perhaps in a place that you had forgotten about. Then for a few seconds until you realise it is one of yours....you see it just as it is.

Back in the garden, there is now plenty to eat, and these are some of my favourites, Artichokes.

There is also Strawberries, Raspberries and loads of Blackcurrants,

 and more cabbages than I know what to do with,

and I'm really excited by my ripening Apricots....I check them out every day but I think there's a way to go yet!

I should really have been back in the studio getting down to it this week too, but I didn't seem able to settle into it. So on days when lethargy sets in I find the only thing to do is clean.....sad but true. So the studio has had a spring clean, and now it feels like a sketchbook open at a new page, and tomorrow I can go in there and start making again.
This little piece above is a commision piece from the Brighton festival. There will be 3 heads on the sculpture when it is finished, but for the moment I am trying to get the colour right for the client, it has to be on the mauve rather than the blue range....tricky but we'll get there.

41...Planning for the summer

www.forartssake.com

Shortly after leaving Uni my work, which was then domestic earthenware but very playful with Poppies and Daisies, was picked up by this lovely gallery in Ealing, London. For several years they sold my teapots and martini cups, and now they have taken a collection of my sculptures and put them on show in their windows.

Side window at For Arts Sake

There are two sorts of gallery owners, those who charge a high commision and leave your work in a corner of the gallery, and those who take an interest in you as the artist, love the work, and enjoy selling it for you, Brian and Melanie at For Arts Sake fall into the latter category. They have a good range of Originals, Prints and Ceramics in their showroom, so if you find yourself in this part of London why not pay them a visit, or check out their website  www.forartssake.com

Later this week I met another lovely person and this was Pauline McBride at Sussex Prairie Gardens.
www.sussexprairie.co.uk

Red Hot Pokers at Sussex Prairie Gardens

In a few short years she has created, along with her husband Paul, the most spectacular Prairie gardens near Henfield in Sussex. I went along with Si Uwins, who makes wood sculptures with a similar theme to mine, to have a walk around the gardens,

and to plan a sculpture trail for this summer.

Augusta Glastifolia

There are already some sculptures up there,

A colourful flock of sheep

and there are some great places to sit and enjoy the view,

The gardens are framed by the South Downs and are just a perfect place to while away a summer day.
I will be setting up my sculptures in a couple of weeks time, and will post some more pictures then.

www.forartssake.com
www.sussexprairie.co.uk
www.siuwins.co.uk

40...Poppies in Portobello

 On a trip to see friends and godchildren in Portobello nr Edinburgh this week and we went to a hidden gem of a garden called Dr Neils. It is hidden away at the foot of Arthur's seat, is free to enter, and amazingly has a glazed shed with kettle, books, childrens activities and armchairs so that you can make yourself a cuppa, sit down and enjoy the view. Not even a donation asked for...how brilliant is that! It is also the home of curling (as in the sport) as the large loch and goose sanctuary here often freezes in the winter.

 Wandering around we saw these lovely Poppies, and it doesn't matter how many times I represent Poppies in my work, I still find them incredibly exciting and always want to find a new way of showing their drama and general gorgeousness. These ones gave me an idea for a new sculpture straight away.

Mika and Kiku spent a happy hour making lovely pictures with all the bits and bobs in the shed especially for the kids.

and then made me a lovely daisy chain....I wonder how many hundreds/thousands of years children have been doing this?

 

Going out for a drink in the evening and the sun still hadn't set gone 9.30pm. The hot evening had the Portobello beach, all sand and situated by the Firth of Forth, packed with people enjoying a bottle of wine and a crate (or three!) of beer. Strangely for me the sun sets on the left up here, whereas in Brighton it sets on the right, so I always feel a bit back to front.