Mother Earth - £95 (GBP)

Large terracotta earthenware bowl, using coloured slips and fine lines of silver luster (hardly if at all visible in picture).
420cm diameter x 80cm

I am having a spring sale at my studio gallery just now. Making space for new work and to stop holding on to the past. Sometimes its very difficult to part with old friends and this is one! I will be hard pressed to say good-bye.
I cannot get my new images on to my page, our camera only works on the husbands computer, and I cannot get it to move them over to mine. So, I am posting this instead.

Please bare with me... the images will be here soon!

Lack of Posts!

I've been rather busy of late! I have been painting, doing some quick commissions and actually managing to do my first bit of ceramics in a while! So, I have lots of images to show you but can't get my camera to do its bit on to the computer.
My BIG commission is trudging on very slowly as I am waiting to see about these large tiles I'm ordering especially for the job. But the sketches are coming on well and I can't do any more than that!
Please keep checking over the next few days to see what I've been doing.

One of Those Days!

Hi there! It is just one of those days!!! AGHHHHH!
I have managed to flag myself for objectionable content and don't know what this means or how it will affect my blog. In fact, I did it 2 or 3 times to try to undo this mistake! Oh! POOP!
Somebody please tell me (in normal speak not computer jargon) how to undo this, or what I can do! HELP! Looking forward to hearing from somebody!

Lemon in Metal Bowl - £55 (GBP) SOLD

Acrylic painting of a lemon on a box canvas, the picture continues around the edges so there is no need to frame.
200mm x 200mm x 20mm

Here is a study I did of a lemon in this great little bowl I found at the school's jumble sale. I knew I wanted a lemon in it! I have really started to look at everyday objects in a very different light, since taking up painting. I'm enjoying exploring and painting things up close and personal. Getting a really good look at something that we might just pass over or take for granted.

Well, a very short and sweet post today, I have just started a picture of a pomegranate... so want to get on with it! You'll see it soon!

Capsicum - £55 (GBP) SOLD

A still life of two capsicums in acrylics on box canvas, the painting continues around the edges. It is ready to hang and there is no need to frame.
200mm x 200mm x 20mm.

These I found a challenge to paint, but I really enjoyed painting the stalk for some peculiar reason! I intended to paint a regular pepper, but my husband bought these for me instead. Beautiful, long, ripe, red capsicums. I was going to paint them from another angle to show off their contours & length, but realised that I would not be able to paint for a few day later... so... I decided after painting them that I would especially enjoyed eating them for our supper instead! We had them roasted with butternut and bacon! YUM!
Hope you enjoy the painting as much as I did painting and eating them!

Geode Pots - left £15 (GBP) right £18 (GBP)

Earthenware terracotta pinch pots. Polished with bees wax and raspberry fleck crystal glaze in one & blue surprise crystal glaze in the other. From the "Geodes" series.
(L) 100 mm diameter x 60 mm deep and (R) 120 mm diameter x 75 mm deep.

Geode Pot - £18 (GBP)

Earthenware terracotta pinch pot. Clear glaze on the outside and a blue, black & white crystal glaze inside. From the series "Geodes".
150 mm x 120 mm x 65 mm deep

Geode Pot - £15 (GBP)

Earthenware terracotta pinch pot with a Dalmatian crystal glaze inside. From the series "Geodes".
Around 130 mm diameter x 80 mm deep

The idea behind my series of Geode pots is the discovery of a treasure inside ~ all of us have it in us. Its like stumbling across a geode (rock), when it is split you find an amazing wonder inside.. a true treasure!
I like the idea that you uncover something old, that has taken maybe millions of years to form, but it is new in the fact it has only just been discovered.
So... I have mixed together old traditional techniques ~ the pinch pot vessel and keeping the form simple, but over stretched the clay to give the outside a cracked weathered feel. After all firings I then polish each vessel with beeswax for a buffed feel.
Then in contrast I mixed it with the "new" by glazing the inside with a crystal glaze ~ a relatively modern/new pottery glazing technique. The glaze has crystals suspended in it, once applied to the ware and it is being fired the crystals react during the firing, releasing burst of color ~ I can't predict how the crystals perform... so even a small surprise for me too!
These are very pleasing shapes which are extremely tactile. Each one holds within it a wonderful richly coloured burst of treasure inside. It's funny, everybody seems drawn to them and compelled to pick them up, cradle them and peep in side.

Butternut Squash - £55 (GBP) SOLD

Close up study of a butternut squash, painted in acrylics on to a box canvas. The image continues around the edges, it is ready to hang & no need to frame.
200mm x 200mm x 20mm

I love butternut squash, it is delicious. A recent find to our food/eating menu. Don't know how we missed out before. I have only really come to like this painting until now, in fact, it was my very first "getting back to painting" painting ~ done over a month ago! I chose the butternut because foolishly I thought... Gosh this is going to be easy... then I got to the pips... Oh they were infuriating!
It made me realise and admire all the paintings a day people ~ the talent and.. dam! I am SOOOO rusty! I decided that it had to be put away for a little while, so this is why you haven't seen it until now! It was one of those times it had to be either put down & stop painting, or I would be at it forever, OR in the bin!
Now I love the colours ~ all the golden yellows, creams, flesh tones to the warm ripe orange to reds. Never thought I'd see the day that I liked orange! And I really like the table cloth that curls around the edge of the box canvas. I'm a perfectionist I suppose (no suppose ~ I am) and had it in my mind that it should be much more detailed, but actually I like the swift paintbrush strokes I used for the pips in the end, it gives that huddled & muddled feel, especially in contrast to the smooth hard flesh.

Funny how over time you come to change your perception about something. Yes I like it a lot now!

All this painting reminded me of my school teacher Alan Biggs (check out the link), if it hadn't been for his support, patience & dedication, I don't know where my art would be in my life. He gave me my first belief in myself and my art creations... I certainly would not have got any of my exams, or went to art school if he had not been there for me. Everybody needs that amazing teacher in school... and I was so very lucky to have him... Even better we still keep in touch and occasionally see each other. What I should be saying is "Thank you Mr. Biggs!"

The thing that amazes me about this blog thing... is every time I sit down, I never think I have anything to say. But it just pours out ~ it must be the conversations I don't have... the children free zone in my head that I've found a way of expressing. Having said that my mind has just gone completely blank... I'll sign off now before I launch into the next topic and save it for another day!

Hope you like my butternut, go and get one, cook it up for supper and enjoy!