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Category Archives: ceramics

Plaits, Poppies and The Summer Exhibition

I love being able to plait hair again! When LiveWire T’s Mum was little she used to insist on an odd number of plaits and each one had to have a different coloured ribbon – sometimes seven plaits and all the colours of the rainbow.

On the way to school this morning we spotted pansies in a front garden.Today’s feast of art was at The Royal Academy for The Summer Exhibition. Here are some of our favourites.

By Bob and Roberta Smith

Poupee Bleue by Abdoulaye Konate

Untitled Throne, decommissioned arms by Gonçalo Mabunda

Bob and Roberta Smith

Alter Ego – two silver plated objects, one flattened by a 250 ton press, hanging on threads. Cornelia ParkerDetail from Swell by Sara Dodd. So delicate and made of porcelain, looking like sheets of filo pastry.

This was our absolute favourite, bronze and aluminium, called Silent Journey by Ann Christopher.

I could keep posting for ever tonight!

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 20, 2017 in art, Beauty, ceramics, flowers, Grandchildren, painting, Photography, postaday2017, sculpture, Uncategorized

Tags: Bob and Roberta Smith, Cornelia Parker, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Sara Dodd

Roses, Leaves and Sweet Potato Salad

17 Jun

What a scorcher, as they say! We don’t get heat quite like London heat in the far South West of the U.K where we live. We have melted the day away here! We all found respite in the coolth of the park where the children played, we all enjoyed ice creams and I enjoyed the scent of the roses and the sunlight through the Copper Beech leaves.

Supper was roast chicken and a delicious mix of salads including Sweet Potato Salad presented beautifully in one of Nicky Stephenson’s gorgeous pots.

Meeting Welly-Dog, In the Bath and Preview

26 May

We have had another fleeting and very lovely visit from Daughter No 3 and family en route back from the Scilly isles where they had a brilliant holiday. LiveWire no 4 loves our garden, can name lots of flowers including Three Cornered Leek and enjoyed chatting to Welly-Dog.

Later, after they had gone, I discovered some of the bath toys abandoned after her bath this morning.

This evening we went to the Preview of an Open Studio show by our lovely friend, Nicky. Beautiful work and lots of red spots already!

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 26, 2017 in art, Beauty, ceramics, garden, Grandchildren, Happiness, Photography, sculpture

Tags: David Kemp, Tinners' Hound

Ancient Angels, Tapestries and A Gargoyle

17 Nov

Within walking distance of our hotel are some Angels dating from 1407 on the auberge of Nicolas Flamel, a philanthropist who provided lodging for the peasants who came from the countryside to plough the fields nearby. Thence to La Musee de Moyen Ages where the six most beautiful tapestries in the world are to be found telling the story of The Lady and the Unicorn. I can spend hours here! I am so moved by the work, the colours, the detail – if you ever get the chance to see them, please grab it! These date from about 1450 and although said to be faded are still glorious. The lighting does not lend itself to good photos. I love the expression on the face of this lion!

We made a delicious new discovery while in the Cluny, a tiny Chapel which wasn’t open when we first visited about 15 years ago. The stone work was incredible, the paintings delightful, the doorway to a spiral staircase quite enchanting and the Angels full of mischief!

After this most pleasing visit we went hunting Angels again. We found the Macaron Angels on a patisserie, mosaic Angels on a Church and a ceramic and stoneware Angel left over from the Exposition Universelle of 1889.

And perhaps the best saved until last – a wonderful gargoyle on the top of the Cluny Museum. Don’t you just love this monster? I do!

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 17, 2016 in architecture, art, Beauty, ceramics, History, Humour

Tags: Angels of Paris, France, Musee de Moyen Age, Paris, photography, postaday2016, Rosemary Flannery

Summer Exhibition, Accordion and Henna

01 Jul

The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy is always fascinating. This year two pieces touched my heart. The first is of a child weeping, actually called, ‘Silent Howler’ a sculpture in bronze by Laura Ford. The detail is beautiful, her cardigan, her socks, her hands, her stance. She reminded me of when we first moved to Cornwall when I was six and I lost my Mum. I was outside Littlewoods, crying and snotty. And eventually with my nose bleeding too! Such a beautiful piece

The second is a tiny piece of pottery from the Tsunami, called ‘Mending, Substitution, Consolidation, Coupling – Restoration of a Sake bottle collected in Watari-cho after the Tsunami by Aono Fumiaki.

We loved this by Bob and Roberta Smith too. It seems particularly apt for these troubled weeks.

Just outside East Finchley Station was an accordion player making the street sound like a street in Paris.
It was the Summer Fair at the Live Wires’ wonderfully multicultural school today and T had a henna pattern put on her hand.

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 1, 2016 in art, Beauty, ceramics, Postaday 2016, sculpture

Tags: #RASummer, #RoyalAcademy, Aono Fumiaki, Bob and Roberta Smith, Laura Ford

Boody Garden, Shed and Nettles

30 May

I have re-planted our Boody Garden for the summer with Marguerites and Lobelia, partly to match the blue and white china that is in there. In the dialect of 19th century Northumberland, ‘boody’ referred to broken china. I discovered this at Tate Britain couple of years ago when we went to the exhibition of folk art. Now I have a name for my little garden where my favourite broken pottery is saved. There is a beautiful old plate, part of a coffee cup which was the last of a set given to my Mum on her retirement from teaching deaf children at Roskear School in Camborne, a piece of terracotta from a much loved and used bread crock and handles from a beautiful piece of Jane Hamlyn pottery and I just love it, my ‘boody’ garden!

