Opening the big kiln

Ahhhh ... big pots ... bisque firing ...

Stoneware firing (for glazes and porcelain) are less frequent.

(Awaiting the arrival of the new kiln - for smaller pots, hotter firings.)

Before the cold weather arrives

On hearing that cold weather is about to replace the balmy indian-summer days, I suddenly had the urge to deal with some unpainted windows - those at Rathcoole gardens. They've been in place for nearly a year, and did get an undercoat, but somehow this spring and summer they lay neglected.

There are 9 windows, and each has 8 panes of glass. One day I'll work out how many dozens of metres of edges had to be painted along, ever so carefully.

Yes there was the possibility of using masking tape to give a crisp clean edge, but have you ever applied the damn stuff, ever so carefully? It's not the easy option - and rather wasteful.

The ladder was less than ideal - sturdy if properly bolstered, but not very high. I'm not very tall, not like the 6-foot-plus inhabitants, so the very top of the frames will have to wait for another day.

 As will the sills, which desperately need scraping right back.

While I was painting, much else was happening, including outfitting the kitchen - it now has a sink and hob and more drawers, and the cupboard fronts are about to be attached -

essential improvements to the bathroom -

 yet more electrics -

 and taking delivery of many bags of tile cement, for the stone-slab floor in the kitchen (it has underfloor heating) -

 However the water supply remains primitive. It is greatly to be hoped that the plumber will actually show up this week and connect a few pipes and wastes and such.

When I was a child, my father was constantly building extensions to the house, so seeing this happening before my eyes (but without having to live in the muddle) is most interesting. It always takes longer than you think it will, and there are plenty of surprises along the way - and it's a tremendous learning curve - but how exciting when a stage of the process, or maybe an entire room, if finally done. 

When the current builder was a child, his parents were generally doing renovations on the latest property as they moved from Holmfirth to Calgary to Halifax to Oxford, and then on their separate ways. He must have absorbed something from all the carpentry that went on around him.

Drawing Tuesday - Guildhall Art Gallery

Photos were taken in the cafeteria, under the ever-changing colours of the display; here's hoping the colours aren't too bad....

Judith's lively group

Joyce's rendition of John Virtue's painting

Najlaa found two William De Morgan vases

Carol's statue and stained glass

Sue's stone effigy, with intricate carving on the sleeve

Jo turned a Victorian painting of two ladies in pink dresses
 into something rather more modern

I was intrigued by the backs of a display of William De Morgan plates

... and the perspex display stands

Here they are from the front

 Extra-curricular activities

Najlaa revisited last week's door

Carol custom-made a flying-dinosaur costume for a three-year-old
(his arms go into loops under the wings)

Skies of delight

Near-equinoctial sunrise

The recent good weather means that often when I go to the window, first thing in the morning, a photo needs to be taken ... but always the actual light can't really be caught on the camera.

Evening skies, too.

So lovely, and not always noticed.

Sunday afternoon art: Amy Sillman at Camden Arts Centre

My few photos of Amy Sillman's show at Camden Arts Centre (till 6 January) first appeared on instagram. In a spirit of what we used to think of as laziness but can now rename "cross-platform continuity", I'm simply copying over what I posted there.

Rebus for Camden, 2107-18; acrylic, ink, gouache and silkscreen
works on paper; dimensions variable (details below)

Amy Sillman at #camdenartscentre, is using the "outmoded forms" of #painting, #printing, #drawing as "a commentary on painting itself as a form of communication". So - processes and composition, rather than thematic meaning? The depth and scope of the work ranges from the political and social to the emotional and psychological, says the #exhibition leaflet. 

SK35-38, 2017; acrylic, ink, and silkscreen on paper, framed; 102x66cm each

My selection of images ignores the large, layered canvases in favour of the big sheets of paper, variously grouped, and some closeups of the complex layering that is possible on paper but possibly less effective on cloth (which is what canvas is, after all). 

Two videos and some of her zines are also part of the exhibition. 

For me, a visit to the cafe is part of the experience: lovely marble cake (image not available). 

And, on my walk home, this lovely street scene of Sunday afternoon in the lower reaches of Hampstead.... ah, "village London"...

I very nearly bought a raincoat in the shop on the corner, then walked down that road, past Keats House and, round another corner, via Daunt Books, across the lower reaches of the Heath - the air very clear and the shadows very long, it was about 5pm by then - to Gospel Oak to catch the train. Home.

Another Sunday, blessed by sunshine. Soon it will be November - "No sun, no moon, no morn, no noon" oh dear, so very gloomy! 

Studio Saturday - out of the kiln

In between my weekend in Wales, wretched cold, and dashing off to France for a few days, I could get to the studio just once, driven by curiosity about what had come out of the kiln....

19 complete survivors, out of 29. I did the head count but didn't examine them closely - took some more photos and went home to restock on kleenex-in-pockets and get caught up with a bit of sleep.

On the left - okay; back right - complete disaster; front right - little bits of rim missing.

There was a suggestion that I could make a funerary urn for the ones that didn't work - layers of shards....

Same pots, different view -

 And some closeups, which I've been turning over in my mind, thinking of what to do more or less of (or abandon) -

 Still unfired are a couple of dozen of little pots - and this big one, which stretched and stretched ... but has an unfortunate hole where the base and pleats didn't join up. Couldn't see what was going on there... sometimes it's a stab in the dark -