It's Advent December 2021

 ....and the old driftwood tree comes out of the tool shed...is dusted down and the spiders webs cleared away before it's once again in pride of place in the big gallery window at The Potters House Penketh.

On go the twinkling lights...a job for the potter...aka Alan Snape.

...the box of beloved baubles is dragged down the stairs from under a bed in the guest room..

...year by year I scour the christmas shops for another one to add to the collection...but it has to be that little bit different from the hundreds that are the choices available now...

...and every year I buy each of the grandgirls one to start their own collection.

Aunt Helen was my partner in "crime " each Christmas at 43 St. Johns in Belfast...I would crawl into the cubbyhole under the stairs to find the box with the treasure in it....in those days mainly paper decorations.

...ooops!...why is it always the fragile ones that slip out of your hands!...still beautiful in it's shards of fine glass...

After our visit this year to the autumn Chelsea...inspired by the work in the main tent... I started collecting the autumn leaves as they fell from the gingko tree in the garden...pressing them in old art books...always heavy!...and stringing them in chains for the gallery windows.

...some japanese acer leaves found their way into the strings too...

..a choir of angels echo the message of hope

...nothing to make you ashamed...

In the window....ceramic camel £150 : ceramic angels £20 : Large penguin with gold crown £170 : small penguin with gold crown £110 : ceramic polar bear £180 : individual ceramic letters £150 : HOPE £450  Icon.."Christ Pantocrator" £150 : ceramic hare £180 : Box assemblage ceramic hand £150 : ceramic stars £20 : Globed angel £150 : small driftwood christmas trees £20 : chain of pressed leaves £10 ..and so much more inside.

More work can also be seen at Technically Brilliant Art in The Golden Square Mall, Warrington.

and

The Buckenham Gallery Southwold, Suffolk.

Today the sun is shining...although these are often called "the dark days"...but there is always hope and so that is my wish for all of us this Christmas.....

"And hope doesn't put us to shame..." Rom 5:5

Much love

Geraldine

November Sunshine...

 

It's not an easy thing coping with change in these days... 

Lines are drawn on winter grass

I stop and stand for a moment

whisper...don't go...don't go.

It's my soul song  my heart cry

Shell and stone   feather and bone.

Black oak stark against blueness

Drawing  restoring  slow breathing

sigh...don't leave...don't leave.

My soul song   my heart cry

Shell and bone   feather and stone.

For these we give thanks again

For copper rustling  mossed cushions

cry...stay awhile...stay awhile.

Sing my soul song   slow my heartbeat

Shell and stone   feather and bone.

Lines are drawn on winter grass

A low sun moves and shadows pass

now going...soon fading.

My heart cry   my soul song

Shell and stone   feather and bone.

Lockdown walks...

Here's a pic of some summer flowers in the herb garden.

"Fox and cubs"

Lockdown walks in Penketh

I'm enjoying the need to walk around the district again!!

Over the weekend two lovely walks towards the south of the parish...

Sankey Brook...

...making it's way down to the Mersey River...

...and this one very close to our home...

... the walk down to the Ferry Inn by the Mersey and the yacht haven in the Sankey Canal...

...golden light on the water..still...

...the boat yard by the canal... 

 

..and here's some lovely autumn colour from the garden at 

The Potters House Penketh.

..as they say on all the blog posts...

"Stay Safe"

🍂

Submission for galleries.

 Two lots of submissions...Technically Brilliant Art Gallery in the Golden Square Shopping Mall in Warrington. This gallery run by Jo and Matt and such a bonus in the Warrington Area.

And a black and white submission for LensCulture ..Black and White 2020.

I always have to psych myself up to do these things.....fear of failure maybe...egg on my face.

But if not they languish in my PC files and get dusty in my studio!

"Angel"...or "Venus"!

"Boxed in"

or

(Berliner Walls)

"Foot and Skull"

 "Saint"

or

(Tunnock)

These are Vanitas or Memento Mori works.

And for Lens Culture...

"Sandy Lane in the Mist"

or

"Immaterialising in the mist"

Here's an autumn pic...

 ...from the potter's garden...

Ceramic Sales...David slays Goliath/ NHS slays coronavirus19

The year 2002 was quite a year for us at The Potters House Penketh.

Alan's dad..Sydney Snape died.

We bought an old guest house in Morecambe 5 minutes from the beach.