Every time I go to the garden shed I mean to take a photo of this beautiful door plate which was recovered from a house we lived in as children. It pleases me every time I open the shed door!

Antique painted finger plate

This afternoon, while clearing some of the weeds from the front garden I was stung by nettles and it reminded me of a Vernon Scannell poem. Just imagine his rage that his three year old has been hurt so much and picture him slashing and burning – and then thinking about the hurts that his child will feel as he grows up but there will be nothing that the poet will be able to do to help……….

My son aged three fell in the nettle bed.
‘Bed’ seemed a curious name for those green spears,
That regiment of spite behind the shed:
It was no place for rest. With sobs and tears
The boy came seeking comfort and I saw
White blisters beaded on his tender skin.
We soothed him till his pain was not so raw.
At last he offered us a watery grin,
And then I took my billhook, honed the blade
And went outside and slashed in fury with it
Till not a nettle in that fierce parade
Stood upright any more. And then I lit
A funeral pyre to burn the fallen dead,
But in two weeks the busy sun and rain
Had called up tall recruits behind the shed:
My son would often feel sharp wounds again.

by Vernon Scannell

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 30, 2016 in antiques, art, Beauty, ceramics, garden, nature, Photography, poetry, Postaday 2016

Tags: Antique painted finger plate, boody - Northumbrian dialect, Vernon Scannell

Three Lovely Plates

09 Nov

We inherited these three beautiful plates – the pretty orange tree one, commemorating the birth of a Dutch Princess, Julianna, from a Dutch Uncle on my other half’s side of the family, the Gwennap Church one from my folks who lived in Sunny Corner near Gwennap and the Susie Cooper one from my Granny.

Julianna born 30th April 1909

The bell tower stands away from the Church and is very unusual

Susie Cooper hors d’oeuvre dish

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 9, 2015 in art, Beauty, ceramics, photography, Postaday 2015

Tags: d'oranjeboom bloeit voort 30th April 1909, Gwennap Church, Susie Cooper

Newlyn Art Gallery, Heron and St Michael’s Mount

02 Oct

Other bloggers often ask, ‘What are you grateful for?’ Every day I am so grateful that we were able to come back to Cornwall, to enjoy the sea and the countryside. Today we went to Newlyn to the Art Gallery and for a walk along the front in bright Autumn sunshine. There was a bowl that I loved and a painting but almost the best thing was seeing the sky as we went up in the lift – magic!

Going up in the lift

Painting in the gallery

Beautiful bowl

A Sculpture dedicated to all fishermen

As we walked along Mr S spotted a Heron in the sea.

Heron in the sea

From the path and the gardens we could see St Michael’s Mount in the distance.

View of St Michael’s Mount from Newlyn

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 2, 2015 in Beauty, ceramics, nature, Newlyn, painting, photography, Postaday 2015, sculpture

Tags: heron, St Michael's Mount Cornwall

A Couple of Days in Los Angeles

16 Oct

Two glorious days of art! We spent the first day in the LA County Museum of Art with a quick visit to the Brea Tar Pits. Join us for a brief tour of delights and tomorrow come with us to the Craft and Folk Museum where we met two of the artists, Clare Graham and Danny Scheible.

La Gerbe by Henri Matisse, a ‘cut out’ in ceramics.
I loved the Standing Warrior, a Mexican sculpture from BC 200-300 AD.

Isn’t this painting by Mary Cassatt beautiful? I love the tenderness in the Mother’s face and the relaxed sleepy child.

This next piece fascinated me, such detail in the wood carving – Hollywood by Robert Witt Ames. Click on the photo and delight in all the humour and the detail.

We really enjoyed seeing so many school children in the gallery. Here some of them are sketching from David Hockney’s Mullholland Drive.

After lunch at the Gallery we walked to the nearby La Brea Tar Pits where natural asphalt has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years. Enlarge the photo to see the bubbles.

The outdoor sculpture garden was a haven of peace.

We finished the day with a Hollywood Cocktail and a walk back to our B&B, Cinema Suites, as the sun was setting.

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 16, 2014 in America, art, Beauty, California, ceramics, painting, photography, Postaday 2014, sculpture, travel

Tags: David Hockney, Henri Matisse, La Brea Tar Pits

Window Boxes, Wolf Hound and Mug

01 Jul

1 Truro’s hanging baskets and window boxes are looking splendid.

Truro’s window boxes

Hanging basket outside Charlotte’s Tea Rooms

2 We saw this magnificent Wolf Hound several times on our way around. He was greatly admired by many passers by.

Wolf Hound

Being admired

3 I’m sure you can see why I couldn’t resist buying this beautiful beaker by Laura Lee!

New piece of art by Laura Lee

If you have been following my blog, you will know that I have been very busy! I am sorry that I have not visited you all as much as usual and the next two weeks will be the same as my beloved older brother who lives in Munich is coming to stay. I haven’t seen him for three years! We are going to spend time photographing the beautiful county we grew up in – the coast and the buildings – and make a pilgrimage around all the places we lived – eight different addresses and two where Mum and Dad lived after we had all left home.