belatrova bash

image of guests at party

Though we do not have the photographic evidence, jiving and dancing took place at belatrova’s h.Art party on Saturday 6th. This is a first for the workshop; seeing his working

sax player

laid back cat

colleagues eating, drinking and overnight sleeping are what he is more used to, but Thelonius the Pugmill had never witnessed a spontaneous ballet of belatrovians using the storage and drying area as a dance floor.

three guests at party

The jazz was infectious and beautifully played by the Rushton Rhythm Quartet who gave us 20th Century standards with a modern twist, and not a little feeling. Their playing was tight and sublime, with some spectacular sax crescendos.

guests at party

The food was magnificent, and belatrova would like to thank Wendy and Lu for all their work in preparing it, Viv and Eily for their help too, and Margo for helping set up and for running the bar. Lu, again, for her cocktail waitressing.

four guests

 

The workshop at No 9 is now open everyday till Sunday 14th, from 10 to 5, as part of Herefordshire Art Week. Just follow the red h.Art signs and you will get to us (Venue 29). There are over a hundred other venues to visit throughout the week, and brochures are available to download here.

guest looking at birdbath

birdbath ponder

Feel free to drop in. We have tidied up and it is now spotless – you would never believe one hundred and five belatrovians had a party here. You could also enter the competition and win a ceramic bowl, or just come for a chat and a look-around. See you.

ceramic platter by belatrova

large jazzy platter

 

 

 

 

three guests

 

 

 

 

 

ceramic display at belatrova

flying off the wall

 

 

infant at potters wheel

belatrovian baby potter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ceramic display by belatrova

brushstroke blues display

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

belatrova in Iberia

Gibraltar on the horizon

A piece of Britain on the horizon

belatrova, musing by a pool in the heat of Sotogrande, with a distant view of the Rock of Gibraltar, discovered that Andalusia has some of the hottest areas in Europe, sometimes averaging above 36 C in summer, with daytime highs of over 40 C. This explains the landscape of Holly and Cork Oak and the Pinsapo Fir trees that do well here, as do the olive trees that are grown all over the area.

Andalusia certainly knows its olives: Manzanilla, Arbequina, Empeltre, Sevillano, Picual, Hojiblanca, Picolimon, Verdial are just some of the estimated 260 different varieties of olive in Spain, which, as we all know, always look their best when offered to guests in a belatrova bowl.

olives in belatrova bowl

the only way to eat olives

But we digress. After being controlled by Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals and Visigoths, for half a millennium “Al-Andalus” was part of a Muslim caliphate, from the moment in 711 a Berber called Tariq ibn Ziyad landed his troops on the coast at a place that would become “Jabel alTariq” (the mountain of Tariq), now pronounced “Gibraltar”. Then came the Catholic Kings, and so on, until Spain became a member of the European Community. How about that for a quick outline of Spanish history?

drawing of Malaga port

Malaga port

Before arriving in Sotogrande belatrova had spent a short time in Malaga, port city of misty mornings and birthplace of the greatest artists of the 20th Century*, and paid a visit to the Museo Picasso de Malaga to have a peek at the great man’s ceramics and paintings on display. A small but fine collection that will satisfy anyone interested in art and ceramics.

Porcelain figure by Picasso

Insect – ceramic figure at Museo Picasso en Malaga

 

 

After 90 minutes of leaving Malaga and driving south belatrova suddenly saw the strange presence of the large rock that is part of Britain. It is surprising that there is this tiny enclave with red telephone boxes, bobbies and pubs in the southernmost tip of Spain. But we stayed in Sotogrande and enjoyed the calm of this beautiful location.

belatrova bowl by pool

belatrova by the pool in Sotogrande

 

bowl with landscape in background

…on the veranda

bowl by Buhdda bust

…meditating

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop was a few days near Ronda in a small town called Arriate. Early in the mornings, before the sun clears the horizon and bakes everything in its path, a quick walk into Arriate will reward you with a breakfast of “Churros con chocolate” before returning and finding a shady area in the house or by the pool. belatrovians have already met Thelonius the Pugmill (blog November 2013).

image of pugmill

Thelonius Pugmill in action

pugmill

Though it may upset Thelonius, the churro-making machine is basically the same idea. Stuff goes in one end and is squeezed out the other, though in the former’s case it cannot be eaten with chocolate:

churro machine

churro-making machine

churro mix extruded by machine

churro extruded

ring of cooked churro

churro ready

 

churro with hot chocolate

churros con chocolate

 

 

