SOMERSET LOVE 2/4: meet arts and artists

Meeting artists you admire is such a exciting moment, isn’t it? It is wonderful opportunity to seek their insights and ask questions you always wondered. Visiting them in their studio would be a bonus, not just you may see the actual work process but also peek through their inspiration and all sort of fabulous stuff! 

beautifully 'weather effected' work by Claire

We are so lucky to have been able to visit Claire Loder in her studio, and it was a dream come true! Claire is an artist who makes unique ceramic faces and heads, and her work is widely recognised throughout Britain and beyond. I can still remember the excitement that I first met her at Origin last year, shortly after seeing her fascinating work in ceramic magazine. When she responded to my email, I was thrilled! 

Claire kindly shared many of her thoughts and interests, and we had a rather long chat all morning! She was also encouraging on my study and work :-) Thank you so so much Claire for giving us such a fab time! We brought one more head called ‘sitting tenant’ back home from her studio, now happily nesting in our room. Do visit her website and find ‘them’ in her mysterious mirror world. 

Thank you so so much Claire!

our new face 'sitting tenant'

We are also lucky to have visited Bath on this occasion, just in time for the current exhibition of Peter Blake at the Holburne Museum, which was also just opened after a three-year refurbishment. He is well known with Beatles’ jacket design; Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but in this exhibition there were more of his personal collections over the years. He assembled everything together in to collages and displayed in collection boxes, from tiny beach combing with his daughter to a plastic elephant that you can get like a freebee. A total treasure hunt, and I LOVED it. 

a museum for myself by Peter Blake

The Holburne Museum is a mixture of old and new, its building itself and display too. (Collections of ceramics were hung from the ceiling, which I loved.) There was a sketch exhibition by Karen Wallis, which showing the images of during the construction in drawings. (You can peek a bit here.) Her sketches were stunning, I wish I could draw like her... Nevertheless I did do some doodling here and there in Somerset, which I will show you on the next post. Be there if you can dare. xm