Urn painted

Urn

Took the bisque fired urn out of the kiln this evening. I will paint it tomorro.

I also painted a watercolour

The Pelican in her Piety

There was a belief in medieval times that that the pelican plucked at her own breast to feed her chicks on the blood that flowed. For no particular reason I made a big Pelican in her Piety vase. Its a bit based on a big wedgewood vase I saw in a lecture yesterday

In gereral I'm not enjoying ceramics as much as I thought I would . The breif has to be followed very tightly, I feel very reigned in. No room so far for imagination or fun !! Anyway I think my paper swan looks like my drawing and I think my clay bird looks like my paper one and i think thats all there is to it

and if they dont, so what, I've had enough of the stupid bird.

Paper swan done

I think iv discovered a difference between fine art and design. In fine art the brief is just a a phrase to spring board your imagination and intellectual pretensions. In design it needs to be followed to the letter. That makes sense as design is product and industry centered. So after letting rip for a couple of days I spent to day between the 45 orthodontic patients I saw making an accurate copy of the drawing I made for the bref .By the way the 2nd model the one with the long neck actually flies , Ive tested it.
 Bit up and down about art college. I like the opportunity to learn skills in a design course and the lack of intellectual pretension  but I dont want to do a "craft" course, we'll have to see, its all a bit crafty so far, eeerrrr!!!
 some people I liked from last year have dropped out , which is a pity , others are finding it hard to juggle life and art , i hope it all works out. I'm very busy at work and finding it extreamly stressfull at the moment, we will have to see , some pictures ...

  

One big and one little clay swan

I have nearly finished a full size version of the swan .It's very big well over a meter long. I hope to fire the sections separately , i want to paint a river scene on it with underglaze , glaze , then glue the whole thing together. I've taken the1/4 sive version out of the klin , it looks ok.

  

Paper swan flying

I made the paper swan fly around my house. I also made a quatere scale version in clay, it's in the klin at the moment I dont know if I like it. I have started making a fullsize version, I am making it in sections and plan to glue it together when fired. I've seen and american ceramicist called Beth Carver do this

Paper Swan landing on water

Today i finished the paper swan I started yesterday. It's almost life size, now to make a clay version , that should be fun!!

Bird Thing

Back at art college, made a bird thing out of paper, it's ok .

Were all doing animals , heard someone behind me scream "Fucking pig ", thought he was starting a fight till I saw his pig drawing was'nt going the way he wanted.anyway went to the pub tonight , I found the past 2 days hard cause i did a full days work after each of my days in college but talking to other mature students, a lot are working to put themselves through college and we're the lucky ones, people who are finding work hard to find and often also have family commitments are finding it very hard. It 's such a pity that people may not get a chance to reach their artistic potential cause the bankers fucked the country up . As against that ,i suppose it could be worse, no one is actually starving here and art is only art. No, thats harsh , I wish I could help people. I'd love all my friends to be secure , without worry and  able to grow artistically over the next 3 years safe in the knowledge that as long as they put in the work, an education was guaranteed , but  I know money worries are looming so high that creativity is being stifled. As i sayI'd love to help I've enough money to put other people through college but as a fellow student that would be weird, I think . But anyway , look at the mythical beasts which appeared in my beer froth after my first sip tonight , who said the old Gods have died.

Candelabra

I took the glazed canelabra out of the klin today, it's got a Maiolica look about it, I love it Also went down to the canal and painted

Dr Death

Took a photo of me holding the ceramic mask in front of my face, Julie said I should wear it to work, scare the patients , aaaaarg!!!

Pet Gods2

I,ve bisque fired and under glazed the pet god candelabra. I,ll probably glaze it tomorro I've glazed the self portrait. I want to use it with the skull