‘Life in the Time of Covid’ was Alan’s suggestion as a title for my newest Pope’s Hat Plate. I think it works nicely for how our days have passed since lock-down due to Covid 19 almost three months ago now. When the possibility of being told to stay at home for the forseeable future I felt fortunate in that we have a large house for two of us, we each have our own study or studio and there’s a large garden for a change of scene. Spring was coming..

During May I worked on a selection of plates, cups and mugs before deciding to make a piece that might deal with the sometimes worrying and lonely but mostly perfectly bearable life under the new circumstances. After playing with patterns and abstraction on some plates I felt that it would be better to just draw things that occupy my mind these days… pottery of course, watching birds, gardening, drinking tea, while husband enjoys reading on a lawn chair when the sun shines.

I have a large wheel-thrown bisqued mould for making pope’s hat plates… no Peter F, I can’t throw such a large plate any more! .. so I slumped a large rolled slab of my red earthenware clay into said mould and trimmed the edge. When it had firmed up (covered in plastic) for two days I flipped the slab onto a large round batt, centred it on my wheel and threw a foot onto it. Back in the mould I left foot and plate to marry for another day before tackling the painting.

I chose to think of myself standing at the kitchen window looking out at the world passing quietly by, beyond our fence. It’s the first time I’ve attempted a self portrait for many years and I think it turned out OK as you’ll see in the first close-up of my painting, but in the finished piece the colours are rather vivid. That’s my only bother with the piece.

Otherwise, there’s Alan, reading as always, our fine old Arts and Crafts house (built 1914, we shall have lived in it for 50 years next March!), one of my salt-fired vases containing flowers from my now-colourful garden, a terra cotta teapot of mine ready for 5pm, one of my favourite local Pileated Woodpeckers, the rambly garden and most importantly, the fence, symbolizing our trapped selves. I’m somewhat embarrassed to have made a rather literal depiction of our situation but it does mark a strange episode in our lives.

One day when we can gather in Art Galleries again perhaps we might organize an exhibition of Art made during and as a result of this disturbing dangerous time.

Incidentally, just on the weekend that I consigned the Pope’s Hat plate to its bisque firing Alan and I celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary. Perhaps this is the right moment to include a photo of the ‘bubble’ we allowed ourselves for the occasion. It was marvellous to have a family dinner with all of us, in Pitt Meadows. We had isolated ourselves for weeks beforehand.