 

brick pottery chimney

abandoned pottery in Arriate with stork’s nest on the top, seen when wandering into the village for breakfast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for Ronda, it is a buzzing and welcoming town whose most well-known feature is the gorge that divides it and the bridge that crosses it, both made famous by the series of brilliant oil paintings David Bomberg made when he lived there in the 1930s.

bridge at Ronda

Ronda

 

painting of Ronda bridge by Bomberg

Bomberg’s Ronda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop was Granada, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, home of the poet Federico García Lorca and of the Alhambra, Moorish citadel and palace, and the most renowned building of the Andalusian Islamic legacy. Any lover of mosaic and tiles would love its interior, but frankly anybody with an ounce of romance and fantasy would fall for it.

view of Alhambra

The Alhambra in Granada

 

the courtyard of the lions, Alhambra

inside the Alhambra

Saturation of visual sensation means you will end up agreeing with the poet Franciscio de Icaza who wrote “Give him alms, woman, for there is nothing sadder in life than being blind in Granada.” (“Dale limosna mujer, que no hay en la vida nada como la pena de ser ciego en Granada.”)

 

Walking along the narrow streets of the Albaicín district is also enthralling. Lots of shops selling pots and ceramics of all kind.

ceramic street sign

street sign in Granada

 

Even the street names are made of ceramic.

 

A visit to the Moorish Baths was a cool break from the sun and heat outside: looking up at the ceiling from the gloomy depths of the 11th Century building, the shapes cut out originally to allow steam to escape let in the daylight and shine like stars.

ceiling of old Moorish baths in Granada

11th Century baths in Granada

All a distant memory. Now back at the workshop at No 9, belatrova is busy preparing for h.Art events which will be from 6th – 14th September and to which you are all most welcome. We will be open from 10.00 to 17.30. Remember to follow the bright red h.Art signs.

picture of the Studio Gallery launch

tHe Studio Gallery opening in Ross on Wye

 

And if you are near Ross-on-Wye, please drop in at the Studio Gallery which had a very successful launch some days ago and has an excellent display of belatrova ceramics.

 

 

 

 

* any belatrovian agreeing or disagreeing with this statement is invited to leave a comment. Comments will be awarded points, and points mean prizes … and, much as we would like to give the winner a Picasso bowl, you could win yourself a belatrova Valencia three legged ceramic instead.

Pope to belatrova

photo of Lower Manhattan, New York

Manhattan

belatrovians will know that we at No 9 Bankside are hard working and industrious and that we subsequently reward ourselves at the end of the week with a deliciously cold Dry Martini lovingly prepared by the Alcomeister hours in advance so as to reap the most from this sublime Emperor of Cocktails. We have also more than hinted at the excellent qualities of the Negroni in a previous blog. But today we will sing the praises of an altogether different drink and toast a man whose standing should be far better appreciated than perhaps it is. How does all this relate to art, design and craft?

bear

bear with us

image of Ross on Wye

Ross on Wye

Ross on Wye is a charming town on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean and perhaps the birthplace of British tourism when in 1745 the rector Dr John Egerton started taking friends on boat trips down the valley to appreciate the river scenery, its castles and abbeys, its precipices and its altogether picturesque environment. By the 1850s the Wye Tour established the area as a tourist attraction. The town is known for its independent shops, narrow streets and market square with its market hall. Opposite the church, the Prospect is a public garden offering a view of the famous horseshoe bend in the River Wye, as well as views of the distant Black Mountains in Wales.

John Kyrle

The Man of Ross

The Prospect was created by one John Kyrle. He is without doubt the town’s most famous son (and we say this in the full knowledge that two of the founding members of Mott the Hoople were from Ross). He devoted his life to philanthropic works, introducing a public water supply to the town and
laying out the Prospect Gardens. He also reconstructed and added pinnacles to the unsafe 14th century spire of the Church of St.
Mary and gave it a magnificent tenor bell. He sponsored the causeway to the nearby Witton Bridge and set up funds for needy local
children to attend school. Kyrle lived modestly as a bachelor on an income, it is said, of £500 per year. Apart from Kyrle’s charitable works and deeds, he also settled disputes, supported the schools, tended the sick
and helped the poor. His public-mindedness also extended to beautifying the town and its surrounding landscape.

18C painting of baby

lisping babe

 

His life and good works were celebrated by the poet Alexander Pope in his Moral Essays written in 1732 and called him the ‘Man of Ross’, the name by which he has been known ever since:

“…Who taught that heav’n directed Spire to rise? 
    

          The Man of Ross, each lisping babe replies.”  

