The kiln is firing the first of the baptismal Bowl prototypes. I have really enjoyed making it. Note how one of the fish lifted when the bowl was drying….more slip next time! The kiln will be cool enough to open tomorrow morning.

An interesting article in this weekend’s Guardian Review about Percy Kelly, a reclusive artist who didn’t like to sell his work. The images I found on the Castlegate House Gallery website are lovely. He wrote hundreds of illustrated letters to his friend Joan David over 10 years although they only met 5 times! 

Meeting  Peter, who has moved into a flat in Vauxhall, for coffee was a good way to start  my day in  London last week. Coffee finished, he went home to install his new computer while I walked over Vauxhall Bridge to Tate Britain to see the new Picasso exhibition – ‘Picasso and Modern British Art’. The show begins with a look at Picasso’s early visits to London (the first in 1919) then moves onto different British artists whose work was very definitely been influenced by him.  Ben Nicholson began using collage after seeing the way Picasso used it. I could see Henry Moore’s statuesque sculptures walking away from some of Picasso’s portraits of women.  A reproduction of Guernica hangs alongside work by Graham Sutherland, an artist I am only just beginning to discover. Seeing Frances Bacon alongside Picasso’s work has helped me understand his work better too. Work by David Hockney hangs in the penultimate room. I guess he had the luxury of looking back over the whole of Picasso’s life and, perhaps, the freedom of working after the great man had died. One commentator said that artists looked at the way Picasso worked and used his ideas only to find that by the time they were working he had already moved onto something new! It was through his genius that modern art came to Britain and made this new direction acceptable with the public. In the final room is the large ‘The Three Dancers’, painted in 1925 and presented to the Tate following the Picasso retrospective held in 1960 which was the first of the blockbuster shows. There are also some interesting photographs from the  fifties and sixties as well as (only) one of his ceramic pieces.  An excellent exhibition! 

Spent the day with cree8 friends working from a large still life that we all contributed to. I didn’t move far but spent my time exploring different materials and trying not to get too messy!

On Saturday we spent a very cold but enjoyable hour by the Stour estuary between Manningtree and Mistley with our binoculars and telescope watching the birdlife as the tide came in. We saw redshanks, godwits, oystercatchers, lapwings and avocets to name but a few. The lapwings have the most amazing coloured plumage which I had never appreciated before and the avocets are so elegant – their beautiful shape and markings reflected in the ice cold water.

I have been making some plaster moulds - ready for the Baptismal Bowl I have been commissioned to make for a church in Crowthorne. I bought a plastic garden bucket, which I cut to the size I needed, to contain the plaster and shaped the clay formers on the wheel. I had bought a 25kg bag of potter’s plaster from Grant at Blue MatchBox Gallery and used it all for two moulds and a small circular bat for wedging clay. However it is taking ages for the moulds to dry out as it has been so cold. They are now taking their turn in the airing cupboard!

Another inspirational artist! West Forest Potters held their annual Potters Day on Saturday with Carolyn Genders as the guest potter. She talked about her work and influences and then demonstrated her methods. Using white earthenware she coils her pots and then, when dry, paints the surface with vitreous slips. She has such a free and colourful way of working it was an inspiration to see her at work. I hadn’t realised that vitreous slips contain a small proportion of glaze material so the pots only need to be fired once. I am working on some coil pots this week so have started them using her method - it is working well for me. Next project is to start looking at vitreous slips! 

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I went to Wokingham Embroiders Guild on Wednesday to see Textile Artist Debbie Lyddon talk about her work. A trained musician who since having a family combines her love of music and textiles in some amazing work. Check out her website to see her work. I found the evening very inspiring and bought a small collage piece which I am enjoying very much. My South Hill Park class followed the next day and I continued to work on the St Giles picture exploring some of the patterns in the reflections. At home in the evening and inspired by Debbie’s work I got my sewing machine out! What do you think?!