Every morning in Africa......

This is November's posting! I have a list of galleries/exhibitions to apply for and am in the throws of making Christmas presents too. Too much to do too little time etc etc! I joined the Northern Potters Association after Ruth's gentle persuasion and have had a reply from the association regarding a group exhibition in the spring at the Joe Cornish Galleries in Northallerton - they would like 6 pieces from the ' Every morning in Africa....' series!Why 'Every morning in Africa...'? Well I found this little story ....

“Every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest hunting dog or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a hunting dog wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest antelope or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you are a dog or an antelope – when the sun comes up you’d better be running.”   Adapted from an African proverb

I almost forgot to send the photos in and was frantically snapping and posting photos the evening before the deadline. Here are a couple of the photos although I didn't send the dog as it doesn't do him justice.

   

Another pleasent spin off from joining the NPA was receiving the newsletter/magazine and seeing under my name - in a welcome to new members list - the name of a friend I made up at Holmfirth when I did my courses with Brendan. Hilary helped me fire my raku unicorn and makes the most beautiful pieces inspired by nautilus shells. I am going to the Art Market at Huddersfield on Sunday and hope to see her there. The daughter has purloined the sat nav so I have Sue riding shotgun - she is a demon with a map but we bicker like an old couple.

I gave a two hour ceramic modelling lesson to the WI ladies art group a few weeks ago and I have to say I was fired up with their enthusiasm and will be doing another session next week. We are going to make 'green men' - there is a photo of the sort of thing below. The ladies at the studio were very impressed with the red glaze  - pure accident I think - the firing must have been a bit too high and the underglaze colours changed.The WI ladies will be using the air drying clay left over from the RDA exhibition so no need to fire.

                                                               

A Lost Month

Bloody Norah, lost a month again! Well there have been some ups and downs with the studio space in Salford and I didn't make anything for weeks because I thought I might not get them fired. Without going into it chapter and verse, the Monday Pottery Group has got its workshop time back - to be reviewed next week. The ladies galvinised by fighting talk and sustained by homemade cake, organised themselves into action and met with the management to make their case.

Unlike the cake - that didn't last very long, my work has in the mean time got stale I think and I need to kick start myself. Didn't make the Open National or the Discerning Eye, but - heyho - as Janie says, move on.

The bronze idea is coming on and I have found a course, emailled the sculptor and hopefully will tackle ceramic shell bronze casting in 2012 - I'm saving up. It is near Girvan in the southwest of Scotland. Sue fancies a holiday and we will see if we can find a b&b in a pub and she will paint and take photos (seaside and birds) while I play in the foundary. Good Scheme! I've started modelling in wax so I will have some pieces to take up with me if I get on the course, still dogs but more like fox hounds now, think I'll make a pack.

They say moving house is one of the most stressful things in life and I can see how it could be. We have probably lost the house we would have liked because we don't have a buyer yet. It had a brick garage ready for converting into a studio and I was dreaming of driving to Stoke, walking in to Potclays, pointing at  new kiln and saying 'Take that to .........(such and such an address)...........and plug it in!' Well you never know.

Nesting

Well as promised the photo of me with a celeb!

and a picture of the first 'Nest'.
Am I making nests as a subconscious reaction to moving house? After 26 years the house is on the market and we are downsizing. I keep thinking about Kinder eggs and Easter eggs, folklore and supersitions, I even made a  'Green Man' at Salford - perhaps it's more to do with the book.....

It is amazing how the story I am currently listening to influences the nature of the sculpture I am making. I have been listening to 'The Company of Liars' by Karen Maitland and suddenly my nest became full of snail shells and small bones - all bleached and microwaved for hygene's sake.The creatures become more ambiguous and albino-like as the character in the book - strange. This piece is going to London on Sunday to 'The Discerning Eye' competition so we'll see whether anyone else likes it - Pete liked it but having done a re-take asked me 'What are they?' Well I got more than my 4 seconds looking-at-time so perhaps the judges will look again too.