 

Now, Pope, though an interesting poet, was also a hugely influential landscape gardener and as the perfect representative of Augustan poetry he uses the same principles when it comes to landscape gardening. The Augustan style takes its inspiration from ancient Rome and Greece, emphasizing elegance, harmony, balance, formal strictness and simplicity. We are not just talking Geometry here but surely you’ll agree that it is one easy step from Pope’s harmony to the perfect balance of Mondrian‘s paintings (and to his New York connections) and thus to belatrova’s Manhattan range of ceramics and tables.

Mondrian painting

Mondrian

 

ceramic collection by belatrova

manhattan collection

And to celebrate these 18th Century geniuses why not raise a cocktail to them? Your 18th Century taste buds were likelier to go for the sweet rather than the dry, so, in keeping with the general theme, we thought the Manhattan hit the spot:

 

 

2 ounces whiskey (rye preferable)

1/2 ounce sweet vermouth

2-3 dashes Angostura bitters Maraschino cherry for garnish

chilled glass of Manhattan cocktail

the Manhattan cocktail

Preparation:

Pour the ingredients into a mixing glass with ice cubes.

Stir well.

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with the cherry.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, raise your glasses to the Man of Ross, and consider this: the pursuit of all that is excellent in design and harmony continues in Ross on Wye with the launch of a new gallery in the town centre. The Studio Gallery, open from the 16th August, is exhibiting ceramics, painting and high quality craft, and would love to see you. So would belatrova, whose work is on show there.

Valencia range in ceramics by belatrova

what you might see at the Studio Gallery

“Hope springs eternal in a young man’s breast: Man never is, but always to be blest.”

Alexander Pope

predictions

We wish you all a happy 2014.

decorated cake

cake

girl twerking

twerk

air drone

drone

comic strip character by Paul arscott

troll

During a coffee break we were talking about how we will be seen in a hundred years’ time. Will the people of 2114 look at us and think  “… hmmm Britain’s got talent, Great British Bake-off, twerking, tweeting, trolling, drones…? What was all that about?”

Or will they be rubbing their chins, impressed by the years’ innovations: wearable computers, developments in biometrics, 3D-printed organs, crowd sourced business. Or maybe 2014 sees the return of abstract art, but made by women artists, or the rise of digital surrealism, or the rise of the comic, or the beginning of a return to connoisseurship and the appreciation of the individually crafted. Who knows? We don’t, but with the centenary commemoration of the First World War about to dominate the press and media, belatrova wanted to see what was happening culturally back then, we wanted to see what the “future” was like one hundred years ago.

For example:

Cubist picture of Horta, by Picasso

Picasso, 1909

Grand Central Station in New York

In Grand Central Station I sat down and wept

German expressionist image by Kirchner

Combat – agonies of love, Kirchner, 1915

Vortcist painting by Bomberg

The Mud Bath, Bomberg 1914

Gaudi’s art nouveau Casa Mila in Barcelona is finished (see blog June 2013), Die Brucke and German Expressionism comes to the fore, Art Deco in France starts to emerge, Picasso develops Cubism, Grand Central Station in New York opens to the public, the Vorticist movement takes shape in Britain,  and airships (or Zeppelins) were new.

And one hundred years ago the Arts and Crafts Movement was flourishing, and had been since 1880, inspired by John Ruskin and William Morris.  It emerged in Britain but was quickly taken up and adapted in America and Europe.

Arts & Craft mug by Finch

mug by Alfred William Finch 1900

They promoted a revival of traditional handicrafts and the introduction of better design in everyday and domestic objects. Individuals in small workshops to large manufacturers created the work.

And they all reached a wider audience thanks to shops such as Liberty’s and  Heal’s selling their goods.

Liberty's in London

Liberty’s

Heal's in London

Heal’s

belatrova  has a gut feeling that the era of the individually hand-crafted is coming around once again.

Geometrical painting by Malevich

Suprematist painting by Malevich

Here is one of our recent Manhattan slab pots, with just a hint of Kasimir Malevich about it, though strictly speaking the  Russian founder of Suprematist painting did not start the movement until 1915.

Slab pot made by belatrova with geometric patterns painted on

Manhattan slab pot by belatrova

the great Paul Klee’s never ending reach

a line of hand painted belatrova tables

belatrova conga at the Open Day

So many of you came to our Open Days on Saturday 30th November and Sunday 1st December, that we ran out of coffee, white wine and mince pies.  Although Unit 9 Bankside is a workshop, please feel free to drop by at any time, though a ‘phone call beforehand is a good idea, just in case.

two lines of belatrova coffee tables

belatrova squad

Those of you who came were able to see the exhibition of table  paintings which we set up just for the two days, and this proved very popular. These tabletops are all hand painted, each one a painting in acrylic and then varnished over with a heat resistant lacquer.

