tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52394525180369522082012-01-27T09:01:19.988-08:00Marshall Colman DesignMarshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-42947806559042238092012-01-27T09:01:00.000-08:002012-01-27T09:01:19.997-08:00MORRIS DANCERS FROM HELL
Flag Cracker (Sidmouth 1993)
Border Morris is a style of folk dancing which involves black face, tattered clothes, big sticks and decorated hats. I saw it at the Sidmouth Folk Festival, when Flag Cracker, a side from North Yorkshire, came down in a big coach and performed, madly dressed and horrible looking, with amplified music and electric guitars, terrifying shouts and a crashing of sticks.Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-12758526731514308172012-01-10T09:44:00.000-08:002012-01-10T09:44:14.825-08:00DESIGNER CRAFTS AT THE MALLMy work is on show in the Mall Galleries, London, as part of Designer Crafts at the Mall, the Society of Designer Craftsmen's annual show. The Society was founded in 1888 as the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society; it was at an early committee meeting that the phrase "Arts and Crafts"was first used. The Society still continues to show the best designer crafts, in glass, textiles, furniture, Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-34464064481530014352011-12-15T05:14:00.000-08:002011-12-15T05:14:58.088-08:00AN ARTIST'S STATMENT TRANSLATEDMarshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-55993027050188995602011-12-09T03:54:00.000-08:002011-12-09T03:54:47.212-08:00HANDLING A LUCY RIE BOWL
Dr. Poole explains the Lucy Rie Bowl at the Fitzwilliam Museum. (photo: Kevin Akhurst)
I took some Associate Members of the Craft Potters Association to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge on Tuesday, to view and handle seven ceramics from their collection. The Fitzwilliam has one of the best ceramics collections in Britain and doesn't have room to display them all, so we were able to see Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Cambridge, UK52.205337 0.1218169999999645452.1711485 0.04987699999996453 52.2395255 0.19375699999996454tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-15249613836354132772011-11-21T02:58:00.000-08:002011-11-21T02:58:20.086-08:00CHRISTMAS SHOWS
The season of Christmas shows began for me last weekend with Art in Clay at The Maltings, Farnham. This old industrial building has been converted into a popular arts centre. My stall was set up in The Long Kiln Room, where you could still see the shape of the chimneys in the roof - but it used to be a barley kiln, for the brewing industry, not a pottery kiln. Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-69074967573327384212011-11-10T01:11:00.000-08:002011-11-10T01:15:43.891-08:00A VISIT TO ST. QUENTIN LA POTERIESaint Quentin la Poterie, a village near Nîmes with twenty-four pottery studios, has a long history as a pottery centre (tiles in the Pope's Palace in Avignon were made there), but by 1970 all the traditional workshops had closed. Its revival is due largely to the energy and vision of Nicole Bouyala, its formidable mayor. Mme Bouyala, who held office from 1983 to 2001, encouraged potters to Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-77948732256101959552011-11-07T04:13:00.000-08:002011-11-07T10:43:44.478-08:00NEW WORK AT ART IN CLAYNew ceramics that I'll be showing at Art in Clay, Farnham Maltings, 19th and 20th November.
Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-48571926377102991192011-10-06T02:29:00.000-07:002011-10-06T02:29:34.852-07:00PRESTON BUS STATION<!--[if gte mso 9]>
12.00
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-GB
X-NONE
HE
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>
Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-23339356704741964562011-09-29T08:37:00.000-07:002011-09-30T10:03:54.979-07:00MORE ABOUT MANET'S SOURCES
Manet, Déjeuner sur l'herbe
An artist friend says that the sources for Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe are far more likely to have been Giorgione's Concert Champêtre and The Tempest than Raphael's Judgement of Paris. The Musée D'Orsay says, "Manet was paying tribute to Europe's artistic heritage, borrowing his subject from the Concert Champêtre – a painting by Titian attributed at the time to Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-24122537645874034372011-09-16T02:47:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:23:18.237-07:00MANET'S CERAMIC CONNECTIONI was familiar with reproductions of Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe long before I saw it in the Musée d'Orsay. However blasé you are, the impact of its size and the juxtaposition of the naked woman and the clothed men is still great.
Manet studied the old masters and copied the three principal figures in Déjeuner from Raphael's design for The Judgment of Paris. Raphael did not actually paint it Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-3267871771398381842011-09-12T07:49:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:42:57.906-07:00STIG LINDBERG'S BIOMORPHIC CERAMICS
Stig Lindberg
In ceramics, joie de vivre is usually associated with the Mediterranean – the tin-glazed pottery of Spain or Vallauris. But there's something about tin-glaze itself that brings it out, even in the north. One of its great exponents was Stig Lindberg (1916-1982), the prolific Swedish designer who spent most of his career at the Gustavsberg pottery factory.