I have a box of modelling wax downstais and may get going on some hunting dogs. There are several awaiting firing at the moment but they are very fragile and I can't get them standing up so I may have a go in the wax - I want to make a pack but the problem is how to preserve the sculpture afterwards as bronze resin is too expensive - the moulds really. Still if I win a decent prize I can put the money toward it. In fact, thinking on the keyboard as it were, I think that will be my next target - to get a piece cast in bronze. Watch this space!"

The kindness of strangers (and old friends)

Bloody Norah, I keep meaning to write the next blog and time has slipped away from me. Went, ( Helen and I) to London to see the pieces in the Mall Galleries and everytime I turned round I nearly bumped into HRH, not on purpose I might add and although she hovered near the Antelope and Hunting Dog she did not buy it - neither did anyone else I have to say. Not hard cheese - but there seemed to be fewer red dots this year, but at least I had both pieces accepted.

Then it was the Stockport Open and blow me if the raku unicorn I entered didn't get a prize! I was delighted and the best thing of all was a phone call from the organisers questioning the title of the piece (The Last of its Kind), as they found the creature so ambiguous they couldn't agree on what it was! YES!! It actually acheived its goal and I got more than my 4 seconds of viewing time! Here it is.

And here are the hippos -

Then it was the RDA National Championships! Joy had done for her shoulder so Janie valiently came with me. I arrived in the horse box with the WI marquee. It blew and it blew and I was close to tears as 12 kind people helped put it up. I was so grateful to them - everyone at the championships was so kind to me. The exhibition looked OK and a couple of ladies bought pieces but the success of the weekend was the workshops for children to come and have a go. Janie was brilliant, fighting off the most dreadful cold and keeping me calm inspite of torential rain and having to set up3 times in all. On the Sunday I was asked to help judge the art competition and I left Janie in charge. When I returned I found that she had returned to her nursery nurse roots and next to the rows of unicorns, lizards and other creatues were a selection of toadstools and gnomes! Brilliant! Will post the photo of me and Tony Head (actor!) who posed with me in the stand. When I got home - the old horse box was brilliant if a little slow (did get up to 55 on a couple of occassions) I was so tired I could have slept for a week and Janie took to her bed.

Then it was a small exhibition at the Queenston Arthouse in Didsbury. No sales but a pleasure to exhibit locally.

Now I am working on new ideas - nests(?) more about that next time. I have told Gill that I no longer want her kiln because the house is going on the market - board goes up tomorrow - and when we get a new place I am going to ring up Potclays and say, 'You know that top loader kiln in your show room? Well bring it to such-n-such address and plug it in!'

How do you get four hippos in a Ford Fiesta?

Two in the front and two in the back! Old joke, I've made some hippos out of lovely coarse raku clay as a bit of a diversion from the finer white crank. It was like playing with wet sand - loved it.
Went to Birmingham - EAC Exhibition with Helen and had a lovely day apart from the parking ticket. The exhibition was fabulous - a real quality mix and we were both impressed. The hare looked lonely in his glass case - I really think my pieces look best either outside or on a plinth, not in an exhibition case but I am grateful for the security aspect.
Rushing around trying to get pieces ready for different competitions and the RDA stand in July. Joy will come with me if she can and there is 100kg of air drying clay smiling at me in the cellar waiting to go. Definitely another horse box job to get everything there.
My lists are getting lists - Pete said this is turning into a job. Not yet, but the 'get-a-kiln-game' is all go. I have taken photos of the port-o-kiln in situ and sent them to Northern Kilns, met a man, John, at Potclays who used to use and install them and got a quote for a hiab that I probably won't need as apparently they are really light and two men can lift them.
Embarrassed to say that I have damaged the kiln at Start by giving Will a black rat to fire made from some black clay Ruth gave me - it was eartheware and melted. Did for bricks and element and two kiln shelves. This is an expensive month - I will have to sell something! No pictures this month, will post photos of competition entries next month.

Thank you!

