A Celebration of Creativity
Blondduoskirja church by the Icelandic architect Dr Maggi Jonsson, built to resemble an erupting volcano. The photograph is by Sinziana Velicescu a Los Angeles based photographer. You can see more of her work here
Born in England in 1941, David Garland grew up in New Zealand. In 1961 he returned and trained at the London College of Printing. Later, he taught there, and at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, as a senior lecturer.
He was also working as an artist. His first one-man exhibition of paintings was at the Drian Galleries in 1963.
in 1972 he was taught to make pots by the potter Jonathan Atkinson, and set up a small pottery in Oxford. IN 1975 he moved with his family to the Gloucestershire Cotswolds, where he built painting and pottery studios and a large wood-fired kiln.
At present he makes slipware, painted with oxides – cobalt, manganese, copper and iron, fired in an electric kiln. He sells mainly from the studio. and commissions from interior designers and private clients.
You can view more work here
‘The characteristics of Chadwick’s sculpture, form, stance, line and attitude, are arrived at through his method of work. Like the first pencil strokes of a drawing on blank paper, the main strusts are welded together forming nodes at their intersection. Part structure, part delineation of shape and texture, these rods thrust in and out of planes weaving a skeleton which will describe the form. His armatures are exoskeletons: “they’re like crabs”, he says, “they’ve got their bones on the outside.” With the whole sculpture formed in his mind’s eye, he fills in the drame with a skin-like textured surface of a compound called ‘stolit’, a micture of iron fillings and plaster.’
Extract taken from introduction by Rungwe Kingdon, ‘Coming from the Dark’ exhibition catalogue, 2003.
Watch a video of his work here
We acknowledge the character of each project by fusing the driven forces of geography and local materials together with the building’s history and its inhabitants’ needs and desires. You can see more of their work here
I go down to the edge of the sea.
How everything shines in the morning light!
The cusp of the whelk,
the broken cupboard of the clam,
the opened, blue mussels,
moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred—
and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,
dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone.
It’s like a schoolhouse
of little words,
thousands of words.
First you figure out what each one means by itself,
the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop
full of moonlight.
Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.
Image of the sculptor Antony Gormley and poetry by Mary Oliver
I do love a balcony and a concrete one is right up there. Build, found on the CAN architects instagram account. The photograph was taken by the Italian designer Ettore Sottsass in India. You can check out CAN’s account here
Such an inspiration and a great loss.
Words via the Lantic Gallery, Devon.
John Maltby has been working in clay for over 50 years. He was born in 1936 and today is one of Britain’s most respected and collected sculptors. The artist studied sculpture at Leicester and Goldsmith’s College, before working with David Leach at Bovey Tracey, whose imagination and philosophy had a profound impression on him. In 1964 John set up his own workshop in Devon.
Having trained with David Leach in the Anglo-Oriental tradition the artist realised on reflection that he had little identification and interest with the great ceramic traditions of China, Japan and the East and was more familiar and excited by Western Artists – Picasso, Klee, Moore, Nicholson and Wallis. Maltby’s work has gone through several distinct stylistic periods taking him away from functional pots towards the making of more individual sculptural pieces.
Maltby has received numerous awards for his work. He is a member of the Craftsmen Potters Association of Great Britain and the British Crafts Centre and is an adviser to the Leach Archive at the Holbourne Museum in Bath.
The artist’s work is widely represented in a number of public collections including the V&A in London and others in Edinburgh, Aberystwyth, Belfast, Exeter, Leicester, Italy and Germany. He has exhibited widely in the UK, Europe and USA.
Of his recent sculptural work Maltby says “the flexibility of idea and image can be explored more freely. Constraints of function are no longer present and I feel newly liberated from some of the limitations of the ceramic tradition; but I hope that those skills of the ‘Leach’ tradition (so hard won!) can be assimilated into and contribute to the vitality of the work”.
The subject matter of much of Maltby’s work is inspired by the English tradition; our landscape and our weather, our myths and legends with figures of kings and queens and family groups appearing most often.
‘The figures themselves – mostly queens, kings and angels, seem to represent a pure and ideal world and radiate great dignity….They are imbued with a cautious love of life’ – This makes Maltby’s art timeless, deeply human and at the same time comforting.
The central theme I explore in my creative process and works is the idea of control, both in the physical world around us and within our own consciousness. I am fascinated by the physical means of control we encounter such as locks, ladders, gates, access hatches, and defensive structures. I am also deeply interested in the overt and covert influence of the unseen structures and systems of everyday existence that modify our experiential reality such as storm drains, sewers, utility maintenance areas, steam tunnels, and industrial facilities. My work is also inspired by the textures and forms of the natural world and the geological structures and surfaces that occur. I am drawn to subtleties found in such hard and unforgiving materials and landscapes, as well as humanities impact and efforts to control and extract these precious and desirable materials. I draw inspiration from the historical techniques of excavation, rock blasting, and tunneling, and from this I strive to find the beauty and elegance in often overlooked remnant structures and surfaces. You can read more here
It felt right to finish the year with a sculpture. The slow meditative process of coiling is a comfort and a return to the familiar.
At first, the material, preferred 750 yellow gold, silver white and blackened out, and 750 palladium white gold, is being breathed life into by incorporating the unmistakable, skin alike surface.
Right after it is being formed into an interessant three-dimensionality, material and shape are staged by light and shadows.
In the end, the surface will turn fine gold alike or oxidized by using a special procedure.
When it’s done, the beholder is invited to explore and the wearer is decorated as a person with style and personality.
/ Alexandra Brachtendorf – You can see more of her work here
“By their own weight and presence, Lowe’s sculptures oblige us to consider the strength of the floor or the wall that supports them, the space that surrounds them and the fall of light through windows and doors which facilitate our experience of them” Eric Moody – You can see more of his work here
What a wonder of a build by Xpiral Arquitectura – headed up by Javier Pena Galiano. It is intelligence having fun. You can see more of their radical architecture here
Beautiful Creative Minds 