A Royal Visit

Artists and crafts people were among those invited on wednesday July 14th, to The Easterbrook Hall in Dumfries to a civic reception for HRH Queen Elizabeth and HRH Prince Philip. Natalie Vardey, jeweller and Chair of Spring Fling Open Studios and Hannah Mcandrew, potter were two of just seven people representing the creative industries. Natalie said that she was very honoured but felt a weight of responsibility to be representing the hundred members of Spring Fling Open Studios in such a small but significant group.

Pictured here at The Easterbrook Hall are Michael Lloyd - silversmith, Hannah McAndrew, Natalie Vardey and Anna Campbell - Depute Lord Lieutenant of The Stewartry.

Update from Adam Booth and Hannah McAndrew

Adam Booth and Hannah McAndrew, both winners in the 2010 Craft&Design Selected Awards. You can find them at studios 43 and 21 respectively at this years Spring Fling.

Update from Phil McMenemy - Studio 29

'Red Reflections'

'Fragment'

'Evening Stakes'

Rhiannon and I - Spring Fling photoshoot

Hello everyone, thanks for calling in on the Spring Fling blog

Well its now mid-May - how did that happen? The early part of the year seemed to rather drag its heels but the last couple of months have absolutely flown by.
Nerves and anxieties are now definitely in full-flow, though one hopes that all the year long work that we artists put in will see us in good shape for the SF weekend. My anxieties have been given a rather unexpected and troublesome boost with the recent news that the print company I use are on a fairly lengthy shut-down due to relocation! Yikes, all my planning out of the window for my printing needs. A few deep breaths and some hasty workings out mean that everything still should be OK for the big weekend. I do hope so.
I have been busy titivating one of our outdoor storerooms to convert into a small sales gallery which I hope visitors will come and view - its neither the Tate Modern nor the National Portrait Gallery buts its ours and I think 'in keeping' with the spirit of the Spring Fling Open Studios event.
This year has seen me co-opted onto the Spring Fling committee - what an eye-opener! The work of the committee and in particular Event Co-ordinator Rhiannon is mind-boggling in its volume and challenging diversity. I congratulate you all, its been good to help out in my own small way!
The event remains high on the local media agenda and I was again lucky enough to be invited to take part in a photo-shoot to highlight the Fling by the very readable DG Life Magazine, see image above.
I do hope people can take the trouble to come and visit this years event to acknowledge all the artists work, visit wonderful Dumfries and Galloway and most importantly to meet artists, view fabulous and diverse art work and have some fun!

Finally I would like to pass on my congratulations to two of our Spring Fling artists who have receieved national acknowledgements and accclaim for their brilliant, brilliant work - Adam Booth - Studio 43, Adam won the Gold award in the Wood and Metal section of the Craft & Design Magazine Selected Awards and Hannah McAndrew - Studio 21 who won Silver for her work in the Ceramics section of the same publication. Well done and congratulations to you both!!!

Regards
phil


You can find Phil McMenemy, Studio 29 at The Gallery at Laurieston, Laurieston or by visiting his website http://www.pmcphotography.co.uk/

This coming friday, the 27th November from 3pm till 7pm, saturday from 11am till 5pm and sunday from 10am till 5pm there is an exhibition and sale of work by three Spring Fling Open Studios Association members Phil McMenemy, photographer, Hannah McAndrew slipware potter and Amanda Simmons, glass artist. This will be held in Phil's gallery at Woodbank House, Laurieston, near Castle Douglas. Drinks and nibbles on the friday. All are welcome to visit and browse the work and chat to the artists and makers.

Jason Shackleton Studio 29

On thursday this week I was able to spend the day with Jason Shackleton, studio 29 on the Blue Route at his pottery in Laurieston for a glaze firing of his kiln. I spent about eighteen months working as an apprentice to Jason and have since been making my own pots from my own studio. The time I spent with Jason was invaluable and I still have an enormous amount to learn from him hence I was back there this week. This kiln is huge and holds a good eighteen months worth of Jason's highly decorated slipware and majolica pottery and takes him around three days to pack before the firing. It was built at a time when the pottery was employing a couple of other potters and at that time it was being fired between four and six times a year. This particular kiln was first fired on 13th May 1984 making it just 25 years since that initial firing.
Around three tons of wood are used over the 14 hour firing the flames from the wood licking over the pots in the chamber to give them their characteristic wood fired finish.


