This would seem to be such a marvellous time to take advantage of my pottery studio and be wildly creative, but like some other artists, I’m finding that the quieter and slower pace of isolated life hasn’t been inspiring so far. I’m allowing myself to be distracted by the ever-delightful Spring flowers in our garden and by phone-calls, social media and cooking. Sound familiar? Plus, the galleries and shows are all closed and cancelled. I do feel sorry for my fellow potters who need to pay studio rent.

But having two grandsons here for a day (when their older brother was still in school) at the end of February left me with little sculptures and some wheel-thrown pots (I made at their requests) to finish. Nudged by regular requests for the pieces to be fired I had an incentive to get to work. Al and I delivered them to be painted with underglazes and I slowly finished some jugbirds and made a few plates to justify firing the kiln. Finally, yesterday, after the painted pieces were brought back here a week ago, I have had bisque and glaze firings. Two whole months to get new work! I spent March recovering from that awful pre-Covid cough ‘flu and in April have done busy work in my studio like mixing up a new batch of terra sigillata and replenishing my slips and I have made a start on new new mug forms.

I had seven jugbirds in this firing, five are versions of my standard fellows and two non-specific birds are painted with colours I selected that day for fun. After I posted a photo essay on how I make jugbirds on facebook Clay Buddies I had a request for a Red Cardinal. So happily that one is now on a flight to St Louis, which coincidentally is where we first spotted those beautiful red birds. Fond memory, Vanya and Clare..

There is now a little flock of jugbirds here, so if your plan was to own a loopy gravy or milk jug one day do get in touch. I can mail or have a distant pick-up here.

My experiments with paper resist are only somewhat successful. I find the Spring colour one too busy and think the blue in the Summer colour one to be a better final slip cover. I was more comfortable painting greens in stripes on another, and random shapes on a little dish. Opinions welcomed.

Then there were the children’s pieces in this glaze firing. I’ll post some of them here for their enjoyment. I’m including coil pots made by parents Steve and Jen. They’re happy! I look forward to allowing the boys to play in my studio again but am afraid to imagine how long it will be until that can happen. Their parents aren’t keen to put up with the mess at their home, and I don’t even suggest they use red clay!

One encouraging surprise in this last week was the presentation of a piece of my work at last Tuesday’s online City Council meeting. Because we aspire to be a ‘City of the Arts’ a piece of locally-created Art is shown at the meeting, along with some information about the work and the artist. As isolation prevents an actual delivery of work and an appearance of said artist, my piece was discussed by Councillor Zoe Royer (an artist herself). The Pope’s Hat plate was purchased by the City 22 years ago and resides in a display case in City Hall. I was pleased and honoured for that piece from the past to have a new life. It was stupidly exciting to have over 80 ‘likes’ and complimentary comments on a facebook posting about this. Just maybe I’ll fish out that wheel-thrown mould once more…

Here is the text that Councillor Royer read:

April 28, 2020

Gillian McMillan | St. George Street 
Tonight we are featuring another work of art from the City’s private collection. The 3D piece is by local artist Gillian McMillan and is titled St. George Street.

It is a ‘Pope’s Hat plate’, a wide-rimmed platter with a traditional Italian shape, in maiolica, a fine earthenware with coloured decoration on an opaque white tin glaze usually featuring istoriato, decorated with animals, flowers or other designs that have a narrative or symbolic purpose. Gillian’s earthenware version is painted with her coloured slips and is clear-glazed. Three of the houses in this imaginary cul-de-sac are within a block of her home and the fourth is actually her own house (the ochre yellow one) on St. George Street.

The Port Moody Arts Centre opened its doors in 1996 and Gillian was there for 3 years as one of two ceramic Artists-in-Residence, and she also helped establish the ceramics department. It was also during this time that the St. George Street plate was created, and then displayed at a solo exhibition. Former Councillor Ann Hulbert attended the opening and decided it should have a home in City Hall where is has been proudly on display since then.

Gillian is still busy creating pieces in her home studio and is an active and founding member of the Tri-City Potters.