Cathy's Art Diary

Surprising fair at Glynde Place specialising in ceramics. I say surprising as it was huge! Having been to an event at the house before I expected a few stalls around the house but instead it was set in marquees in the extensive grounds. We had gone to see our friend Eve Shepherd’s sculptural work and were pleased to see she had won a prize. However, we also discovered lots of beautiful and enticing things. I was so tempted to buy but resisted as I already have more small bowls and mugs than a girl will ever need. The visit was enhanced by it being a gloriously sunny day. Closed 24 May 2026

Calm exhibition at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre of new work by Adam Buick. The pieces were all the same satisfying shape in various sizes. Evidently, he incorporates stone and locally dug clay into his work which reminded me, as an idea, of a display I’d seen in another show earlier in the day by Kim Norton. I loved the very prefect shape of the work and the pale, textured glazes. Closed 29 March 2025

Interesting group exhibition at The Crypt in Seaford to mark World Ocean Day by examining the beauty and importance of the sea in art. The main artist involved was Laura Callaghan with beautiful paintings of the sea with texture added with sand and shells. She also had some more conceptual work including small sea pictures that she paints every time there is a sewer leak into the sea using untreated sewage and wastewater entitled 'Shit Happens Seas'. Alongside was work by textile artist Lucy Morrison using patchwork mirroring the colours of local natural sites, lovely ceramics by Jenny Morrish and tempting jewellery by Claudia Weatherley. I succumbed to temptation and bought a necklace and a small painting. Closed 16 June 2024

Excellent discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival on the craft of pottery. The event brought together YouTube potter Florian Gadsby and Rose Schmits of ‘The Great Pottery Throwdown’ to be led in discussion by Nancy Durrant. They talked about how they both got into the craft and whether they considered it a craft or art. They talked about the technicalities of the work from the role of the ‘kiln gods’ to potters’ ankle as well as the role of social media in selling their work as Schmidts said “more people will see the image than the finished work”.

Lovely art trail around East Sussex showing the work of local artists and crafts people in their studios. Sadly I didn’t have a lot of time the weekend I was there but did get to one in Isfield and a few in Kingston. My friend bought this sculpture from a wonderful stonemason, Tracy Steel, in Isfield and we saw lots of good landscape paintings of the Downs. Closes 17 September 2023  

Fascinating installation at the Victoria and Albert Museum by Omer Arbet of works made from glass and copper objects sourced from charity shops in London. This was in two parts. In the John Madejdski Garden there was an exhibition of the found objects and a furnace at which the artist and his team were working at certain times of day. They seemed to be melting down the objects and blending them together into new works. When I was there Arbet was chatting to people and a new piece was cooling on sand nearby. The second part was in the Medieval and Renaissance Gallery in the Santa Chiara Chapel and showed finished pieces. It worked well in the chapel space. I wish I’d gone later in the short run to see more of the new pieces. Closed 25 September 2022  

Fun art festival Artwave   of work by artists and makers from Lewes, Seaford, Newhaven and surrounding villages. Although this festival was over three weekends we didn’t get a lot of time to go round so ended up concentrating on work around Uckfield, Isfield, Glynde and Firle. It is always good to pop into the forge at Glynde and I liked the new tables made with colourful tops made of recycled material and St John’s church in Piddinghoe had some interesting work again. We got a warm welcome at The Stitching Post and Friends and the attached photo is a sculpture by Rachael Nicholson there and I bought a small poppy trinket bowl by ceramist Liza Morton. I also enjoyed the variety of work at the Victoria Pavilion in Uckfield including lovely woodcuts by Adele Scantlebury. Closed 18 September 2022  

Elegant exhibition at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre of new work by Ashraf Hanna. These were vases with clean lines often with black or cream exteriors and contrasting bright interiors. A lot of them were egg shaped with their sides cut down in crisp straight lines and manipulated. Two of them looked like a woman’s torso. There was a wonderful bright yellow glaze which contrasted beautifully with the black and a lovely dark purple one. Closes 16 October 2021

