Happy Christmas from belatrova
Here’s to 2015
www.peterarscott.co.uk/dev
golfing for muralistas
Chauvet cave – 30,000 year-old mural
Winter is closing in, but thoughts of warm Mediterranean weather have been circulating in the collective mind of belatrova. As well as making lamps and coasters for next year, we have been commissioned to create a ceramic mural for a house in Spain, and have been given a generously open brief.
Conventionally, a mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. And ceramic murals are traditionally made from tiles, but strictly speaking belatrova’s work will be a ceramic wall sculpture made from ceramic pieces using the wall space as a canvas and allowing the blank areas of the wall to play their part in the overall composition.
detail- legging it to Spain
The pieces are of different shapes and sizes, some abstract, some representational, and will be slab rolled as flat as possible without causing them to crack in the kiln – the larger the piece the more likely it is to warp or fracture in the heat, specially if there are stress points in the making which do not show up before biscuiting. Some preliminary tests have taken place, with interesting results. Here is a tantalizing detail of pieces so far that we have glazed (left).
And here below is a piece that nearly made it but cracked during glazing:
notice the crack between the eyes
The wall space is above a doorway in a hall and measures more than 2 x 3 metres. Foolish members of the team are very keen to accompany the pieces and install them, and have ostentatiously been bringing golf clubs into work to practice their swings because, you see, the house in question is next door to Spain’s best known golf course, Valderrama.
the ceramicist’s silent scream
Rudolph hit by golf ball
ball
belatrova did once play golf, in Richmond Park, and hit a deer with the only ball he managed to get into the air.
However, all this is in the future. What about the present? Well, it is an easy step from ceramic coaster making to tiles, and from tiles to tables with tiled tops. This is our first metal-framed coffee table with a ceramic surface made of nine glazed tiles in the Brushstroke Blues range. There will be more to come.
tiled table in Brushstroke Blues
coaster
tile
belatrova wishes all its supporters a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. 2015 promises to be an even better year for us and we hope that will be true for all of you too.
Azure, sky blue, ultramarine and cobalt – who says Britain is the land of rain?
a view from Tresco
We live in a land of contrasts in the UK – there is so much diversity. Take the Lake District and Berkshire Downs, the Scottish Highlands and the Norfolk Broads, the wild Jurassic coast of Southern England and the sedimentary London basin, Fingal’s Cave, Salisbury Plain, Cheddar Gorge, and yes, there is even a touch of the Caribbean to be found 30 miles from the Cornish mainland. You don’t believe us?
ferry
Lucky belatrova took a boat from Penzance and went to a very small place in a beautiful archipelago. Tresco is a small island measuring about two and a half miles long by a mile wide, and it is one of the five inhabited islands which, together with 200 or so islands, islets and rocks, form the Isles of Scilly.
Augustus
In 1834, the Duchy of Cornwall leased the Isles of Scilly to a liberal-minded squire, Augustus Smith, who became the Lord Proprietor of the
Tresco Abbey Gardens
islands. He built his home, Tresco Abbey, alongside the ruins of an old priory and set about creating a garden containing plants from all over the world. Tresco Abbey Garden is internationally renowned as having one of the finest sub-tropical flora and fauna collections in the Northern Hemisphere. The family still run the business as the Tresco Estate, and own Tresco island.
angry bird
As there are no predators or grey squirrels, the red squirrel was introduced recently and there is now a thriving colony of about 30. One was spotted in the Abbey Gardens, a flash of dark red moving amongst the Echium and Pelargonium. And being a birdwatcher of sorts, Mr b got very excited and spotted Oyster Catchers, Grey Heron, Terns, Ibis, Egrets and Godwits. He was also mobbed by angry sea gulls.
shrimps from Ruin Beach
Later that evening with the tide slowly rising a shrimping party netted a generous catch which was cooked and then eaten at a picnic overlooking the harbour. As you can see, there are no half measures here: one carries tables and chairs to the top of a hill to get the most out of an occasion like this.
picnic
tacking
A sailing trip to the smaller island of Samson was a symphony of azure and greens, gentle wavesand distant bird cries, white sand and clear water. What an experience it was, tacking back to Tresco harbour – a commemorative ceramic is called for, and here it is, just out of the kiln:
belatresco dish
Back at the workshop after this idyllic break, the sun, sea and clean air, combined with the walking, cycling and (ahem) swimming, meant that cobwebs were swept away and a desire to use Tresco blues came surging out of the belatrovian brush and onto one of our coffee tables.
Tresco-inspired coffee table
coffee table
Of course, like everywhere else in the UK, Tresco can be grey, battered and windy, but it was hard to imagine while we were there.
water off Samson Flats
Pope to belatrova
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?
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.
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.
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
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
Preparation:
Pour the ingredients into a mixing glass with ice cubes.
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.
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
belatrova in Iberia
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.
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?
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.
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 by the pool in Sotogrande
…on the veranda
…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).
Thelonius Pugmill in action
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-making machine
churro extruded
churro ready
churros con chocolate
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.
