Lunchtime Talk Friday 13th January

Today Sophie Cummings gave a talk at lunchtime on the 'From Where I'm Standing' exhibition, in which 10 ceramicists were asked to respond to a couple of works from the collections. They have produced a huge variety of different ceramics. Here, below,Sophie is talking about Fenella Elm's response to the small piece which has influenced so much of her work, I've looked at her piece which I love, many times, but it wasn't until today I saw something completely different in it.

There were quite a few people who came along to to find out more about the exhibition, and more came during the talk.

 Jo Taylor took over from Sophie to talk about her work, here she is, below, talking about Nicholas Horsfield's painting 'Oval 1979 Evening, Downstream Towards Vernon' which she responded to in coloured porcelain. Jo talked about how she first came across the painting in the storeroom at very close quarters and was immediately impressed by the feel of the painting, the colours, splashes of apricot and lilac colours which she reproduced using coloured stains on the porcelain.

And here are 2 of Jo's pieces below, she has called them 'Riffing on Horsfield', there are 2 more elsewhere, another 'messier' one she has at home in her dining room, and there's another larger one. They are amazingly beautiful in texture and colour, they enhance the painting, and the painting enhances them in a lovely way.

Before leaving the gallery, I noticed the Fenella Elm's piece produced the most amazing shadows, somehow I'd missed the shadows previously.

Next week, Sophie is giving the last of her #FWIS talks accompanied by Keith Varney