With a big space dedicated to the tables only, most viewers took their own time to look at each individual piece and enjoyed the experience of a gallery-like atmosphere and the pleasure of looking down at paintings and walking around them. Try it at home, it’s so much more comfortable than looking up at paintings on walls. And you can put hot mugs of tea on them too.

One or two of you, having been to the Paul Klee exhibition at the Tate Modern, noted a connection between his painting and some of the tables. Well spotted. Klee is a particular hero of belatrova’s and every now and again surfaces in our work. Here are some Klee-like examples:

belatrova paul klee table painting

paul klee table

klee reference on belatrova table

a bit more klee

The Klee exhibition is one of the best to be held anywhere, and even if you are not familiar with his work, belatrova recommends a visit (we’ve been twice already); he was innovative and always trying out new ways to make marks on a surface, and, seventy three years after his death, you can see how much he has influenced artists.

belatrova is not sure that Klee ever made any ceramics, but had he done so the results would have been as engaging as Picasso’s, though gentler. Here are two we made earlier with P.K. in mind:

two pots in the Klee style

two Klee pots by belatrova

grit to pearl

brick kilns in Stoke

gritty Stoke

Here at belatrova increased production and a subsequent urgent need for clay led us on a lightning visit to Stoke, heart of the Potteries.

Sitting on a hill, its grittiness is somehow heightened by the green beauty of the surrounding countryside. Its long association with the pottery industry goes back to the 17th Century and though in the past it was primarily an industrial conurbation, steel and coal being the main source of employment, it is now a centre for service industries and a growing distribution centre.

Plastic bags of clay and glaze in boot of car

clay and glazes in the boot

However, the link to its glorious pottery past remains in places like Etruria, site of Wedgewood’s business and where Potclays are based. They manufacture clay, grogs and glazes themselves at their South Staffordshire clay mines, and belatrova drove there to top up with glazes and then drove on to Valentine’s to load up with porcelain.

hill in Peak District glimpsed through trees

craggy hill on the way to Buxton

The car struggled going up hills from that point on as we made our way through the Peak District to Buxton, then Bakewell and finally arrived at Chatsworth House.

The contrast between the tough and practical character of Stoke and the self-conscious elegance of this stately home is evident, they almost seem to belong to different worlds. But belatrova was struck by something else: the clay that Stoke mined and dug up out of quarries, the poisonous powders of glazes being mixed, the heavy bags carried and stored, all that hard work and toil produced something that could end up being shaped, glazed and fired into the most extraordinary objects that visitors can now see displayed at Chatsworth.

Hard to believe, isn’t it, that a ball of what is generally 40% aluminum oxide, 46% silicon oxide and 14% water can be turned into this:

display of ceramic flowers, fruit and dishes at Chatsworth

ceramic buffet at Chatsworth

tall cream cermic pots lined along chimney mantel

ceramic installation by Edmund de Waal

Or this: ‘A Sounding Line‘ is an installation of numerous cream and white-glazed porcelain vessels of varying form and size made as an installation by Edmund de Waal, leading British ceramic artist, author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes, who inspired by the porcelain that has historically been on display in the house, designed them specifically for display in the Chapel Corridor at Chatsworth.

 

Or this:

Two clay pots with household paint poured over them by artist Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei’s pots at Chatsworth

The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei also had work on show. Two ordinary ceramic jars, the type bought at any market in Peking, looked down on us from a shelf just above head height – with the household paint the artist has poured over them, they are striking: a comment on art as commodity.

 
blue and white ceramic stack up to 15 ft high

15 ft ceramic stack at Chatsworth

Or this: a giant stack of blue and white  pots reaching a height of about 15 feet at the base of the main stairs, a reflection of the structure of bamboo scaffolding used by builders in China. It was made by Felicity Aylieff who likes to blur the boundaries between ceramics and sculpture. She has developed a relationship with factories in Jingzhen, China, where she produces monumental pots such as this.
Perhaps it is a theme for another day, when is ceramics “art” and when is it “craft”? Looking up at this work from below it was easy to accept that there is a point when a pot can be understood as sculpture.
Anyway, outside in the gardens of Chatsworth we said “hello” to Barry Flanagan‘s Hare – always cheering and heartening to see, and enjoyed the outdoor exhibition of William Turnbull‘s sculptures; the Horse Head in particular looks stunning in this setting.
Metal sculpture of horse head

William Turnbull’s Horse Head with Chatsworth in the distance

bronze sculpture of hare jumping over bell by Barry Flanagan

one of Barry Flanagan’s hares jumping over a bell