I have been home from England for just about two weeks now and life is returning to normal. My nine days over there were memorable and important for me. We gave Bill a fine Church of England send-off with thoughtful eulogies and sermon, moving hymns and music. I now have a greater appreciation of what a kind and learned man he was.
When I first arrived over there my younger brother John and his wife Helga were still there, having left their Berlin home to spend time with Bill in his final days and now waiting for the funeral. We met up at our remaining sister Mary and husband John’s house in Hampshire where I took the chance to get over jet lag, and share memories of Bill. Some of you will already have seen a little album of photos of a gentle Winter walk I took in the nearby fields. If you are interested in English deciduous trees take a look:
https://picasaweb.google.com/112208740085943894765/HampshireRambleNovember2015
Then John and Helga drove me up to St Neots where we stayed with Bill’s widow Lottie and joined her, many friends, parishioners and family for the funeral service the next day. That evening several friends and family members drove over to Cambridge where Bill’s sons Richard and Michael had booked a room at Corpus Christi College for a further little gathering.
It was a great pleasure for me to see that Primavera Gallery, right nearby, had arranged half a dozen of my jugbirds in their window so I was able to point them out to fellow guests!
We stayed at the Varsity Hotel there that night and the next morning I popped in to visit Jeremy and his staff at Primavera. So today’s blog will show my work as it appears there, along with work by some of the other artists who were featured at ‘Innovations in Ceramic Art’ in October.
While I was there a happy customer told me that she had just purchased my Green Woodpecker jugbird for her husband’s whisky and water!
Jeremy is hoping that I’ll make some more work to bring on my next trip – perhaps Martin Brothers-type vases or lidded jars. Something to think about.
My next blog will show other fantastic ceramic work in Primavera.
My final full day was spent in London where I took myself off to the Royal Academy to see Edmund de Waal’s installation in the library there, and over to the Victoria and Albert Museum where I immersed myself in the twentieth century ceramics galleries. Photos soon.
Since then my days have been filled with preparing slab plates for a Christmas ‘Raid’ which took place today, making 75 tiles for a January paint-in and, with Alan, spending a couple of Mondays entertaining our toddler grandson Caleb. Pottery for galleries in this busy season? Not this year. The ones I delivered to Eclectic and Alcheringa in Victoria and to Circle Craft and Gallery of BC Ceramics on Granville Island before I left will have to suffice.
