Anguilla sculpture

Thank you Kevin Sharp Photography for this image taken at the closing ceremony, a good time was had by all

heavy trousers

I decided that trying to bring my jeans home would exceed my luggage allowance so I left them behind

the best ever studio

Quarry

The Anguilla quarry where the stone came from for our sculpture. It is a remarkable place with deep red soil in the huge voids in the stone

Stone found!

Don, Almuth and Walterleaning on my block

Natalie's cake

I have to go to Anguilla now, Natalie made this amazing 'Bon Voyage' chocolate cake and the rest of my lovely carving students helped me eat it during my last class with them this term. It did not last long! Thankyou Natalie it was superb. Fuelled with excellent cake and good wishes, I shall be flying tomorrow.

Countdown to the Caribbean

Just a few more days and I shall be at the first Anguilla stone carving symposium, so to get prepared for the warmth, I have been wearing a lot of leather as part of the bronze casting team at Morley College again. It was another highly successful pour.

Fundrazr is still accepting contributions for the symposium where I shall be needing protective sun screen 

Anguilla stone

My Anguillan stone, thanks to Mr Cleophas Gumbs of Anguilla Native Stone for supplying a 1metre square block of something similar to travertine. Not long now

skin and studios

Yesterday was tough! My recently spruced up studio, above, is virtually unrecognisable from the more usual 'creative melee' that I inhabit; which might also be called by some, a chronic disarray. All new painted and clean for the Brancaster Chronicles back in August and with most of my stuff behind a wall, I am sharing the clear space. This is not easy for me, I much prefer splendid isolation. However I shall be away at the first Anguilla Stone Symposium for November (contributions very welcome on Fundrazr) and off again in the New year to Italy for the three month Brian Mercer Bronze Fellowship. Rather than leave the studio empty, it will now also have Inderjeet working with concrete and artificial skin........

The London Group Open

I am delighted to have been selected for the 82nd London Group Open, 
I am VERY select company

 It will be lovely if you can be there.

Italy!

I have been so busy recently that blogs have been few and far between but suddenly, just like busses, three come along at once this week.
I had to think long and hard but after a nano second, I have accepted an invitation to work in Italy for three months next year. To be honest, I really didn't believe that I had even got the placement at first, I needed to get other people to check the email. Thanks to the generosity of the Brian Mercer Foundation, I shall be in a bronze foundry in Pietrasanta, northern Tuscany, top left hand side of Italy, I shall be there starting in January so I expect it to be a tad chilly and will have to come home at the start of the spring. I shall miss Polly the dog but I know she will have a great time and probably not notice I have gone.
I have been asked if I need an assistant several times already, please form an orderly queue

The heat is on

  

Another fine bronze course at Morley College. Thankfully the weather is cool for July but still hot dressed in leather with a furnace going, about the same temperature as my Grans front room.

Busy painting for Brancaster Chronicles

I have had a super busy time in the studio, very ably assisted by an intern who really has been amazing. I did not expect to enjoy having someone else around let alone teaching them but she has been brilliant, good company and is smart! I think she will do well when she graduates and I am delighted with the new work which she has helped me with and I shall miss her. Now though it is all systems go to get the studio cleared, cleaned and painted for the next set of Brancaster Chronicles. This annual discussion forum  brings together a group of invited artists to discuss our work in each of our studios.  As I shall be hosting the paintings of Fred Pollock, a painter I have long admired, it seemed a good plan to have a tidy up. I am so glad I started early, it has been hard work up and down ladders painting and making sure spiders get to a new home safely outside and there has been far more to do than I expected. I now have a clean studio with white painted walls which make the space so much lighter.
Last years discussion of my sculpture can be found -: https://brancasterchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/brancaster-chronicle-no-14-alexandra-harley-sculptures
I shall let you know when this years one is up online
meanwhile if anyone can tell me why the new apple Photos system has collapsed yet again I would be grateful, the only photo I can load is this new one in progress

Creekside photos

There was a fantastic turnout for the Creekside Open PV so I waited till later before taking the photos. Otherwise all you would have seen was happy people but no art work. On until 31st May.

Creekside Open

Hurrah!! I am delighted to be invited to show in the Creekside Open in the rather fab APT gallery in Deptford. 'Mossom' was selected by Lucy Milroy for the first exhibition.

