“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris 1834-1896
Keith and Celia Rice-Jones are fervent believers in this statement by William Morris. At an Artist Talk on Thursday June 13th Keith showed us photos depicting their journeys in clay and specifically their home and studio. Every part of their garden and house has been carefully considered, with Celia being given credit for the well-tended garden. Hand-made furniture, tiles and pottery fill their home, with framed artwork carefully placed wherever there is a space.
Celia is the production potter, making everything you might need for preparing and serving food, from teapots to baking dishes, goblets and mugs. Keith came to clay with a background in carpentry and his sculptures and robust functional ware demonstrate that fine craftsmanship connection.
Recently Port Moody’s gallery manager Janice Cotter visited the Rice-Jones pair in their Burnaby-almost New Westminster home and gleefully selected all the pieces which are currently on show in the Port Moody Arts Centre’s Kitching Gallery. My fourth photo shows Janice introducing Keith and Celia at the opening of their show, ‘Clay Compulsion’, and of the concurrent show of work by the Greater Vancouver Wood-turners Guild, ‘The Art of Wood’. The shows opened on June 6th and will be up until July 11th.
The related free Artist Talk ‘The Art of Home’, a week later, was very well attended and afterwards Celia and Keith led a tour of their joint show, answering questions and explaining their various techniques for fabricating the pieces.
Visitors who ‘shuffled’ around old Port Moody last night on our second ArtWalk/SHUFFLE will have been able to check out both excellent shows while wandering through the Arts Centre galleries. I have included a couple of photos of fine wood-turned pieces in the Wood-turners show to tempt you to check both shows before they close.
I”ve included one photo of me and my display just before yesterday’s Shuffle. It was a really good evening, with old friends and new acquaintances dropping by my studio as a first stop on their culture crawl.