Eclectic art festival around Lewes showing work by local artists and craftspeople. Sadly we didn’t have a lot of time to go round many places this year so we concentrated on Glynde and Isfield as we were driving through! First stop was Stitching Post and Friends the core of which was a patchwork company selling materials and classes which was joined by other textile artists. It turned out we had been at a drinks party the night before with the owner so that was a happy reunion. In Glynde we started at Glynde Place where there was a series of fun installations in the house by Isobel Smith which mainly consisted of cuddly toys turned inside out and restuffed. They weren’t as creepy as they sound! I also loved two houses made of tea bags. We also popped into the forge to say hello as I had bought a piece by the blacksmith, Thomas Gontar, and to see what new pieces he had. He was joined by shoemaker Thomas Murphy. Closed 26 September 2021

Joyful exhibition at Tate Modern on the life and work of Sophie Taeuber-Arp painter, crafts professional, interior designer, performer and more. This was such a colourful show and from the first room I got a real sense of friendships, loyalty and creativity in all forms. The show was dominated by Taeuber-Arp’s geometric abstract paintings often based on the gird structure of textiles. It also looked at how these designs moved into her craftwork and interior design. There was a fun display of her puppets for the play “King Stag” which were delighting various children when I was there. It was wonderful to see so many of them there alongside the set designs. These were shown in a room with Dadaesque heads, examples of her wood turning and lovely beaded bags. I loved the room on her interior design work particularly her work on her own home at Clamart near Paris. I wanted the simple book shelves made in brightly coloured stackable units. It was also nice to see the stained-glass wor...

Enlightening online discussion organised by Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair looking at the role and important of traditional print studios. The talk brought together Vincent Eames, from Eames Fine Art that specialise in prints and Jason Hicklin, Artist and Head of Printmaking at City and Guilds of London Art School. Originally they had hoped to bring it from the City and Guilds print room itself but wifi proved a problem so instead they filmed that space and ran the event from the Eames Fine Art print room. They discussed how a traditional print room is set up with specific areas for each task around the edge and the presses in the centre of the room using the video to demonstrate this. Hicklin explained how this format has developed over time and is now accepted as the model for all food practice. He talked about how he teaches in the room, learning as much from the students as teaching them, and the benefits of this collaborative space. Eames explained the benefit to dealer o...

Fun art trail around East Sussex of open studios with artists showing and selling their work direct to the public. We mainly followed the rural trail of the villages around Lewes but also stayed onto some of the Newhaven trail when we got lost! We made a good start by heading to Litlington where there were four good venues around a brewery. One of the joys of trails liked this is seeing fascinating new places. I loved a Youth Hostel in the grounds of a wonderful Tudor house and a fabulous layered garden in South Heighton. Shout outs go to the wonderful paintings of Anne Magill and Susan Ashworth, the former did ethereal scenes of people and the latter beautiful, calm still lives. I loved Peter Cutherbertson’s utilitarian pottery in lovely colours. Shown here is a burnt word sculpture from Walter Bailey. His studio was open, and he was in a group show of sculpture at North Chailey. Closes 20 September 2020

Interesting exhibition at Messums of drawings by the American sculptor Albert Paley. Paley is a metalworker and is best known for having designed the gates for Florida State University. The show was mainly of lovely design drawings for gates and other objects including a wonderful ornate bed. The show also included examples of his metalwork including models for two gates and some beautiful candlesticks which the commentary said he makes in his downtime. My favourites were “Tuft Candle holders” a simple but elegant leaf design.  Closed 30 November 2019

Excellent art trail around East Sussex featuring work by artists and makers from Lewes, Seaford, Newhaven and surrounding villages in their own homes and workshops. I have to admit we only had an afternoon to do this so we focused on the area around Lewes starting by heading to Ringmer and a show featuring work by Dion Salvador Lloyd, an artist we know from open houses in Brighton. We got a lovely welcome from his partner who had organised the show and were delighted to be shown his studio at the house. As well as his lovely calm seascapes there were lovely ceramics and work by complimentary artists. From there we headed to Glynde and had a wander round this lovely estate village dropping in at three or four events. The highlight was the show at Glynde Place which mainly featured sculpture both in the coach house and the garden. I particularly liked the stone carving there including work by Paulien Gluckman, Alyosha Moeran and Will Spankie. Closed 1 September 2019

