Well this month's down side is I didn't make the Society of Wildlife Artists this year (note the positive attitude) nor did I sell at the Rufford Gallery. However, gentle reader, I have aquired the Old Parsonage in Didsbury for a one person show in May 2013 - I believe it will be the Bank Holiday weekend. I am delighted and thanks to Heather who put a word in for me. It is a large room in a beautiful old house in beautiful gardens. There is pay and display parking at the pub next door and plenty of eateries in the immediate area for visitors making a bit of an outing of it. When I came to Manchester as a student in !970 the Parsonage was an art gallery housing amongst other stuff - Turner sketches. It smelt of polish and there was passion flower growing all round the front door. As a student wandering round, it never occured to me I might have an exhibition of my work here. I have lots of ideas for the exhibition but really have to get my finger out and make some new, exciting pieces as I can not slip up on my own patch! Here's a link to the Parsonage -
www.didsburyparsonagetrust.org.uk
Sue and I took Joy to Todmorden today - mainly to take some more sculpture to the Water Street Gallery where, unlike the Rufford Gallery, the hares are flying off the shelves! Afterwards we had lunch in the 'Worker's Playtime Cafe' (my name for it) a lovely place still stuck in the 50s and then had our usual sqabble over the turning for Uppermill on the way back. Sue declined an ice cream - first time in living memory (well not quite) because it was cold!
The black clay Joe gave me is fabulous and I am making ravens and crows and labradors from the supplies I bought on my last trip to Stoke. Yes, Ruth and I have been back again and bought more clay! We also met with Potclays Technical Manager, John Beeston, who was very helpful in helping us price the cost of firing a kiln. I also now know if anything goes wrong with our firing facilities I can have pieces fired there in an emergency. Below is one of my birds set into a piece of drift wood from Ruth's friend Barabara. I have been on a NPA arranged one day photography course and hopefully will be able to take some better pictures of my work. Definitely need a tripod.
.jpg)
I struggled to get my panicking antelope together and flushed with success left the finished piece on the mantel piece (below). But the weight, tension and araldite gave way and front legs gave out. Not irrepairable but I will have to give in and get a piece of perspex to support the third antelope. One day when I can afford a bronze .........................