Lindberg Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-85585402655819690482011-08-09T05:09:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:25:01.550-07:00BROKEN SYMMETRYMarshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-76815662004509333672011-07-04T10:12:00.000-07:002011-09-18T07:55:50.350-07:00NEW WORKNew work in three colours: black, yellow and red.You can do a lot with a little, contrasting different brush strokes and different combinations of colours. Three colours can be paired in six ways, four colours in 12 - so why create confusion with four when you can do so much with three?
The ovals are carefully constructed, to make them symmetrical, not irregular or egg-shaped - then the Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-64991613893121803752011-06-29T10:57:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:25:54.203-07:00CHILDWICKBURY ARTS FAIRThis weekend, Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd July, I am at Christiane Kubrick's Childwickbury Arts Fair, a wonderful event which you can see a trailer for in the video. I will be exhibiting recent work and showing how I make vessels by throwing and then altering the thrown forms. More information here.
Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-43056055471209387712011-04-02T10:19:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:43:29.867-07:00TEXTILE INFLUENCESBecause surface design is an important part of my work I take my inspiration from arts other than studio ceramics, which is a bit sniffy about decoration. Lucienne Day's textiles are an important source. Her iconic "Calyx" design, made for the Festival of Britain in 1951, makes clever use of five colours, selecting eight contrasts out of a possible twenty. I like this disciplined treatment of Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-85764146646797256402011-03-06T11:47:00.000-08:002011-09-27T02:51:10.383-07:00TABLEWARE
The curator at the Nantgarw Pottery museum in Wales demonstrates the use of the jigger-and-jolly, 2006. A craft technique retained in industry or an industrial technique applied to craft? (Photo copyright)
There was a good piece in Ceramic Review a couple of years ago about tableware and studio pottery. It showed two pieces of pottery by David Leach, a little fluted bowl and the same shape Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Nantgarw, Cardiff, Rhondda Cynon Taff CF15 7, UK51.5636172 -3.267618800000036623.866919700000004 -63.03324380000004 79.26031470000001 56.49800619999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-75447765218238380842011-02-13T07:46:00.000-08:002011-09-18T08:01:42.215-07:00ARTS AND CRAFTS
Country Living magazine has a feature on "The Art of Craft" in its March issue, on the 150th anniversary of the founding of Morris & Co., the engine of the Arts and Crafts Movement under the direction of its creator, William Morris. The feature celebrates "the enduring appeal of the handcrafted home with furnishings ranging from hand-thrown ceramics and artisan baskets to rustic Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-40746817520251070882011-01-31T11:54:00.000-08:002011-09-27T02:27:18.418-07:00MORE FROM THE EDGEMarshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-23077036760868688522010-12-21T05:45:00.000-08:002011-09-27T02:28:09.493-07:00WINTER DECORATING
"Pomegranate" pattern on conical mug
This is one of my standard patterns, based on three colours. The mugs are about to go into a glaze firing, when the black dots will turn blue.Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-40639490512410031322010-11-22T09:14:00.000-08:002011-09-27T02:28:36.124-07:00NEW WORKMarshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-40063694596758459412010-10-25T02:28:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:46:37.897-07:00TRAINERS AT EMMAUSRome is so full of churches, and so many of them are dedicated to Mary, that it's easy to go to the wrong one. We meant to go to Santa Maria del Popolo, in the Piazza del Popolo, to see the two paintings by Caravaggio they have there, The Crucifixion of St Peter and The Conversion of St Paul, but I had mis-remembered the church from my last visit and went to Santa Maria dei Miracoli instead, oneMarshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Rome, Italy41.90994094931718 12.47613440370480541.652518449317185 12.128471403704804 42.16736344931718 12.823797403704805tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-3964311043056020322010-10-18T02:13:00.000-07:002012-01-17T04:19:57.574-08:00THE UNEXPECTED Before we went to Rome I broke a ceramic figurine of sentimental value. I should have packed it, because one of our finds was Squatriti, this doll's hospital in the Via di Ripetta. It's not the sort of thing you look for, but it's typical of the unexpected things you come across while wandering in the city. (Among the others were a religious parade by Rome's Peruvian community and a modernistMarshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Rome, Italy41.90657900000001 12.47572509999997741.64915650000001 12.128062099999976 42.164001500000005 12.823388099999978tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-67002573996364677792010-10-08T06:24:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:49:46.559-07:00THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY
Dolfi ceramics
We are going to Rome soon, after a successful Open Studio. The last time I was there I bought a ceramic vase like this one, made in the Dolfi factory in Montelupo. There was a big shop by the Piazza Sant'Andrea selling reproductions of Renaissance maiolica. You see it all over Italy. Market stalls in Florence overflow with it, much of it made nearby in the ancient pottery Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Corso Domenico Baccarini, 48018 Faenza Ravenna, Italy44.2880603 11.87957329999994744.2872858 11.879052299999946 44.2888348 11.880094299999948tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-88179579977808049242010-10-03T10:58:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:29:26.568-07:00GIFT OF THE KILNMarshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-7488025223421466332010-09-12T09:45:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:30:15.060-07:00NEW WORK AT MY OPEN STUDIOMy studio is open, with new work on show, every weekend from now until 3 October, 10am to 6pm. For more information see Hertfordshire Open Studios.
Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-81448647599115394132010-09-06T04:07:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:30:49.753-07:00OPEN STUDIOSMy studio will be open as part of Hertfordshire Open Studios between 11 September and 3 October. Visitors are welcome on Saturdays and Sundays between 10am and 6pm, or at other times by appointment. I have been getting my display ready and have some large new pieces on show. It's looking good.
For more information about the Open Studios, click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-12346325316653992602010-08-07T00:14:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:31:27.055-07:00NEW WORK AT HATFIELDMarshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK51.762719 -0.224709200000006651.7182855 -0.3175132000000066 51.807152499999994 -0.1319052000000066tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-34694476253541528952010-08-03T13:54:00.000-07:002011-09-18T08:08:28.072-07:00LAST MINUTEI will be setting up for Art in Clay at Hatfield House on Thursday, the day after tomorrow. The show opens on Friday and runs to Sunday.Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK51.762719 -0.224709200000006651.7182855 -0.3175132000000066 51.807152499999994 -0.1319052000000066tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-83982881864462522962010-07-06T02:35:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:32:06.842-07:00ON SHOWThe Childwickbury Arts Fair, put on by Christiane Kubrick last weekend, was wonderful, with fantastic weather and a great display of art indoors and out. The day before set-up my car broke down irremediably and I had to hurriedly hire a van, but Catherine and I set everything up in good time and my display looked good. My new blue-and-white range was popular. Whichever plate Catherine put the Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK51.7522332 -0.338670600000000451.720168199999996 -0.3807856000000004 51.7842982 -0.29655560000000036tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-5637245049002992662010-06-22T02:35:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:44:05.151-07:00HOW TO PAINT
The garden of Sissinghurst in Kent, made by Vita Sackville West, is famous for combining maximum formality in design with minimum formality in planting. The garden is structured, with separate rooms divided by walls and hedges, but within the room plants spread and tumble all over the place.
I decorate on the Sissinghurst principle, taking tightly thrown vessels and dishes and painting Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Sissinghurst, Cranbrook, Kent TN17 2, UK51.10878169999999 0.562523100000021351.101031699999986 0.5504456000000213 51.11653169999999 0.5746006000000212tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-50276404038231886302010-06-09T02:55:00.000-07:002011-09-18T08:11:46.705-07:00THIS WILL NOT DO FOR JOSIAH WEDGWOODJosiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), the man who revolutionised the North Staffordshire Potteries, combined high standards, business acumen and brilliant technical innovation. When I was at university in the area, I walked over the ruins of his old pottery in Etruria; some years earlier it had moved to a modern factory in Barlaston.
Wedgwood used to go round his factory inspecting the day's work. If Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-51230282821820810102010-06-02T12:02:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:50:39.968-07:00ISAAC BUTTONThis is a film of Isaac Button, country potter, made in 1965. He was about 70 when the film was made and the last person working at Soil Hill Pottery near Halifax, Yorkshire. His throwing skill was phenomenal. Here he is throwing 28 lb (about 15 Kg) into a cider jar. Quite apart from the mass of clay he uses and the speed at which he works, this is a particularly difficult shape, with its Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Soil Hill, Halifax, West Yorkshire HX2, UK53.7779296 -1.891510400000015653.7772321 -1.8970774000000157 53.7786271 -1.8859434000000155tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-17569735745642813322010-05-16T09:02:00.000-07:002011-09-27T02:56:16.095-07:00ONE HUNDRED COLOURS OF WHITE
I took a break in Barcelona after completing my new workshop. The tin-glazed peasant pottery in the gift shops is similar to the 18th and 19th century work in the expensive antique shops, from ancient pottery places like Manises. There is some nice architectural tile work in the azulejo style, like this water fountain in Santa Anna Square, made in 1918 by Josep Aragay (Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Passeig de Gràcia, 08007 Barcelona, Spain41.39197009999999 2.16504950000000941.39197009999999 2.165049500000009 41.39197009999999 2.165049500000009tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-33059065084647767132010-03-03T03:33:00.000-08:002011-09-18T08:16:19.412-07:00GRAYSON PERRY OFF-CENTREHere is an article Grayson Perry wrote in Ceramic Review a few years back.
