Art Challenge...post one a day!

Today I've posted an edited photo taken as part of a series when we went to find Derek Jarman's cottage on the shingle in Dungeness.

"The Abandoned Boat"

What an amazing place...a wilderness of stone and sea...yet full of life with such banks of marine wild flowers and a glimpse of a hare running away from his cottage.

I may never get a chance to return...but the memories are strong and quite a bit of poetry resulted from that visit.

"The Abandoned Boat"

Wild flowers on the shingle.

 The emptiness of the landscape.

Rusting metal everywhere hidden in the maran grasses.

Sculptural rusting metals...abandoned.

Somerset Levels Commission.

This commission came from an Irish friend, for some relatives living in Somerset and loving the levels.

 The potter is more used to his land and seascape pots based mainly on Southwold and Aldeburgh..so this was a new venture and much perusal of google pics and pinterest boards were looked at, before he sketched his ideas in a book and started the heavy job of raising a large ceramic pot. It is big...not quite a metre high but not far off! 

There were certain requirements made for the decor on the exterior...hares, heron, water and reeds...and the potter added his usual wonderfully modelled bridges, fences and landscape. The glazes are chosen to enhance the fired clay and the final glaze firing reveals whether or not it has been a success.

Well this is the second one...not that the first wasn't good it was, but experience tells you that often the next one manages to capture the essence of a piece. Soon it will be on it's way to The Levels...then we shall see if it has done it's job. 

The Leveret.

I was out with a couple of friends yesterday evening...when one of them mentioned that they had found a baby hare crouched in the front garden behind a flower pot!

Well you know how much I love hares!!

So I insisted on driving home with her and seeing this bundle of magic.

His/her...don't know which...ears were remarkably long for the smallness of the little body. 

It's said that the mother hare leaves the leverets in different nests in the grass ...in the hope that at least one will survive.

So this little one was left under a bush in the families front garden. Opposite their house is a large field and they tell me that  regularly hares leap in this field!!

Wow...you're telling me that all of this time I've missed out on local hares?!!

How exciting.

Here he/she is...sorry about the quality of the pic ...too excited!!

As the garden is in a suburban area the family are bringing it in during the night to protect it from cats and dogs etc.
...and when the time comes for the mother hare to arrive to feed it..
..the little leveret seems to sense this and is very much awake and waiting for her rich milk.

This gorgeous creature will of course be put back into the big wild world very soon.
But for now the chance to see this baby with it's beautiful mottled fur...so different from a rabbit's fur...
..has made my week!!!

Sunday at Grange-over-Sands

It was Prom Art again on Sunday ...gosh it comes around so fast I can hardly get my breath.

Well... we love Grange and The Prom Art...but not the rain that stopped the people from promenading with their families and dogs!

So it was a matter of covering up the stall and in the heavy showers hauling in the paintings while the ceramics could look after themselves!

    

  The stall looked good..

...even in all the wetness!

.and Robert....chief organiser, if you don't count his gorgeous wife !...

was to be seen as usual, walking up and down the prom encouraging us.

 yellow hat glowing... so we would know that he was around.

We had some new tiles on the stall...         
               hares......!

 yes... I know you all realise I'm besotted with them at the moment...

                       but there you go!

...you must blame Derek Jarman's cottage for it all!













There's always a bonus at Grange.....
...the bay was glorious with massive rain clouds  hanging over the hills around Arnside...
I just had to take loads of pics...

Then just to be seen away in the distance at the oppposite side of the bay...

...leading his people like a modern day Moses across the treacherous sands....

the Queen's Guide, Cedric Robinson

I listened to two little girls discussing the sands...

..." If you fall in there the sand will swallow you up"...

...unbelieving look..."Really?"

Well it could have been a Dr. Who moment!

The Third Workshop.

Friday was the last of our summer workshops at the Potters House Penketh.

The sun...a very dear absent friend...made a welcome appearance ...joy of joys!!!

First the priorities....coffee and biscuits.

I made lavender ones again this time.

(I'll put the recipe at the bottom if you are interested.)

 

Old friends greeted and lots of chat in the back yard.

Then into the studios to see what ideas the potter had prepared.

Many in this group come with their own ideas...but it's always good for Alan to have a few alternative ones up his sleeve!

The starting point for this, came from an Italian tile and the stencils were prepared previously....good one this!

Greek style pot, always popular,

waiting for some decoration.

Lunch served around one o'clock...and with that sun still shining on us we eat al fresco.

Oh...That's the potter trying to get in on the act!

Lunch-time doziness nearly takes some of us over....but then it's back to the studios

 and a race to try and finish each ceramic sculpture.

Some folk have been coming to the Potters House for years 

but others have maybe only ever tried their hand at modelling in school....

...so it's quite an accomplishment  to get this looking so good.

...I love his big feet!

There's more work to do on the plaque but I love the interpretation from the original Italian tile.

 

Four o'clock in the afternoon came all too quickly!...and off they went...excited and chatting as they go.

Lavender Melts

50 grms golden caster sugar

130 grms unsalted butter

200 grms self-raising flour

1 tblsp chopped lavender leaves

2 tsp lavender flowers

1. Preheat oven to 180C

    Cream sugar and butter.Add flour and lavender leaves

    Beat until mixture comes together.

2. Turn out on to lightly floured surface.

    Knead briefly to form a dough.

    flatten to a disc and wrap and chill for half hour.

3. Roll out on a floured surface - half a centimetre thick.

    Sprinkle with flowers and press them in gently.

    Stamp out rounds with an 8 cm disc.

    Transfer to a greased baking tray.

4. Bake for 7-8 mins...lightly brown.

    Remove from oven and leave to cool for a few minutes.

5. Store in  an airtight tin....or eat them with family and friends soon!
 

The Hare that Lops.

Excitement mounts

The poet’s house

Camera at the ready

Miss not one thing

Not one moment

Not one significant symbol

Then …click.

Out he ran fast

Out from the flowers

Out of the ring of wood

The sculptures of iron

The redeemed of the shingle.

Out he speed

And I feared I had lost him.

There in the corner of my eye

To the left of my sight

To the safety of the gorse

He ran barrel-lunged

Longlegged

Muscle thighed.

And I am left panting

With eyes bulging

And voice screaming

“A hare…a hare!”

Tearing over the rough ground

Away from the poet’s house

Then…click.

Only later do I find

The faithfulness of the camera

With a faster lens that mine

Caught him

Ears high

Eyes staring

Feet fleeting

Disappearing

And I smile.

A little quote from ..."derek jarman's garden"
 "The rabbits have gone - I'm happy about that, but welcome the hare that lops past. A hare is the queer animal of myth, and my, they go fast."


This is linked up to dVerse open link night week 52...congratulations on a whole year of poetry!

New ceramics...hares

For quite a while now, galleries have been asking the potter to produce hares.

So they are just starting to arrive hot out of the kiln in the last few days..

Well hot is good... as we had a bit of a disaster just the week before christmas when a foreign substance...

...pheasant blood...!

dripped into the electronics and that was the end of that until the part was sent back to Germany...

...they of the" forsprung durch technik" infamy....

anyway, all better now..thankyou Germany!

I have been given the prototype..

and I love him!