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/