Thursday, March 19, 2009

Translation

I was still inspired yesterday when I was working in the studio by Bellini and his beautiful painting of Madonna and Child.
I wanted to see how the image from my sketch book would translate into clay.
Here is the final result.



This is a Bellini Painting that is as close as I could find to the one I sketched in London. I could not find the exact painting but this one is almost there.























Here is my drawing.















And finally the clay translation.























Update:
Out of the kiln this morning, the plate glazed.
















Sunday, March 15, 2009

Drawing from the sketch book.....

Here are some drawings I did in London when I found myself without clay.....




These two are from the Picasso exhibit.
The left is Girl in a Chemise
The right is Ferndrid? in a Black Mantilla. ( sorry I can't read my writing about who this sweet lady is. I will look it up later.)








This was a portrait of Olga as a Giantess/ Roman Goddess.
Seated woman 1920
















A painting by Bellini
Madonna and Child

















On the airplane home I did my own version of Hans Holbein the Younger's
A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling




















And I also did a preliminary sketch for a series of paintings I am thinking of about animals that are going extinct or already are extinct.
This little fellow is the dusky seaside sparrow. The image came from my National Geographic via Florida Natural History Museum, Florida State University.
I see him in his natural colors with a red/ gold back ground.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

We are back....

with news and pictures from London.

I have so much to post I don't know where to start.
Maybe I should start with visiting with Ms. Linda in London and in her hometown Wellingborough.
We were so excited to meet Linda. I think we have been blog friends for at least a year probably a lot more. We have blogged, emailed, and skyped, having a great time sharing art and clay. So, you can imagine how thrilled we were to actually see her in person. (Check out her blog for another account of our visit.)

When we met in Trafalger Square we went in the National Gallery to see the Picasso exhibit. Linda brought her niece Mariah with her to London and she was the sweetest teenager( yes, I realize this is a conundrum usually). She was so polite and just super nice to have with us!

Well, needless to say the Picasso exhibit was amazing.
It was a great exhibition representing the differences and vastness of Picasso's work.
I especially loved the portraits of Olga and the images of what I call the Giantesses (here is one example though this one was not in the exhibition).....
The show displayed some images there (which is normal with Picasso, the most prolific artist in history) that I had never seen before. I was in love. If Linda had not been there I would have swooned....really....

After we pulled ourselves away from the glory of Mr. P, we met Will in the square next to the fountain. By this time the weather sprites had decided that we had been lucky enough with good weather and decided to rain down in sheets upon our heads. We quickly ducked into an Italian restaurant near the square and settled down for some pizza. After a filling lunch we were ready to explore.
Will had work to do so he took off back to S. Kensington.



















The three of us decided to do some sightseeing starting with Big Ben, then the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, and finally the Natural History museum....WHEW! We were tired after all that running around so Ms. Linda bought us some cappuccinos and we sat at a little cafe resting before the two of them took off for the day.




Here is Linda and Mariah in front of a sculpture across from Buckingham Palace.















The very next day I took the subway (the tube in English speak) to St. Pancras/ King's Cross Station and caught a train to Wellingborough.

Linda and her sister and nephew picked me up at the station. We all got in Linda's cute purplish blue car and drove to her sister's house where she made us toasties (grilled cheesy sandwiches) yum!

After lunch we went to feed the swans. Oh my! there we a bunch of them! They saw us coming and swarmed us or should I say swaned us....Okay, okay, I know that was a bad one...
Here are some pictures of the swarm of swans. You wouldn't believe how big these guys were. Loved IT!!!!



































we visited the local park where there were many beautiful paths and woods. Linda asked me if there was a difference between our parks here in NC and there in Wellingborough. There really were mostly similarities though I noticed a green moss, a thin filmy moss that covered almost every surface of the bottom area of the trees and some branches. It lent the air this surreal quality reminding me of fairy tales and fairies, sprites and green men.


After the park we went to Linda's house to play with clay. First she showed me her polar bear that she has been working on. He is amazing and so well made. And he is quite big, very much a polar bear from top to bottom.... ( hey Linda, don't forget to measure the kiln for Mr. Bear...) I made a bunny and Linda's nephew made the cutest snowman.
Here is Linda and her sweet nephew.













After stopping to get real English chips (really potatoey french fries) and eating them greedily in the car, we went to Linda's class. We had the most fun! Everyone was so welcoming and nice and they were making some really wonderful work. I got to see Linda's swan named appropriately...Swany. He was beautiful and so light. Can't wait to see him glazed.

Her tutor (teacher) was incredibly generous with his class time and his supplies. He made me feel completely at ease and I did a short demonstration and talk on scraffito. I was nervous at first but everyone made me feel very welcome. I think it went well and I hope that I passed a little scraffito on to more clay artists.

At the end of the day we rushed back to the train station and said goodbyes. It was sad to go but I think I will be able to go back next year....hopefully with Miss Queeny and her mom.

Whew! more news from London tomorrow.


One sketch book drawing from the Picasso exhibit:
This was a drawing from a portrait of Olga from 1923.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

London Calling


We are off to London!
I can't wait to get there. It is my favorite city in the world.....but I haven't really seen that many so I am a little biased.
While I am there I am going to visit Un D at Rediscovering Arr and play with clay. That is going to be the highlight of the trip. Meeting a fellow blogger from a different country! Wow!

But before we leave, here are the mushies in the new home. They are housed on the window sill of Urban Artware, the most awesomest gallery in the area. And in front of the window is the famous Ms. Millicent herself posing in the noonday sun.
I can't wait to see how fast the mushrooms find new homes. They all have tags explaining that they are Guerilla Art and have the address for Grrl+dog's blog.
Go Guerilla's Go!
Have a great creative week......be back soon.