Art in Action and a Bowl made by Phil Rogers

Yesterday two potter friends and I went to Art in Action at Waterperry Gardens, we arrived just before 10 and parked at the nearby airfield to use the park and ride facility.   How fortunate that we had arrived when we did, ten minutes later and we would have been delayed another 45 minutes as the buses struggled to get back to the airfield due to the traffic.  I was so pleased I had sacrificed fashion for practicality and worn old jeans tucked into my wellies.  I didn't feel out of place as we trudged through the rather wet pathways, the road up to the usual car park field looked like a river of mud.  Several of the exhibitors told us of the troubles they had experienced setting up on Wednesday, trying to get their wares on to the site.
So we didn't make a beeline for the ceramics marquee, we were very self controlled and managed to visit a few of the other marquees first, such as Calligraphy, Printmaking (lovely work by Laura Boswell), Sculpture and the Best of the Best (each exhibitor has one of their favourite pieces displayed here).  So finally we made it to the Ceramics marquee hooray, and what a feast for our eyes, I won't list all the exhibitors because you can look that up on the Art in Action website.  At the entrance were Tim Andrews with his fabulous raku fired items and Richard Godfrey's brightly coloured earthenware.  I should have been on commission at Tim's stall as I picked up a beautiful porcelain fluted cup with a perfect Celadon glaze and when I replaced it on the stand it was quickly snapped up and purchased by a lady standing next to me.

Tim Andrews raku fired form, don't know who that is hiding behind it.

In the Best of the Best tent we found some wonderful pieces:

Kevin Millward

Kevin Millward's porcelain bowl is an amazing example of perfect throwing, it is about 45 cm diamater and as light as a feather.  The bowl has distinct throwing rings and the shape has been altered.  This is probably my favourite piece in the whole exhib
ition.

Linda Bloomfield

Linda Bloomfield's delicate, thrown porcelain with a perfect satin matt glaze on the outside of her work and a coloured glaze on the inside, yummy.

Paul Jackson beautiful shaped jug with nude

Paul Jackson's jug is such a pleasing shape and it takes a while to realise it is also a canvas with a very well depicted nude.

James Oughtibridge

I didn't manage to frame the whole of James Outibridge's piece in the shot I was trying to get a view between the pots to see how the two separate pieces relate to each other.



Then onto the ceramics marquee, here is Phil Roger's stand

and Paul Jackson's

Then in the Practical Classes Tearcher's Exhibition Tent

Jennie Gilbert

Jennie Gilbert Bowl

A Week of Throwing with Richard Phethean

I am just recovering from a week of throwing, it was great fun but for some reason my calf muscles ache.  I spent last Monday to Friday at Richard Phethean's studio at Sibford School near Banbury, learning how to throw bigger, stronger, better pots.  It was great to have so much time in the presence of a renowned potter and he was so generous with his time and knowledge.  I feel much more confident about my throwing now.

Here are some pots I brought back with me they have been coated in white slip, either painted or dipped. The saucers and one bowl have some coloured slip decoration too. They will be biscuit fired and then a transparent glaze applied before the glaze firing. Some of them have suffered a bit in transport, the larger bowls have deformed slightly and some of the white slip has been smudged so they might not all make it into the kiln.

 Of course I couldn't come away without buying a some of Richard's work.

 


















I would highly recommend Richard's course to anyone who wants to improve their throwing skills.  There were nine of us there, all with different levels of ability and we all gained a lot from his tuition.

Richard is planning a move to Cornwall in the next couple of years so how about combining a holiday with a pottery course.  His website is here.