Irene Bell, Turf Cart, 2007 (Detail), slipcast earthenware with underglaze drawing

I’ve added a new album of work by Irene Bell. Irene is a part-time lecturer in ceramics at the Glasgow School of Art. She also lectures first year Design students in the Core Studies program.

Bell draws inspiration from the undulations and sweeps of manipulated landscapes, in particular, golf courses and topiary. She specializes in freehand tonal drawing on raw clay, and the compositional relationship of image to form. Her compositions border on the dangerous transition between working and not-working, between eye pleasing, harmonious success and graphic disaster.

She also has a keen interest in the interaction between stationary objects and those in motion. Portions of each image appearing static, while others in the same composition appear to move. To view Irene Bell’s work, please click here.

A very small portion of the intricately carved ceiling of Roslyn Chapel, about 20 mins drive South of Edinburgh. There is a theory that the little boxes coming down from the ceiling represent musical notes. Each box has a pattern carved into it, which happens to be identical to the pattern which is formed by loose grains of sand, if they are placed on a piece of metal which makes that particular note.

Firstly, I would like to say a HUGE thank you to my husband, Campbell Brown and my brother, Filip Radlinski, who took it upon themselves over the last few weeks to devote much of their spare time in order to wrestle with and tame the technology behind this blog and website, including spending hours waiting in a telephone queue to speak to my hosting company.

Writing here is all very fun and easy but when it comes to things like backups, software updates or migrating to a new platform… (that’s nothing to do with trains, shoes or birds), dns pointers, etc, it’s all just a whole lot of incomprehensible gobblygook to me - or however that may be spelled, but you get the idea.

The website hopefully doesn’t look any different, but it’s all brand spanking new and shiny in the background, I assure you, and I NEVER would have been able to tackle it by my lonesome.

However, if you do come across a link that no longer works, please email me and let me know, so that I can fix it. There conceivably could be a few that have slipped through the very fine teeth of the virtual comb we used. AND if you have book marked any part of this blog or my gallery pages, it might be a good idea to make a new bookmark, as your old one may no longer work.

As a result of the changes I haven’t been able to make any updates to the site for a while - even though I’ve been here, and working hard in the studio (with a little break for the festive season, I must admit).

John Maguire, 2001. Tall Vase in studio courtyard. Thrown stoneware with cobalt wood ash glaze and white slip.

So apart from loud and wild Christmas parties, three day long Hogmanay (New Year’s) celebrations and my madly feverish preparation for my trip and forthcoming WIP in Oz, I’d like to announce that the first thing I’ve tackled this year website-wise is a new album full of images from John Maguire’s portfolio. Click here to view them.