Looking

Ky Anderson

Karl Bielik Pram

Vincent Hawkins

David Quinn

Susan Skilling

Just some artists I've been looking at lately. The world of Pinterest has opened my knowledge of artists more than I could have imagined. I have many pins of artists, studios, and sketchbooks over there.

Cecile Deladier, Part 2

Remember the post I did on French ceramicist Cecile Deladier back in January? Well, here she is again, with more work. I saw her featured on Remodelista, here, and here, and I was struck by how wonderfully she understands flowers. That's what makes her vases so perfect. She obviously loves to give flowers and plants something to accentuate their unique beauty. I also like the tenderness of her forms. I've been gardening like crazy since we returned from Italy. No time for anything else right now. It's amazing what a few weeks away in the middle of May will do to your garden. Havoc! So that must be why I am so drawn to these vessels. Also, I am taking a break from making ceramics because my teacher had a baby and is moving house (good excuses!) so we will start back up again in September. I miss working with clay so much. 

Italy

We just returned from a visit to Italy. We went to Rome, then to Umbria to meet up with friends in Panicale. Our friend owns a home there and has friends in the area, so we were lucky enough to get to have dinner several times with them in their home, and to visit another friend of theirs, Marino Moretti, a ceramicist who has a home/studio near Orvieto. His very  engaging website is here. He works in many clay bodies, but right now he is  working mostly in porcelain. His work is wonderful, and he is a very welcoming and kind man. He fed us polenta cake and tiny cafe macchiatos in his medieval stone house (!). His grandfather was a well known photographer, and you can see a large view he did of Orvieto in the background. I took all these photos of Marino's home and studio using the ShakeIt app with my iPhone. In fact all the photos I took in Italy were on my iPhone. I just could not imagine hauling a big camera around. I'll post a few more photos of what we saw in the next few days. Meanwhile, here are a few more photos from our visit with Marino.