The End

I cannot believe how quickly this experience went... here I am back in the UK after 4 days of teaching little girls how to make jewellery and sadly Banff seems too far away already.....

I had the most fantastic time and discovered many colours and ideas for larger sculptural works, I have a great deal to be getting on with when I get back to my art space in Stroud including work for a solo show in Stroud and the ROSL Scholars exhibition at OXO gallery, London, in October. The ROSL (Royal Over-seas League) are the people who sent me on this wonderful residency and I am so grateful, thank you!

We didn't manage to go on the hike to Healy Pass, because believe it or not, the weather turned pretty terrible, cold and wet but this meant I could blitz my last few days in the studio without feeling the need for a hike. I had one eventful night at about 1.30 am where I went to shake a black glaze up, containing manganese and cobalt oxides (yum) and the top was not fully on, so got caked in the stuff!! This is why I do not make a good late worker, I am much better as an early bird. The weather was glorious and clear and bright for my last day though, a fantastic way to say goodbye and a wonderful final journey through the Rockies back to Calgary airport.

I had a very good feedback session, where I invited people to look at my work and record their responses. The main theme of this research was to record human response to colour in relation to the form I had created. The pitcher plant-like shape was created, then I made a mould of this and slip cast them so I could achieve many to test. I was so pleased to hear that Air Canada allows 2 bags at 23kgs, so I could fly this mould home with me. Everything else has been carefully packed into the tube in the photograph and should be with me in a few weeks....

A residency is a fantastic opportunity for an artist. Not only does it give you the chance to be elsewhere (away from my leaking house in Gloucestershire and terrible summer weather in the UK) but away from the distractions of everyday life. It was a chance to meet fantastic people, Claire, Brett, Meghann, Erik, Yosuke, Jeremy, Hoang, Ed – thank you for enriching my life with your artwork and laughs! Above all, to see the nature of Canada and Banff in particular was so special. It is such a fresh and epic landscape. I will never smell pines again without thinking of Banff.

Aquoise

We did a truly fantastic day hike around Lake Louise on Friday, which has fuelled a new focus, that is the search for an "Aquoise" glaze, this is inspired by the gorgeous turquoise water in and around Banff National Park. As you can see in the photo, the water is a bright turquoise at Lake Louise.

I have 3 main glazes to test and each one has 5 colour combinations. This will keep me busy along with all the other things I have to do in my last week here! It has gone far too fast!!!

Still hoping to go to Healy Pass for a final day hike, to look at the wild flowers on Wednesday this week.

The colours are coming on after a few little set backs to do with glaze materials and temperatures. I have a good spectrum to work with so far but still have plans for other as yet unreached colours... I would love to discover something really extraordinary. Then it's ways of using photoshop to explore combinations and finally on to getting peoples responses to those colours. I think I will hold an open studio next Friday afternoon. I have moved studios to a room with a view, it is fantastic to see a large chunk of mountain looming up above the opposite building.

During my time here all artists have the opportunity to see the many performances for the Banff summer festival. I have seen some fantastic Ballet whilst here and there are several music events I am going to. The place had been over-run with young dancers (ages as young as 14 I think). It is the 60th year anniversary of the dance centre. We were shown some old footage of young girls back in 1947, dancing in fields in the mountains, the commentary was wonderful and the styles of Ballet dance seems to have changed a great deal.

There has been 2 art show openings since being here and bot have ended in good parties. We are a fun bunch and enjoy each other company a lot! Unfortunately, my 2 American buddies and fellow Harry Potter readers (we have been reading it out load to each other) are leaving, Claire already and Brett tomorrow. Also Jeremy from Canada is leaving soon, it is a shame, we have had some great laughs.

I have plans to get out and see the wild flowers of Healy Pass very soon, as well as a visit to Lake Louise.

Colours....

I have been getting stuck into mixing up coloured glazes. It took a while for myself and Ed (the ceramics facilitator) to work out which material equivalents to use, but we got there in the end. Many of the materials I regularly use are deemed dodgy in Canada it seems, so one of the lead substances Ed had locked away! I also got shown a box of very rarely used stains....found an unlabelled bag of yellow powder, I am 99% sure that it is Lead Antimony but won't know for sure until I have tested it....

I have made a ceramic model of a pitcher-like flower shape and made a plaster mould of it, so I can cast many of these to experiment.

