As out-going Chairman of the prestigious Armed Forces Arts Society, John Ashton is to be presented with a piece of art as a token of appreciation by the Society. Previous gifts have been paintings and sculptures by British artists or the members themselves, but John has other ideas. Long a fan of Zimbabwean Shona sculpture,…
“Come and see me,” she said. Was that an invitation or a throwing down of the gauntlet? After all, they were so remote that not even the top African craft designers in the Cape would go and see them on site. But I accepted with alacrity, as I was going to be in Kwa-Zulu Natal…
For two decades, Marion Hicks has been visiting our gallery, rarely missing an exhibition. We know she certainly purchased sculpture as far back as 1996, but she may even have been a regular since we opened in Buckinghamshire after our move from London in 1994. Marion has a keen eye and whilst appreciating all…
When I casually mentioned in passing to the Gauteng ceramicists that I would be dropping in to see Andrew Walford when I was in Kwa-Zulu Natal, there was a collective and audible gasp. “You know what Bernard Leach is to the English?” explained Colleen Lehmkuhl; “well Andrew is our Bernard Leach; he is our ‘God’.”…
Glorious June weather makes all the difference to outdoor sculptures. Not only do they look lack-lustre and dull in cloudy, damp weather, but it is no fun for punters huddling on wet grass under dripping brollies, to stroke wet stone. Even less so to squat and squint to read the biographies, their posteriors protruding to…
This last weekend saw the opening of the G & W Mineral Resources Regional Ceramics Exhibition in Johannesburg. All exhibitors are members of the Gauteng Region of Ceramics Southern Africa. They included the wonderfully talented group who hosted me for a day in March; in fact the studio where we met belongs to the current…
Some people in life are worth tracking down. Robyn Gordon is one of them. I first saw and purchased a totem of Robyn’s from a gallery in Durban in August 2007. I left my business card with the extremely friendly and helpful Zimbabwean security guard, Alistair, and he subsequently sent me Robyn’s details, as the…
Visually, nothing spells out a summer show more explicitly than a wall of flowers. And this is what greets visitors to the “Summer Selection 2104” exhibition now open at Fillingdon Farm. This is mainly due to the beautiful collection of work by Cape Town artist Cathy Layzell. Large, voluptuous, blousy pink roses tumble off the…