Beautiful exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery of new work by Dale Chihuly, the glass artist. I love this artists work having first discovered him via his wonderful chandelier at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The centre of this show was a display of sculpture by him in bright colours. He layers the coloured glass with white layers so that the colours remain crisp. They are like big waterlilies. Around the edge was a new idea from him where he paints on both side of acrylic which he then lights from behind. The commentary said these were inspired by stained glass windows and they have the effect of projecting colour into the room. It was interesting to see one of the gallery assistants turning the light on and off behind one so that you could see the different the light made.

Beautiful exhibition at the Chelsea College of Art of work by members of the Society of Designer Craftsmen.   There was a wonderful variety of work including glass, jewellery, furniture, wood turning, textile art and ceramics. It was a well hung and arranged show giving each of the artists a defined space but also making the pieces work well together and setting up an interesting dialogue between different techniques.   I forgot to pick up the catalogue so I’m afraid I don’t now remember the names of the artists but I loved some swirling coloured glass and there was some beautiful smooth, tactile furniture. As ever the selection of jewellery was stunning.   Thanks as ever to Richard Shock with his lovely wood turning work for the private view ticket. I loved his new veneered pieces particularly this one placing a hexagon within a circle. Apologies to Richard that it’s taken me so long to get round to blogging this but watch out for him in October at the Han...

Small exhibition at London Glassblowing of new work by James Devereux and Louis Thompson.   Devereux and Thompson were invited to work at Soneva Art and Glass in the Maldives earlier this year and this show featured the work they did there.   I loved the pieces like giant paperweights with bubbles and swirls in brightly coloured glass. Also the pieces they called Pods which were three worked pieces of glass on a wooden base. In contrast there were long opaque works in neon colours with oval patterns up the side. Closed on 7 July 2018

Eclectic open houses and artists’ studios in Brighton open for the duration of the Brighton Festival.   I spent two lovely weekends looking around this amazing collection of work. From paintings to ceramics to jewellery to sculpture to much, much more. The first weekend we concentrated on the Fiveways group and thanks to their excellent brochure managed to see nearly all the houses. Highlights include Dawn Thornhill’s papercut tableaux and Mr Craven : Raconteur’s wonderful series of Brighton men prints representing areas of the city. We also went to Francesca Grace McLeod’s preview party as we have bought from her in the past. I loved her new pictures based on photographs from her recent honeymoon. Thank you for the invitation. The second weekend was more random and more about finding parking then following a trail but we did make a point of going to the Collectors’ Selection to see Eve Shepherd’s recent small sculptures and to pop to Dion Salvator Lloyd’s to see his ...

Delightful exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum showing the finalists of the Women’ Hour Craft Prize which was run to mark the 70th anniversary of the radio programme. The work was an eclectic collection from Caren Hartley’s handmade bicycles to exquisite delicate boxes by Romily Saumarez-Smith based on found objects. Some of the work seemed more to be like art works than a craft work such as Phoebe Cummings’ temporary sculptures made from raw clay which I loved. I do though think of craft as the making of an object which has a longer term use and life. Closed on 5 February 2018. Review Evening Standard  

Interesting exhibition of the Contemporary Ceramics Centre of new work by Anna Lambert. The show had two themes, changes in landscape due to climate change and the re-establishing of orchards around Britain. I loved the large pieces with landscapes on them in delicate shades and I was intrigued that they seemed to have raised bottoms to them, ie the bottom was higher inside that outside. My favourite was in a lovely purple glaze. There were some vivid yellow and green glazes on the inside of some of the work. There were also charming smaller pieces with springs of blossom and birds in them. Closed on 30 September 2017