An eight foot long firebox on the kiln means that wood which arrives in eight foot long bundles need not be cut making one less job, saving lots of time and meaning that the wood doesn't need to be handled as many times during the process. The photo above is quite early on in the firing with the two lower fire boxes being gradually built up with a deep bed of embers before the top door is opened and wood is fed into the top section too.

Visitors over the Spring Fling weekend will be able to feast their eyes on Jason's fabulous display of pots and tile panels in the two display areas within the pottery as well as being able to enjoy Lucianne Lassalle's sculptures and the kiln shed and the orchard - remember to allow plenty of time to be able to take it all in.

The subject matters that Jason works with on his predominately functional pots have included the atomic bombs, space, an ongoing interest with predators and sea creatures which stems from spending time in the Bahamas as a child. He likes to take a simple idea and see how far he can run with it in a random direction saying that unless you can work in a progressive manner you get tired and then you get tired pots and it will show.

For example wouldn't supermarkets love it if fish grew in oblongs so that they would be ready to stack one of the results is in the photo above. Or the Boomerang Squid of course then you don't have to go out to try to catch them as they come straight back to you.

So a five day wait now for the kiln to cool and then the unloading can begin. All being well, the firing seemed to go very smoothly and according to schedule so fingers crossed it's a good one, the results will be there in their newly finished glory for all to see at the Spring Fling weekend. Pop along and see for yourself.

By Hannah McAndrew, Studio 50 Red Route.

Spring Fling at B.C.T.F

This week three of this year's Spring Fling participants are exhibiting at the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate. This show is open from the 5th to 7th April at the Great Yorkshire Showground and is open to trade buyers only and it represents "the best of British makers."
Natalie Vardey's (Studio 55 on the Red Route) beautiful, unique and collectable is on display along with new additions to her Spirit Level range made with silver and acrylic and designed to play on the interaction of light transference and reflections, some with moving parts and others with an illusion of movement.

Amanda Simmons (Studio 33 on the Purple Route) is exhibiting her kiln formed and engraved glass at the show. Her display shows a range of both wall based cameo pieces and large engraved bowls. Amanda's current work is influenced by the rhythms and patterns of her local landscape which she is translating through diamond point engraving, angle grinding and fibre paper into her glass.

Hannah McAndrew's (Studio 52 on the Red Route) slipware is also at the trade show where she is displaying her new Harlequin Range which she feels particularly emphasises the individuality of her work as each piece is treated to a slightly different surface pattern but because of the nature of her work the pieces will all still sit happily together as a family.

Visual Arts Scotland Exhibition in Edinburgh

We are pleased to announce that 9 of our Spring Fling Open Studio '09 artists were accepted for the Visual Arts Scotland Open Exhibition, held this year at the City Arts Centre in Edinburgh.

Hazel Campbell
John Chinnery
Nancy Chinnery
Bella Green
Lucianne Lassalle
Hannah McAndrew
Christine Milne
Jennifer Watt
Elizabeth Waugh

2009 Annual Visual Arts Scotland Open Exhibition of Visual and Applied Arts
City Arts Centre, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1DE
open 31st Jan to 19th March. Monday to Saturday 10-5 Sunday 12-5

http://www.visualartsscotland.org/

Hazel Campbell

Hazel has lived and worked in Galloway for most of her adult life, and through attendance at painting classes over a number of years she has developed her own vigorous style of painting. She has a loose, bold approach, working mainly in oil and gouache, using local Galloway countryside as a stimulus for landscape painting. Still life and flowers are also subjects, and like the landscapes, are being treated in an increasingly broad manner.

