But first I’d like to mention some of the personal pottery events and finds from our recent holiday on Saltspring and Vancouver Islands.

After the successful getaway in August of 2020, during an endless Covid existence, when our family of nine spent five days at a remote AirBnB beyond Saltery Bay, up the Sunshine Coast, we decided that would be an annual tradition. Months ago we booked ourselves a large rustic farmhouse on Saltspring for another five days. The house was spacious, old, mysterious and comfortable and made a good home for a while. But it was in an unkempt garden (why on earth didn’t the landlord hire a lawn-mower to tackle the thistles, nettles and prickly blackberry bushes so that boys could race around outside?), and down gravel roads so we had to hop in vehicles to enjoy ice cream, the market and galleries in Ganges, and to get to a beach.  But the just-ripened blackberries and peaches were delicious!

Saltspring is a delightful island for a holiday and I am sorry not to have been able to visit some potters and more galleries. It has tempted me to go again.

Now we’re hoping to find a house or cabins for next year from where we can walk to the beach. Ideas welcomed!

After visiting the Saturday market some of us checked out ArtCraft in Mahon Hall. It’s a summer-long display of local arts and crafts, with weekly exhibitions on the hall’s stage. Here is work by Denys James.

Steve and Mike took the ferry from Vesuvius Harbour (the best beach for boys to float logs, find crabs and swim) on our last day and set out on their bikes to ride from Crofton, via Shawnigan Lake to Sooke and on to Schwarz Bay for the ferry back to Tsawwassen, with two nights guerilla camping. Well done sons! Jennifer took our three grandsons home from Long Harbour while Alan and I also ferried over to Crofton for some Vancouver Island days. We were tourists, and enjoyed visiting working towns: Crofton, Saltaire, Chemainus with its murals and ice cream! and stayed in Nanaimo for one night.

Next morning my request was to see Nanaimo Art Gallery for the first time, especially as the current show is ‘We Do Not Work Alone’ (my previous blog), a totally ceramics show. As Alan checked bookstores I happened on some jolly paintings by Grant Leier  which feature patterns, bright colours and birds!

Braving dreadfully hot weather and some smoke from inland forest fires we trundled south, stopping in Ladysmith for a bite of lunch and to visit Mary Fox’s studio for the first time. She has a fine gallery and workshop, with a splendid Blauw kiln in her old studio space. Now we are hearing of a large fire near there and hope it and all the current fires will be extinguished soon.

Our destination that day was the home of long-time friends Robert and Jennifer in Duncan. Serious smoke kept us indoors for a day but that allowed for relaxation and conversation, so welcome after a year and a half of not having personal connections. Plus they like pots! It was fun to study some and reacquaint myself with my salty ones and a couple of earthenware pieces that I’d forgotten they had.

We ended our island days for this trip, in Victoria, with more friends Denis and Kim. They had kindly rescued my remaining pots from Oak Bay Avenue’s Eclectic Gallery last summer when Covid caused its closure. In return I had told them to select a piece for themselves.  I had also brought along another jugbird Denis had scooped up from a facebook posting so now there is a high shelf of my pots in their living room.

Now we’ve been home for a week, the skies are clear here in the Lower Mainland and it’s cooler after some rain, and the desperate garden beckons. But so does the studio. It was nice to unpack the Eclectic pots and now I have a few more bowls, plates and jugbirds on hand. I made some more slab plates with the hope that I can invite ‘Raiders’ to come here for a day of plate painting once more, and I need to finish any earthenware pieces and prepare to switch to stoneware for an October soda firing.

The NorthWest Ceramic Foundation have been working hard to organize an event for September 30th. With Delta variant Covid cases on the rise it’s hard to know what we can safely plan. But with optimism we have collected auction donations  and plates for attendees, CBC’s Sheryl MacKay will be our host and we wait to hear the winner of the NWCF MW Award. It was a happy surprise to find that my soda-fired jugbird is gracing the invitation. Watch for further news on tickets and for Zoom attendance at the auction and Gala presentations, on facebook and Instagram in early September.

I am honoured to have been juried in shortly after my graduation from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (as it was then) and although my production is not the volume that it was I value the privilege of having my jugbirds displayed and sold alongside some amazing work.

The two photographs with this little entry are of work by clay artists Mary Fox and Judy Burke, both of whom make masses of utterly practical and beautiful functional ware but who also take the time to work on large impressive sculptures.

Congratulations Circle Craft on your first 40 years!

http://stewartstephenson.com

Mary had to wait a while before starting her presentation as we needed to make sure members had all the information about the opening of our ‘Various Vases’ show at Deer Lake Art Gallery on Saturday. More about that next blog..

After grabbing coffee we were treated to a Power Point Presentation of images covering Mary’s career in clay since the seventies. Her distinctive forms with their layered, crawled surfaces are well-known but she explained that she enjoys equally the relaxation of throwing her line of functional ware.

The presentation ended with her more time and kiln-space consuming sculptures. Mary took great pains to explain the process she’s developed and gave lots of ideas about finding one’s own particular style.

She is not shy about promoting her work and it is clear that her customers are passionate collectors. Her gallery and studio are open to the public almost all the time. I think there is a lot to be learnt from Mary about self-confidence and single-minded pursuit of one’s passion.

My photos are of her ‘slides’ so are not the best quality. I’ll add the link below to her website so that you can see more.

http://www.maryfoxpottery.ca