5th May 2022
The last two years have been dreadful. Not least because of Covid-19 exacerbated by the need for a new hip joint and my increasingly ailing body. How do you stop getting older? Why won’t my legs do what I tell them? Why did I not fully appreciate my eye/hand co-ordination when it was in better condition and, of course, when I was much younger
For my birthday my wife treated me belatedly to a week’s holiday in Auchmithie (near Arbroath in Scotland) in January 2022. We were able to chill after two years of uncertain survival. I love Scotland and I love seafood. (Arbroath is the home of the world renowned ‘Arbroath Smokies’).
Auchmithie is a very small picturesque village with a renowned seafood restaurant. What more could I ask for?
Unexpectedly, the sunrises each morning were staggering, largely because of their colour and the way in which they introduced the day to the surrounding landscape. The shapes were pretty simple, horizontal and atmospheric. But the colours were amazing. Colour has begun to feature more strongly in my more recent work and using bright, powerful, earthenware, coloured glazes instead of the more subtle stoneware colours that have been my hallmark for many, many years has now grabbed my interest. My pots and panels have become a vehicle for the painterly use of this new palate of bright intense colours. I will be visiting Auchmithie again later in the year and I hope to consolidate my original first impressions which have given rise to the first batch of Auchmithie work, some of which has now been uploaded to my website. I hope there’ll be more to come!