Ronda
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.
The Alhambra in Granada
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.
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.
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.
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.
belatrova bash
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
large jazzy platter
flying off the wall
belatrovian baby potter
brushstroke blues display
the art of commissioning
Ziggy the Christmas spider
Julius II by Raphael
Rex Harrison
God & Adam
A commission in art was at one time only the privilege of the rich and powerful. Rulers and governments commissioned artists to design pieces that often glorified the kingdom or state. During the Renaissance, the Church became a regular patron of the arts commissioning such great works as The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, and of course, the most celebrated art commission of all time, the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo, commissioned by Pope Julius II, a man who centuries later, as older belatrovians will remember, would be played by Rex Harrison in “The Agony and the Ecstasy“.
top commission
Commissions are all very well when it comes to painting and sculpture, we hear you say; what about ceramic commissions? Well, how about the ‘Frog Service’, a 50-person set intended for dinner and dessert made by Wedgewood in 1773 for Catherine the Great who bought it for her Gothic summer palace built in a frog marsh some miles outside St Petersburg, “Kekerekeksinky“*, would you believe – hence the inclusion of the frog motif.
The service was painted with 1222 views of British landscapes,antiquities and gardens. It cost £2,290 and was intended for occasional use, not for display alone. When the service was nearing completion, the bulk of it was put on display at Portland House in London, so as to show it to the English public before it was dispatched to Russia. At the present time the Hermitage collection includes some 770 items from this famous commission.
part of the Frog Commission
As an aside, belatrova went to visit the Wedgewood Museum and returned as enthralled as ever by Josiah, a man of energy and creativity who along with others transformed society and kick-started the Industrial Revolution. He was born into a family of potters in 1730, at Burslem, Staffordshire, and his father’s death in 1739 led him to an early start working as a ‘thrower’ in the pottery of his eldest brother, Thomas, to whom he was later apprenticed. An attack of smallpox seriously weakened him and in 1768 he had to have his right leg amputated. This meant he was forced to abandon throwing, but he gained a wider insight into the potter’s craft, which led to experimentation. If you would like further insight into this world, belatrova warmly recommends a book by Jenny Uglow, “The Lunar Men”.
mezzotint of Josiah based on Reynolds painting. copyright National Gallery
Why are we telling you all this? Oh, yes… The Wedgewood Museum Trust. It became liable for the £134m pensions debt of its insolvent parent company and after a long battle to prevent the break up and sale of the collection, the Art Fund was given the chance to save the collection for £15.75 million. £2.74 million is still required by November to save the collection from being dispersed: 250 years of history, 80,000 objects – a unique visual archive.
belatrova commissions
Back to commissions. We would like to say that nowadays commissions are much more commonplace and accessible, and that vast fortunes need no longer be spent. Nobody need be a Medici to commission a belatrova birdbath, or table lamp, or platter. In fact, we have been busy fulfilling commissions as a result of so many visits during h.Art (Herefordshire Art week), so we thought we would remind you that with three months to go before Christmas belatrova is the place for that unique gift.
Just give us a ring at the workshop on +44 (0) 1531 634082 or send us an email (info@belatrova.co.uk) or visit our website: http//www.peterarscott.co.uk/dev – we are happy to talk to you about any idea you may have.
So long as it does not involve spiders.
There is one arachnophobe amongst us who finds it hard to deal with the creatures as they start to come indoors with the nights getting cooler –“all I want is a room somewhere / Far away from the cold night air…” they sing. It is impossible to determine in which direction they will scuttle and so they strike fear in the heart of this particular person, who will remain nameless.
Meanwhile, with a little bit of bloomin’ luck, we hope to see you when we open up the workshop over the weekends of November 29th and of December 6th.
* Kekerekeksinky was mistakenly thought to mean “frog” in Finnish, though if you try to pronounce it in a deep voice you will sound a little like one.
belatrova at the Panto
Leading figures from the world of design and fashion are coming together to raise money for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) by performing in “Peter Pan and the Designers of the Caribbean” at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre, who describe the story as follows:
“London is grey and drab. All the interior designers have fled to Never Never Land to escape their client’s bad taste and endless complaints. But with Captain Hook on the loose, how long before the Designers realise they must return colour to London and save the secret to design from Hook’s evil clutches?”
If you would like to join Wendy, Tinkerbell and Peter do click here to buy a ticket. You will rub shoulders with leading figures from the world of interior design and see costumes designed by the most illustrious fashion designers in the world: Vivienne Westwood, Anya Hindmarch, Zandra Rhodes, Thomaz Starzewski, Bruce Oldfield and Anna Valentine.
belatrova will also be there having contributed a striking hand painted designer coffee table (750mm diameter) for the auction that will be held there as part of the fund raising appeal for the NSPCC. It was created in our workshop in Ledbury. It is practical – pull it up to the sofa with a book or a cup of tea on it, or it is low enough for children to draw, paint or write on, and easy to wipe clean. And it is beautiful – see it in a different way each day depending on the light outside or else it might be a particular object on the surface itself that sets off a combination of colours (our coasters tend to do that, but more about our coasters in the next blog).
hand painted coffee table (roseburgh)
To quote Ziggy the workshop spider (see previous blog) ” Looking at this piece of art from above (the ceiling in my case) is different from having something to admire on the wall. The colours, whether loosely stippled, daubed or brushed on loosely, are all contained within squares, rectangles or triangles, and so invoke architecture rather than nature … in my opinion.”
