It
was in the Anglian Potters Newsletter that I first saw David Cooke
and Brendan Hesmondhalgh were planning to run a series of summer
courses this year, which just goes to prove that reading your newsletter
from cover to cover can prove an enriching experience. Having lost
my heart to David’s owls and tortoises when I first began
to visit AP exhibitions and having admired Brendan’s rather
cynical looking pelicans and agile snails at a number of ceramic
shows, I lost no time in signing up for a 5 day summer school .
The course received an enthusiastic endorsement from Tracey Whinray,
who I met at Potters Camp soon after she had returned from one of
the 3 day courses. Apparently the participants had been given free
rein to build whatever animal had taken their fancy. She chose to
make a hare but cats, dogs, a near life-size goat and even a lion
had made an appearance. Following her advice to go to the course
with an animal in mind, I borrowed a rhinoceros beetle and, after
washing the smoke of Potters Camp out of my hair, headed north for
Holmfirth.
David and Brendan’s studio space, which they share with two
other sculptors and which is known as Sculpture Lounge Studios,
occupies a number of rooms at the back of Bottoms Mill. Fortunately
Tracey had warned me that the rest of the mill is given over to
a builder’s merchant, so I wasn’t overly daunted to
find myself driving past small mountains of sand and threading between
large lorries full of bricks. Other participants were less prepared
so it took a little while on that first day for all ten of us to
assemble and introduce ourselves. Our skill levels were various,
ranging from a sculptor with several pieces of commissioned work
on public display to a watercolour artist who had never handled
clay before. After acquainting us with the ground floor studio area,
consisting of two main workshops and a gallery area full of animals,
we went upstairs to the newly renovated teaching area where Brendan
and David revealed to us that this course was not going to be a
free-for-all. They were setting us a project that would involve
visiting a waterfowl park, doing 2- and 3-D sketches of anything
that stood still for long enough and translating these into a clay
bird of some sort. I believe they entitled the project ‘Fowl
Play’, which certainly fits in with their propensity for making
awful puns.
On this first day Brendan demonstrated how to roll a sheet of clay
and, working from the inside, shape and curve this to resemble a
swan’s neck, and then to add a beak and eyes. Soon we were
all rolling and shaping so that by the end of the session a series
of more or less elegant necks were rising around the room. The following
day was spent ‘in the field’, first doing some conventional
sketching of ducks, Canada geese and swans and then trying our hand
at making some 3-D models from wire and masking tape. Despite their
disgust that we had come there to sketch them and not to feed them,
the birds were co-operative and soon a group of slightly wobbly
wire birds began to populate the lakeside. Pleased with our efforts
we then headed off to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for lunch and
perhaps some inspiration. Back in the studio we took advantage of
the many bird books available and the internet link that David had
set up to plan our sculptures. The next three days saw us putting
these plans into operation with much advice and hands-on help from
David and Brendan. In addition to individual assistance with tricky
problems, we also had some more formal demonstrations each day covering
different aspect of ceramic sculpture. Thus we learnt about making
feet of clay, how to construct eyes, ways of achieving realistic
textures, the uses of car body filler and wire rescued from skips
and how to use oxides and stains to good effect. We also consumed
a considerable amount of coffee and some excellent food.
It was fascinating watching how different people tackled the project
and soon ten completely disparate bird sculptures took shape. Perhaps
carried away by the abundance of clay available we all aimed for
life-size birds, indeed David Ross, another AP member attending
the course, eventually had to move downstairs as his flying duck
threatened to overwhelm the available studio space! In addition
to a goose, a moorhen and a raven, two completely different chickens
emerged, one plump and rather domineering, the other narrow, elegant
and slightly anxious. Similarly, two swans, one life-like and one
much more abstract took shape. By the end of day five everyone had
produced something worthy of firing and there was a general air
of achievement.
Being taught by two people was an interesting experience. David
and Brendan have somewhat contrasting styles of working and would
often suggest different ways of solving problems that arose during
building, each equally valid but each producing a rather different
effect. This helped to emphasise that there is no ‘right’
way of producing a sculpture. It became a running joke that 10 minutes
after one of them had salvaged a piece from near-disaster the other
would come along and, in the nicest possible way, modify the modification.
There are, however basic skills that can be taught and I can think
of no pleasanter and stimulating place to learn them than the Sculpture
Lounge Studios. As I headed back towards Cambridge, I decided that
my first project would be to immortalise my poor neglected rhinoceros
beetle…
Elizabeth
Chipchase 2006
Treasurer,
Anglian Potters Association.
Printed Dec 2006 |