I decided that there was time to invite my Raiding friends here for one more day of plate painting. They could use up bisque-fired plates left in my cupboard. I made a fresh one for Renée who wanted to work with a leather-hard plate with slips, for a change. Unfortunately she had a cold on our Raid day last Thursday so my guests were Monique…
Four artists drove out from Vancouver this morning for our first Raid in quite a while. We were Renée van Halm, Monique Fouquet, Karen Henry and Cathy Busby. Sadly Eric isn't steady enough these days to make the trip out. We missed him, and I'm putting this blog together quite quickly so that Karen can show him photos of our work day. He started this…
Yesterday was the day we finally hosted another 'Raid'. Vancouver artists used to 'raid' my studio several times a year, before Covid, but last year we had just one gathering in September. Now we decided that Eric's 82nd birthday would be a perfect day to get together again. The weather forecast was for a slightly cooler day, so we felt that if we worked with…
Alan and I took ourselves off to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for a couple of weeks in January and were very lucky to escape a week of heavy snow here in Vancouver. We enjoyed the warmth, the colour of plants, exotic wildlife, Surrealist and Folk Art and friendly Mexicans. My resolution to be drawing more often only resulted in one afternoon of sketching with watercolours and…
In spite of a little overnight snowfall five Raiders showed up in Port Moody on Wednesday. The sun was shining so the ice on the road and walkways was quickly melted. I just managed to get another group of plates bisque-fired and cool enough to take out of the kiln that morning and I didn't want to slip while carrying them from the kiln shed…