Oooooo! Bella Vista Art Gallery!

It's been a ridiculously busy spring and summer, 

and I cringe at the thought that I've neglected this blog.

The part of me that rejoices in neat and ordered things wants 

to list all the ridiculously busy events I've been tied up with.  

Chronologically.  With suitable detail.  

And photos.

The other part of me wants to skip all that, jump up and down, and shriek

"I'm in a gallery in Asheville!"

Christin Zelenka and Glenn Garson of 

Bella Vista Art Gallery

selected about 15 of my sgraffito pieces for their gallery

in Biltmore Village.

I am honored and ecstatic!

My 'Cat Nap & Bones' sgraffito platter.

My large coiled and sgraffito'd vase on left.

Sgraffito'd platters, tumblers and bowls, oh my!

I hope you can pop in and check it out if you're in Asheville.

  

www.bellavistaart.com

14 Lodge Street, Asheville NC  28803

828.768.0246

Catfish

This happy catfish mug will be my mascot for the 

Underglaze & Resist Workshop

next month at Appalachian Arts & Crafts Center

where we'll play with this majolica-esque technique!

I'll try to post pix soon of the soup bowls.

And hopefully we'll have figured out dates for this 

workshop to be held at the

Oak Ridge Art Center.

A Peek...

Here's a peek at a new mug ready to be glazed.

I'm afraid the colors are a bit off here... 

the lights in the studio aren't very good for pix.

The catfish's (merkitty? purrmaid?) body is yellow with orange stripes, 

and the tail is various pale greens.

In the background are some bowls for the Oak Ridge Art Center's 

fabulous fundraiser, Souper Bowl, to be held this Friday Feb 1st.

Please check out www.oakridgeartcenter.org for details.

(These bowls are a joint effort with the amazing Bill Capshaw

who throws lighter-than-air bowls!)

I plan on taking the mug to the Underglaze and Resist Workshop  

I'm teaching at the Appalachian Arts & Crafts Center in 

Norris, TN on Mar 2-3.

I hope to be offering the same workshop at the 

Oak Ridge Art Center, but I haven't coordinated a date yet.  oops.

For updates please check back here or 

my Jane Cartwright Pottery page on facebook.

Cats in the Garden

Coil-built white stoneware with sgraffito decoration.

Haha! 

Just under the wire I have successfully submitted these

photos to the Arts & Cultural Alliance in Knoxville

for their National Juried Exhibition.

No telling how many times I actually sent the entry form.

I had help.  And this time it wasn't one of my cats...

it was my daughter Kelsey's Amelie who, with pin 

point accuracy, leapt onto the laptop

and deleted (or sent) the form.  Twice.

My goal is to enter more shows and competitions,

and though I now have a decent photo set-up

there is still so much to learn about

the photography end of this biz.

If you'd like to see a pic of this bowl during 

the carving stage click on April in the 2012 archive 

to the right of this post. 

Guido is helping.

Wish me luck! 

My Fridge... The Original Pinterest

It occurred to me this evening
as I spent waaaaaay too much time poking around Pinterest
...instead of working in the studio...
that I've been 'pinning' things for years.

Custom Mug

This is a custom mug I made for my friend, Stephanie, last year.
It was to be a surprise gift celebrating their dog, Hogan, and new puppy, Bogey.
Steph sent me several pix of the dogs, including one of Hogan, the dachshund, in his
 life jacket!  There were also plenty photos of critters from the garden.
It was great fun incorporating them on the mug.

Although I thoroughly enjoy doing this technique it is very time consuming
and requires 3 firings instead of the usual 2.  I use an underglaze pencil for the outline
and amaco velvet underglazes for the color.

Hogan swims inside the mug, while Bogey is on garden duty.   

Hogan, chipmunk, baby birds and hummer.

Hummingbird, purple coneflowers and strawberry-thieving chipmunk.

Leigh sent me an 'action shot' of Hogan swimming in her morning coffee. 

Children's Museum of Oak Ridge

I am so honored to have been asked to paint a birdhouse for the
Children's Museum of Oak Ridge's Annual Gala!
Several area artists were asked to decorate wooden birdhouses
which will be auctioned off to help raise funds for
this wonderful museum.

I was on a roll and stayed up pretty late working on this.
Apparently Guido got tired of waiting for me to go to bed.  He found me and seemed to
decide that if he refused to budge maybe I'd give up, and we could go to bed.
He makes a very soft and patient arm rest!

I found this little brass chicken in a box of odds-n-ends at an auction years ago.
It's a happy way to keep my 'palette' from sliding around. 

I love the pop of complimentary colors together. 

This was great fun!