We went to Spain for the first time and stayed in the beautiful apartment owned by our niece and nephew... up the hill from Marbella.

Alan made this large bowl with his typical comic aproach to some of the Bible stories.

I loved it.

I didn't want it to go.

He often stashed it on the top of a storage cupboard in the back studio.

In that way ...it wasn't going to sell.

Until today.

The buyer asked about Gath...was it local?

So the potter told the story of the small David and the great big hulking giant Goliath.

She'd never heard it before.

I think Goliath is "coronavirus 19" and David is little NHS...that defeats it.....chops of it's head!!

This year...back to Morecambe one day soon I hope.

Next year back to Spain..I hope!

Sketch and paint...right handed.

I haven't sketched anything since I broke my left wrist...

well if I'm honest..

I haven't sketched or painted anything since last August in Donegal with Rosie's Art Group sketching holiday.

So the wrist has been a good excuse!!

I keep telling the family to stay creative...I thought it's about time I did something for myself!

So I dug around in my studio and found a sketch book..sorted the desk easel and opened up my paints.

Right handed drawing is so hard!!

I'm in awe of those artists who do it!

The weather is warm

The flowers are beautiful.

I chose these auriculas for the first tentative go.

Forbade the potter from saying.."that's good".

Daft...isn't it...just feeling my way back in.

Good Friday

Here we are at Good Friday...

though I've just read that the word good was not the original word

rather..holy Friday.

Some of us have put crosses up in the front gardens as we can't meet as usual in the local square at 12 noon.

It's a good time as the whole community gathers by a local butchers and we have a time of silence.

If ever there was a need for us to be silent and do a lot of thinking...it's now.

The sun is shining and so I've been down at the bottom of the field on a deckchair just dreaming.

Posted this in the little front garden of the gallery this morning.

The crown of thorns was given to me by a Romanian artist many years ago when in another time of sadness and distress, we went to Romania with some provisions for hospitals and children's homes.

Let's pray that this time will make us all wake up to kindness and caring...maybe.

Day Seven Art Challenge Alan Snape Potter

..and so we reach Day Seven of The Art Challenge for the potter...Alan Snape...

At the closing exhibition of his time studying art at St Martins Lancaster...every piece of work apart from two which we still have...sold! 

At that time Alan was working in wood, metal and ceramic. He was creating wall pieces with burnt wood and metal or clay..... big powerful pieces of art.

 I was always sorry that teaching at Penketh High...stopped all that influence. Too much else to think about...apart from family growingup etc!! 

So the commission for a wall mounted work to be placed in the foyer of the Oaks Centre  in Penketh was welcomed. 

The piece is composed of oak beams burnt in the bonfire, down the field, until charred to his satisfaction. Then formed into various sized crosses and three pure white ceramic balls placed within the sculpture.

If you ask him what it means you will receive a gentle shrug and...

 "what do you think?"

I'm adding this early pic of Alan's car....the beloved Nelly...car...circa 1967...in Rochdale with a friend from St. Martin's College Lancaster, the lovely sister @Rosiemcclellandart and yours truly...how glamorous, how young, how innocent we were!

I kept slim by pushing Nelly to start her most days!!

 

Day five of the potter's art challenge....and this camel seen in the window at the Buckenham Gallery in Southwold...is ready, willing and able to paaarrrtay!!

Where do the ideas come from?...I dread to think!

I think this sweet camel is long gone...off partying somewhere classy...but others will follow where he has lead no doubt.

You can always pop into the Potters House here on Heath Road Penketh to see what the potter is conjuring up at the moment.

Looking in  and...

...he's looking out!!

The opening of the poppies...

I wait each year for the oriental poppies to appear....

and then for the blooms to unfurl...like a flamenco dancer swirling her silk skirt.

 June 2013 ....

  

June 2014...

  

 

 June 2015...

The Greening of Penketh.

The local council has set up a programme of tree planting here in Penketh...hooray!!...

We have been doing our own greening over the 34 years since we took over the land which belonged to Greenalls the brewers.

Then it was used as an unofficial tip...dumping ground for old bikes, prams, wooden windows and shattered glass....awful.

Below is the birch stand we started to plant as each member of our family was born.

Now there are eleven...and probably no more until the grandgirls...all five...add to the numbers...one day!!!

Each April I watch the greening of the birch grove and marvel at the soft green leaves as they develop.