Thelonius says there is a hint of Paul Klee about it.
Dear belatrovians, we know many of you will not be able to visit the Bloomsbury Theatre in London, so we are offering you the opportunity to win a prize as consolation. Guess the amount the table will raise at the auction before Sunday 6pm and you will win a lovely pair of cutting tiles or trivets in the Brushstroke Blues range. Just post it in the “leave a comment” section of the blog and we’ll get in touch. Or if you would rather, send an email to info@belatrova.co.uk
belatrova cutting tile
Toodle – loo.
Tegestology
moon coaster
Coasters, specially ceramic coasters, have become desirable designer acquisitions in recent months, partly in response to the growth in interest for cocktails – something in which we at belatrova have had a hand (you need only go back to earlier blogs to see our recipe for the perfect Dry Martini, and others). Of course, you may not have been aware of all this, which is why belatrova, always in the vanguard of taste and style, thinks it is important to bring this to the notice of all belatrovians and help them solve the annual dilemma faced by so many: “where can I find that special Christmas gift that is both uniquely attractive yet practical?”
men behaving badly – William Hogarth
Why are they called “coasters“? According to our research, coasters were originally called sliders in the 1700s and were used as a stand to prevent moisture damage to a tabletop and for sliding the bottle of wine along a tabletop from guest to guest after supper when the table cloth was removed and the servants dismissed, leaving the diners (usually men) to fend for themselves. Cue drunk and unseemly male behaviour. These sliders later became known as coasters in allusion to their circulation around the edge of the table. Early ones were made of silver, china or glass, and some were fitted with wheels or with baize-covered wood bases to reduce friction on bare tables.
coaster cornucopia
Some coasters are collectible items. Tegestology is a term coined from Latin (teges, a small covering or mat) defined as the practice of collecting beer mats or coasters. Consider, then, becoming a tegestologist by acquiring belatrova’s ceramic coasters and thus simultaneously easing your Christmas shopping experience.
At £5 a coaster belatrova is offering sets of six for the price of five, plus a delivery charge of £5.95, making it a very affordable £30.95. There are three choices: Brushstroke Blues, Valencia or the Selection (a combination of both).
set of brushstroke blue
set of Valencia cioasters
selection
You can ring us on +44 (0) 1531 634082 and order over the ‘phone.
Or visit us during our Christmas weekend openings (28 – 30 Nov, 5 – 7 Dec)
Or pay us a visit on any day – just ring us beforehand to make sure we are not out delivering.
Or visit the Studio Gallery in Ross-on-Wye
This is how we make our coasters:
biscuited coaster awaiting oxides
oxides painted onto coasters
coaster dipped in glaze
cork backing
In order to give you some idea of size we have placed a coaster next to a familiar eveyday object:
ant eater
Leech Man
We know we are way ahead of ourselves but were thinking of recommending a new cocktail for you to drink on Christmas morning, something called Marmalade Fizz invented by the London Cocktail Club, but in the end decided to be traditional and went for that mellow but elegant drink: Black Velvet. It is guaranteed to get you in the mood for the day
Ingredients: a bottle of cold Champagne, a bottle of cold Guiness
Method: fill a Champagne flute halfway with the Guiness then top it off very gently with
smooth
Champagne so that it lingers atop the Guiness as a separate layer. Try pouring the Champagne over the back of a spoon to prevent it from plunging straight into the stout. This ephemeral separation is fleeting but satisfying. The drink is smooth and effervescent, just like belatrova.
Cheers!
And finally we would like to announce the winner of the “guess the NSPCC panto auction price of the belatrova table” competition (see previous blog):
L.H of Malvern will be getting a pair of ceramic trivets.
belatrova Christmas opening times
Ledbury viaduct
belatrovians may well want to know what the Ledbury viaduct has in common with our Christmas opening, and the answer is: clay.
Built in 1860, the viaduct was constructed using 5 million bricks made on site from the clay dug out for the foundations; and clay is what brings together a cluster of Ledbury ceramicists.
Wendy Houghton’s delicate abstract sculpture can be seen next to husband Stuart Houghton’s robust hand-thrown tableware, Fleen Doran’s alluring salt-glazed pots next to belatrova’s beautifuly painted slab pots and lamps. It is an exhibition of contrast and style, as well as a chance to buy a unique Christmas gift.
meet the ceramicists…
Yes, four ceramicists in one venue, and the ideal Christmas present.
Look out for the red h Art signs. Parking is available, as is disabled access.
Tea, coffee and mince pies will be served.
We look forward to seeing you.