Lighting up your way

Electrician Kenny McBride fitting a sensor for the lights

This week we've been continuing the gallery improvements. Kenny McBride has been fitting new lighting in the back two exhibiting spaces. This means we can dispense of our huge 100w bulbs and go some way to reducing our carbon footprint. With this in mind we have fitted sensors to most of the lighting in the gallery. With five exhibiting spaces, even when the gallery is quite busy, customers are rarely in all the spaces at once... the sensors will mean that the lights only come on as people move into the rooms, very good for the environment, and we hope these changes will make economical sense too!

So, next time you visit the gallery the lights will come on as you make your way round the spaces.

Scraffito and Slip

'Birdie' by Hannah McAndrew

I had such an enjoyable afternoon today. Slipware potter Hannah McAndrew very generously let me have a go at decorating a couple of pots at her Barm Pottery. I wasn't sure what I wanted to put on the pots - I just wanted to have a go at decorating.

I loved the rhythm of of the mark making and the 'quiet mind' you get when you are totally absorbed in the process. I decorated one vase with slip patterns and made use of a few happy accidents when the slip nozzle 'burped' a couple of times.

On the second vase I did some scraffito red squirrels on a branch, inspired by the news that my cousin Amy has just got a job saving the diminishing Red Squirrel population in the North of England. Scraffito is a delicious process where you scrape though semi dry slip into the pot below. The design evolved from one squirrel, to three on a branch. I didn't want to stop and felt a bit sad when I realised the pot couldn't take any more decorating.

Thank you very much Hannah for letting me come round and spend such an enjoyable afternoon in your lovely pottery.

Z

What's to come...

Things are very busy in the gallery at the moment: we are in the throws of organising a big Printmakers' Exhibition which will open on March the 8th. The exhibition will be a wonderful celebration of original Printmaking in the UK. I am very excited about the work we have for the show and can't wait to see it all hung together. The graphic above is from the front page of our Private View cards and features some of the artists who will be exhibiting.

I am also working on a brand new web site which will offer online shopping and lots of information about the artists we represent.

Now you can see why the Blog has been a bit quiet over the past few days! There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. I have still had time to enjoy frosty walks with my dog Beano, the winter landscapes round here are spectacular.