On Sunday a group of 8 of us had a fantastic 22.5km hike in the ice fields, about 1.5 hours west of Banff. Right at the start we climbed straight up for about 2000 feet, at the highest point we were probably about 8000 feet up (Banff itself is 4500 feet above sea level). It was hard work but totally worth it! We had a some fantastic views of waterfalls and glaciers and even walked across bits of snow. I was only wearing my hiking sandals but they did me proud! I have no blisters or scrapes and wearing sandals avoids the dreaded wet sock scenario that many of my fellow hikers had after walking through streams over stepping stones! It was a wonderful experience, we came back down more gently through pine forests, mosses and flowers. The path was lined with a favourite flower of mine; the aquilegia, it was brilliant to see so many of them in the wild. We were all high as kites when we got back, just shows what exercise can do for the mind and body!

Paintbrushes (Indian and other)

I have given myself time to explore a bit of the Banff area and discovered that the town of Banff exists because of the hot springs found in the south of the town, instead of this being a big money making venture, the government declared them of beneficial use to the whole of Canada, there fore Banff was the first national park established in Canada. I went to visit the original hot springs (now a museum) and got eaten alive by mosquitoes! They are pretty vicious here. Anyhow, stocked up on Deet now....


I took a trip up Sulphur Mountain Gondola on Tuesday and got to see some fantastic views of Banff area and the Bow river. On the way there I spotted some bright red spiky flowers by the side of the road and I walked back along the road to get a closer look at them. I have since learned that they are called 'Indian Paintbrush', they have been instrumental in starting some new drawings and pantings. I have bought some huge paper and new inks and I have all the clay I need so far. The first exercise I am doing is to make some forms that can be easily cast and therefore easy to make multiples of. The forms needs to represent flower shapes and components. This will be the best way to explore colour response, with these creations representing blank canvasses. There ia also a great library here, I have found a good book on human response to colour.

We each did a presentation of our work on Wednesday, which was a great introduction to everyone and to see the breadth of talent here at Banff. There is a very dedicated and focused bunch of artists here form a variety of backgrounds, mostly American, Canadian and one person for Japan also. We all get along really well, we are planning for a BBQ tonight. Also at the Banff Centre I have the opportunity to see some extremely talented musicians. There are regular performances and also a good deal of dance coming up, it really is a good time to be here!

There was a wonderful storm the night before last that has cleared the air really well. It is a lot cooler and clearer but the sun when out, it is incredibly hot. We are planning a long hike on Sunday, hopefully an opportunity to search out and sketch some native flowers.

Day One

After a long flight and a sore head, I arrived at the Banff centre last night, after a lovely 2 hour bus ride form the airport. The mountains are awesome, very jagged in shape across the top any snow left on top of them is rapidly melting....The air hit me as I walked off the bus, hot, dry and smelling of pine trees. It's really very warm here but the driest heat I have ever experienced. I am drinking A LOT of water, I also feel drained of energy, apart form the jetlag, it's taking a while to adjust to being this high up in the mountains.

The Banff centre is incredibly friendly. I have lucked in with getting single bedroom for now until the 22nd July when I move into a shared room. The view is amazing and occasionally I hear the Banff train sound it's horn that echoes round the valley! I have met all of the visual arts co-ordinators today, especially great to meet Ed, the ceramics facilitator and also met many of the other visual artists. We will each be doing a presntation of our work on Wednesday which I am looking forward to. My working studio is ENORMOUS and the facilities on offer are superb, I also had a brilliant tour of the department.

I walked into Banff town today via the Bow Falls. The Bow river is a cool greeny turquoise, the mountains a deep jade and the sky a bright blue. The colours are so intense and this is just the start of it! I have already talked to a few people about where I might search out the most colourful flora...there are many places to look on the agenda. July - August is the best time for seeing the native flowers in bloom, so I really have come at the right time of year! So, my priorities is to get out and get drawing and to make the most of the weather that could suddenly change.

The central core for my proposal, is the investigation of our responses to the theme of Artificial Nature, focusing in particular on the botanical world.

My enquiry is about the viewer’s mixed reactions to sculpture that discusses this theme; feelings of attraction/repulsion (not necessarily both together), fear of other- worldliness, the familiar/unfamiliar. My sculptures celebrate these emotions and invite the viewer to embrace their own individual thoughts. My recent works, of which my most recent statement discusses, involved the use of mixed materials and Porcelain; the everyday and the special. Porcelain symbolises strength and fragility, death and purity and this material is the main medium for discussing my apprehensions to our changing planet.

In contrast to this, and for this residency, I want to explore further the possibilities of colour application for the next stage of my work. I want to prove that the use of colour is crucial in expressing the theme of artificial nature. A recent joint exhibition, with the artist Pauline Aitken, has further fuelled my intentions. Ms Aitken is a printmaker who has access to electron microscopic images of plant surfaces, and she in turn manipulates the image and it’s colour and has explored to great depth the use and effect of colour to our perceptions of the plant world. Applying such a spectrum in ceramic medium however, is a great challenge and one that I do not have the facilities here to explore.