Well I did it, with (more than) a little help from my friends! First solo exhibition! Couldn't have got everything there without Ricky giving up his day off and altering his shifts and James struggling on to lift things with his good hand. The exhibition looked magnificent thanks to Joy who has an eye for display and showing things off to their best advantage.The private view was a great success - thanks to Sue and Janie for the canapes and Sharon for the photos (and washing up). Thanks to all the friends that came and Pete for his support and painting the tables. Thank you to Helen for driving to meet the courier at Burtonwood with two pieces for the Society of Women Artists 150th annual exhibition and to Pam whose idea it was and in whose premises it all took place.
The horse box blew off its exhaust 50 yards from Pam's on the way loaded up with plinths and crates of sculpture and its normal throaty roar turned very nasty, but that got fixed in time to take it all back on Monday. Here's a picture of the exhibition - when I get Sharon's photos I will make a power point and put it on the web site. It doesn't really do it justice but you can get the idea.

Sold quite a few pieces and have got a few commissions which is marvellous. |I will try and get them out of the way so I can get on with the 'new' stuff. Here's a picture of a relief I am pleased with.

Four run wild in London (again!)

Well, the hare sold a day after going online. The girls and I set off first class (thank you Helen) to revisit the Mall Galleries in the big smoke. Cheeky-chappie-rip-off-cabby later we arrived there and I had my photo taken again. We had 'the picture' taken outside by a couple of American tourists and made it to Covent Garden for lunch. Janie metamorphed into Fred Scuttle at some point during the procceedings and eye make up was wiped from streaming eyes. We went to the National Portrait Gallery and had a cream tea in the National Gallery while Henry V111 changed in the gents. The only downer on the day was the 'dry' train! The guard was sympathetic but not happy about 4 ladies of a certain age quoffing cava when the football fans were denied their cans of larger. Hey-ho. Here's me and here's the girls:

 

I have had a 'docket' from the Mall Galleries and was disappointed to find out they charge VAT on the commission - no wonder the paintings were so expensive. With the trip down, lunch and sundries I reckon I made £20 on that hare - BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT! I have sold twice in London in prestigeous exhibitions and that's the point!

I have had another piece accepted for an exhibition - the EAC Art Awards 2011 at the RSPA Gallery in Birmingham in May. I should add I suppose it is an exhibition for the over 60s. I do not know which one of the four I entered has been accepted but I bet it's the hare again. Watch this space.

Working hard to get stuff ready for the solo exhibition at Pam's. The main worry is getting everything there in one piece. Now the son has broken his thumb I fear I may be short of muscle - anyone offering?

What a relief!

Missed the January blog so this is it!
Got another piece into the Mall Galleries - The Royal Society of British Artists' Annual Exhibition. Needless to say the silly fixed grin returned and the girls wanted another trip to London so Helen booked it first class with her magic card.The accepted piece was another hare, I thought the other one , The Shape-Changer was better, but whose to complain? The Mall Galleries produce a web page of accepted pieces along with contact details and prices. Mine's not up yet but some of the prices are frightening. This is the Hare on the Moon 3/4 -

I have got inspired again and am producing what I think is my best work to date. In order to make the animals look active, 'light' and speedy, I began making them as relief sculptures with thin legs overhanging the blocks and the animals running out of the frames as it were. It works, thank you Ruth - my mentor at the Salford studio. I also did some proper drawings in chalk and charcoal and will do more as I move on to Welsh Mountain ponies! The pieces are not all fired yet and I will post photos when they are complete.
All spare moments are taken up with the exhibition at New Barn Farm on the 8th, 9th and 10th of April. I have got muscle (son) and exhibition design help (Joy), borrowed plinths, designed the invites, sorted the canapes (Sue and Janie surfing the net for delicious ideas) - I've got to get the invites out, (especially to the local glossies and galleries), sort the wine, glasses, posters and car parking and finish the pieces. Does Pam know what she has let herself in for? Do I?
Enough, I must get back downstairs and get going.