Wednesday - Copp - Gowdy-Mckinley

Wednesday - Copp - Gowdy-Mckinley -

Morning everyone - or later than that if you are reading this at another time.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of some pieces by Ruth Gowdy-Mckinley. It should be arriving today. I got the list of what is coming from her daughter Lauren and there are some pieces that are quite rare as Ruth was specifically asked to make them. Once they arrive I will post images in the 'latest acquisitions' blog. I hope everyone reading this is aware that there are actually three blogs. One is dedicated to daily musings (this one), another to new acquisitions and a further one to upcoming events. Not to worry as I am also getting use to keeping my thoughts separate - not always an easy thing to do! No doubt there will be crossovers in information.



This is an incredible example of one of Ruth's teapot.
We are pleased to be able to offer it for sale. The small 'shot'glass
is one of twelve currently available. These were original



Back to Ruth. I am diligently working on my book "An Exuberant Toast". The book has been in the planning stages for what seems a very long time but it is finally making progress and publication day is August 9th, 2012. Actually it will coincide with the publication of "Joanne M. Copp - Elegance". For those of you unfamiliar with Joanne she was an artist living on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. Her work consisted of exquisite coil built vessels. Joanne loved working with clay and loved creating. Her untimely death in 2010. Joanne's last message to me was:


"Hi Jonathon...you are really getting around! Any fabulous news? I am holding my own here...hoping all is well with you...Hi to Brian!

Best, Joanne





This is a wonderful example of Joanne's work
featuring a 'Moon Gold' interior (combination of
gold and palladium) Private Collection - Not For Sale


Joanne would have loved my finally getting around to regular blogging. She would often call just to chat and hear the latest goings on of the clay community in Canada - creators and collectors. She loved it all! I am so glad that her daughter Alicia has given me the okay to go forward on writing a book on her. My publisher, Ron Frye, is also pleased. He was totally smitten by her work when he saw it. Joanne's work is incredibly rare. The time to make it and the high mortality rate of pieces, a result of her chosen method of firing, has left very few pieces available. Actually to my knowledge there is actually none currently on the market. "Elegance" is my way of making sure she is not forgotten.

Canada has so many incredible ceramic artists but unfortunately they don't always get the recognition they deserve, we are a big country and that alone tends often tends to isolate artists in their particular area. It was with that realization that I set out to create a gallery where people could see a nation-wide cross section of the incredible talent that we have. Whoops....I better be careful or I'll be soapboxing about Canadian ceramics in a minute.

LOL......I guess my blogging is appealin to people as I just had a call from a gentleman, living in London, who has discovered the website. It would appear that social media works!. Anyway we had a nice conversation about one of the artists whose work is on the site. I won't say who but I will include an example of her work. For your homework you can now find her on the site. Didn't realise that this was going to be an interactive blog did you?

This is the artist whose work sparked the call this morning.
Browse through the artists to discover who it is! Clue: It is Raku
and the piece is NOT illustrated.

I don't know if i mentioned it but I will be in Owen Sound this weekend giving a talk on collecting Canadian Ceramics. The talk is at the Tom Thomson Gallery at 2PM.

Well I guess that about does it for today. I am now awaiting the arrival of the painting by Jamie Jardine that I wrote about earlier this week. I am going to start putting a title with the name of the Canadian ceramic artists mentioned in the day's blog.

Have a good day! If you are firing today I hope the kiln gods will be with you!