A.P.T Gallery
Harold Wharf, 6 Creekside, Deptford, London SE8 4SA
7 to 31 May 2015 and 11 June to 5 July 2015
The exhibitions at the A.P.T Gallery will be open Thursday to Sunday from 12noon to 5pm and at other times by appointment.
Transport Links :
Southeastern Trains to Deptford or Greenwich DLR to Deptford Bridge or Greenwich
London Overground to New Cross
Buses: 47, 53, 177,180, 453 

Dead car

Alas and alack, the car has finally died. It has come to an end while queuing for the Blackwall Tunnel, which is never a good place to break down, overheating because the fan switch packed up. I had a photographer waiting for me at my studio being looked after by the ever resourceful and excellent intern while I waited for the AA who were, as usual, brilliant. I sat with Polly the spaniel by the side of the A12 watching other gaskets being blown, this time in human form as drivers fumed at the traffic jam. The garage assures me that despite the repairs, this time the problem is terminal. I doubt that there is anyone looking for a very elderly Corsa in need of attention, despite the smell of dead and rotting squirrel (not a new fragrance found in car shops, but a reminder of some piping in October 2012) being finally overridden by the rather stronger aroma of wet dog.

interns and farty dogs

I was contacted a few months ago by a jewellery student taking a sabbatical work experience year who wanted to come and work with/for me so that she could learn about wood. I am all for encouraging people but I really was convinced that it would be a disaster for us both. I did not want to spend all my time supporting her rather than getting on and, most importantly, I was not at all sure that I would be able to give her enough of the right sort of experience nor did I want to exploit her. However, she is very persuasive!! She was sure that things would work ok, she really had done her homework looking at my sculpture on the website so she knew that I don't do dinky and cute. I tried to tell her how cold the studio can be but when she came to meet me she said that as you cannot see the breath in front of your face, it cannot be that cold, I began to think it might work at that point and even Polly the soppy spaniel was welcome despite the excessive farts that day. My intern has been superb! She works hard, asks good questions, checks stuff and even tells me when she thinks it is all going horribly wrong rather than hide the evidence. If you are a 'creative' looking for an intern then let me know, she is looking for experience and anything legal will be considered, short or long term placements in London and she comes with immaculate references.
Currently she is splitting logs, which may possibly feel at times like being in a chain gang breaking stones and under my direction has so far gone from-:
log pile to .....................................................................................the start of a sculpture

postcards will be sent

I have just received a rather fantastic invitation to the First Anguilla Sculpture Symposium, I think I am speechless, so more info when I have recovered from the fabulous shock. Offers of suitcase carrying and personal assistant are already being proffered, please form an orderly queue!!

out of the studio

Things have conspired to keep me out of the studio recently and thankfully mostly good things. I have been welded to the computer making applications by the score; there seems to have been a number of really interesting exhibitions and opportunities to apply for since Christmas. Results awaited and as usual you may well hear the cheers and hopefully not too many sobs. I am hoping that all the writing has made an improvement to my applications and it certainly does tone up the grey matter to talk about my sculpture coherently. I have just put an American artist chum on a plane to go home and we had a fab week doing the galleries and London has a lot of galleries! She did say that she had done enough art for a while.....
As it has been a tad chilly, being in a warm gallery is rather more preferable to a cold studio which is where I shall be again tomorrow. Having said that, we have had a glorious spring day and the first sight of crocus in bloom

Bronze casting, yay!

I have just spent the last 2 weekends in the company of the London Sculpture Workshop www.londonsculptureworkshop.org doing a ceramic shell bronze casting workshop. The LSW is a splendid resource for sculptors because it has all the big stuff equipment that we don't need everyday and certainly cannot afford. Great fun and thankfully good weather. I need to spend a bit more time filing my sculptures, photos soon

In progress

I did not do all of these! burning out

 after the pour

Porcelain

Back in Chelmsford College again and using the kilns. I have been busy working with porcelain which I loaded into the kiln where it will spend time drying out before firing. Potentially two sculptures if the firing goes well. Pity the kiln isn't in the studio as I would be warmer! 

all connected up

Having had a successful interview, I shall be teaching a few hours a week at Morley College in central London. All good. One the questions at the interview was about my attitude to social media. So kicking and screaming I find myself with a Twitter account Alexandra Harley@HarleySculpture, I constantly amaze myself!

padding and glowing

Meanwhile, back in the studio and it is freezing, thermals, padded shirts and two pairs of trousers were essential; in fact I was so well padded that had I fallen over, I probably would have bounced and I am not sure that I could have got up again. I was working with clay yesterday, so I wasn't quite so active as I am when I am carving;  I was preparing some porcelain for a new sculpture, this is a material I have never tried before so there are some exiting times ahead. This is assuming I haven't succumbed to hypothermia and/or frostbite in the cold of the studio.
My studio is hard by the Olympic park in east London,  and I see Anish Kapoor's 'Mittal Tower' from my studio, gleaming at me in the night, the red glow provides the only warmth

2015 - keeping on

2014 has been busy, productive as well as fun! That's a good result. New friends made in Kyoto, friendships renewed in Massachusetts and friends maintained here in the UK. I managed to get into the studio regularly and I have been involved in several great shows, so here's to 2015. Another 'Brancaster Chronicles' to look forward to and a new years resolution to keep going!