"A ceramics centre in North Devon? Why not go the whole hog and put up signs saying 'You are now entering "Leach Country"?' After all, we've got Bronte Country and Hardy Country. A Potter's Book should be made into a TV mini-series with Colin Firth as Bernard Leach.
"Pottery has been trying to shake of the smock ofMarshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-25315773550668980072010-03-02T09:19:00.000-08:002011-09-18T08:17:34.928-07:00HIP HOP MEGILLAH
I am working on a cycle of ceramics illustrating five books of the Hebrew Bible: Ruth, Esther, The Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes and Lamentations. This group is known in the Jewish tradition as the Chumash Megillot, the Five Scrolls.
I am not usings the images of a vague Biblical antiquity that you find in the rare illustrations of these books in mainstream art, but images Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-40475310979068653272010-02-18T03:17:00.000-08:002011-09-26T14:36:28.062-07:00PLATES DON'T HAVE A SOULWilliam Morris, the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement, learned and practiced many crafts, but not pottery. Ceramics did not feature very prominently in the Arts and Crafts movement, until 20th century studio pottery, which was virtually invented by Bernard Leach. Although Leach was influenced by Japanese pottery, many of his Japanese colleagues, notably Soetstu Yanagi, were strongly Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-35346825730043299282009-11-17T04:11:00.000-08:002011-09-27T02:45:40.603-07:00CLEAN FINGERNAILSThe holiday season brings opportunities for makers sell their work direct to the public and to find out what they like and don't like. This year I'm not having a Christmas sale at home like I did last year, but I'm selling my recent tableware at the Harley Gallery in Nottinghamshire and at Christiane Kubrick's Christmas fair at Childwickbury on my doorstep in Hertfordshire.
Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Childwickbury, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL3 6, UK51.7820234 -0.3480402999999796524.1988694 -60.11366529999998 79.3651774 59.41758470000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-73562250306729573172009-11-04T01:08:00.000-08:002011-09-27T03:10:54.258-07:00PICASSOETTESThe first book on pottery I ever read was Practical Pottery and Ceramics by Kenneth Clark (Studio Books, 1964) – not Kenneth Clark the art critic, and not Kenneth Clark the Tory politician, but Kenneth Clark of the Kenneth Clark pottery, which did architectural commissions as well as tableware and was not shy of using industrial methods. His book is still a good introduction to the methods of Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0Southern Europe36.94989198410534 14.23828087499998727.153141984105343 -16.320519125000015 46.74664198410534 44.79708087499999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-27851968385403940132009-10-30T02:04:00.000-07:002011-09-27T06:11:03.578-07:00ARTISTS' TOWN
My picture shows a ceramic plaque by Margit Kovács on a block of flats in Budapest.
Margit Kovács (1902-77) studied ceramics in Vienna, Munich, Copenhagen and Paris. Her sculpture is rooted in Hungarian folk art and makes references to religion and family life. There are collections in Győr, her birthplace, and in Szentendre, the pretty artists' town just outside Budapest, which I visited in Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com02000 Szentendre, György St, Hungary47.67554699999999 19.05912000000000747.67460399999999 19.058259000000007 47.67648999999999 19.059981000000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5239452518036952208.post-57449875297011803132009-10-28T02:38:00.000-07:002011-09-27T05:59:38.755-07:00NO MORE KILN-BUILDINGYesterday I went to a party to say farewell to Kyra Kane, head of ceramics at Harrow, the University of Westminster. She is leaving following the University's decision to close the Harrow course in 2013. The Harrow course is one of the leading ceramics courses in Britain and is respected throughout the world. The accountants have decided it costs too much. Of course, it always cost too much, Marshall Colmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00293970978200882404noreply@blogger.com0