John and Nancy Chinnery

John and Nancy run Lynwood Carvers and Gilders, a traditional workshop based in Southern Scotland. Lynwood keep alive the traditional crafts of carving and gilding, producing beautiful pieces in much the same way they would have been made two centuries ago. They employ all the classical techniques to create fresh designs as well as more traditional pieces. Over the years they have worked on jobs for the House of Lords, Stirling Castle, Glamis Castle and other historic buildings, private commissions and the antique trade.

Bella Green

Bella’s main expressive element in painting is colour, it is her passion. She loves its emotive power to communicate all shades of feeling. She enjoys decoratively reorganising the facts of things seen through both still life subjects and landscape to make compositions freed from direct observation. She aims for balance and simplification of forms, unexpected juxtapositions of imagery and playful placement of shapes which may evoke visual narratives.

Recurrent themes are inside/outside; views through windows and doorways and tabletops with objects. such as vessels, flowers and articles with personal associations such as her tango dancing shoes. She likes to use different degrees of representation such as graphic elements contrasted with modeled forms, as well as multiple viewpoints to create visual tension. She works mainly in oils because of its richness and versatility but will use any medium which will suit her purpose.

Lucianne Lassalle

Lucianne will be showing at Spring Fling for the first time this year. She works directly from the figure with a variety of clays but mostly stoneware. "I build up the sculpture using clay slabs and modeling the clay as I go, sometimes I also use a mould of a previous piece to get the basic form. None of my work is from life casts it is all hand modeled I am interested in the craft of interpreting the figure in my own way not in copying it".
Lucianne is currently in the process of exploring new materials and making methods. The content of her work is changing too looking more deeply into human relationships, what does it mean to be human, responding to what’s going on at the moment in the socio/political/world arena.

Hannah McAndrew

"I love clay. I love the feel of it in my hands, wedging it into the correct consistency for the job I am about to do, the smooth fluidity of it on the wheel, the ease and satisfaction of turning a foot ring into a pot that is at just the right stage of leather hardness. I love the way my pouring slips stick to a leather hard pot and the way the excess runs off like cream while the trailing slips sink gently into the freshly applied base layer. I love the way my sgraffito tool runs cleanly through a layer of semi-dry white slip to reveal the deep red of the clay body underneath. I love the potential for creativity and the fact that the pots that I make can in turn be used to make and serve food and drink."


Christine Milne

Christine's landscapes shift evocatively between abstraction and observation, small jewels of half remembered light and form. Her work is represented in several collections, including the Scottish Academy, and the Italian Institute in Edinburgh.
The ferocity with which a storm wave explodes against an ancient but ever receding sea cliff. Myriad sparkling streams slowly exposing the skeletons of the mountains and joining to carve the valleys to the sea. Christine's paintings are created in much the same way as water creates our landscape,with its intricate patterns and textures, shared at every level, from mountain ranges to a pebble on a beach.

Jennifer Watt

Jennifers' work is mostly inspired by nature and is executed mainly in British hardwoods. Recently she has been working on a series called New Beginnings. They are all inspired by birth in its many forms, whether it is a chestnut opening to reveal its glossy inner shell, a seedling pushing through the ground or the birth of a baby child.
At the same time she continues to work on figurative pieces. "The interactive movement of the human form holds endless fascination for me as does the bond between mother and child and the tenderness that exists between them. These are my inspirations and aspirations."

Elizabeth Waugh

At 79, Elizabeth works with as much enthusiasm and energy as she ever has and still follows her great love and fascination of human and animal forms in her creative endeavours. She finds that her desires to experiment and further her creativity or to exhibit widely are not in any way marred by her age.
Elizabeth’s work, usually built in plaster and then cast in bronze or bronze resin in small scale strictly limited editions, is mainly figurative and includes both human nude and animal forms. Elizabeth was brought up and still lives in close contact with animals and aims to incorporate the diverse character; movement and general ‘feel’ of the different species from which she works.
She aims to produce sculpture, which is tactile in nature and is always pleased when she sees people touching her work.