Alan and I stayed with my cousin Gordon and his wife Eileen in Derbyshire for two days. On Monday October 4th, a lovely Autumn day, they drove us through the countryside over to Stoke-on-Trent, about an hour away. This pottery factory town used to be a dreadfully dirty industrial place where all the kilns burned coal. But since 1965 when the clean-air act was enacted…
Here are some more photos from the V & A Museum, taken the next day, October 2nd, when Al accompanied me there. We had spent the morning at the ever-popular Portobello Road Antique Market. There still wasn't time to see all the Ceramics, let alone any other part of this great museum. Today's photos show shelves of English salt-glazed wine bottles, oodles of Iznik ware…
For several years the huge ceramics collection at London's Victoria & Albert Museum was not available to the public. I remember a huge, block-long series of rooms each featuring Korean, Italian, English collections - any ceramic tradition you can imagine. At last these galleries are reopened and the display has been entirely reorganized. The museum is free and not-to-be-missed! A month ago I was happy…
There are six more days to catch the current show at Port Moody Arts Centre's 3D Gallery. Debra Sloan and Marcia Pitch are presenting a show called 'Midnight in the Nursery'. Marcia's work uses stuffed toys, some of them turned inside out, and other childhood paraphernalia in considered, surprising assemblages. Debra's work is what drew me to my local gallery. I am used to seeing…
It's time to reactivate my blog. Al and I have been travelling for a month and are finding that the jetlag won't go away! We were in England for 11 days and the rest of the time in Turkey. I'd like to post images that I find inspirational - lovely Isnik tiles and fabulous pots in the V & A. For today I'll just post…