Imagine Gallery

Trying to catch up on neglected jobs I haven't had a chance to show anything else that is being shown in the exhibition.

Why is it that the things that you want to do most always go to the bottom of the list?

I dunno, but it happens everyday.

So today having a brief break from chores I am taking the opportunity to put a few

new pieces on show.

At the exhibition opening Jackie Morris was taking photographs of everything on show,

[unlike me as I totally forgot until it was too late].

Some of her pictures she put on display on her Facebook,

as a result there has been a lot of interest in the work of one woman in particular.

Eleanor Bartleman.

Ellie is a very clever woman, plus a very kind person.

She drove all the way from Devon just to bring me two small sculptures,

she wanted to make sure that they arrived intact,

plus she says that she likes to see where her work will be shown.

This is pretty unusual but certainly very refreshing.

It is a pity that we hadn't discussed it before, as two nights before I drove 10 hours to

Devon and back to collect something else so we could have met up on route.

However, it was lovely to have her visit and to have the time to talk,

and even nicer to open her boxes after she left.

I wanted to wait until she had left because I knew that I would be delighted with what she had

created and I wanted to take my time and linger over each piece.

A little like you did as a child when you were down to the last few unopened presents at Christmas.

Both pieces are beautiful and one is very unusual.

It is a totally different take on 'Little Bo - Peep'.

It explains why maybe she lost her sheep.

The other is equally as beautiful and has a real presence about it.

' To Market, To Market, To Buy A Fat Pig '.

It is lovely but what makes it special is the angelic face and eyes of the young boy.

If he was real he would be in films.

So I thought I had better show them quick before Jackie takes any more credit

for discovering them and Ellie.

Although of course no one discovered her, as she was never lost.

But I am proud to have her here.

Another woman who comes from the same part of the country

[well actually Cornwall but that's close]

is the very clever Jane Ryan.

Jane makes toys, wooden toys for adults.

Actually they are toys for all ages , but I somehow think that the story they tell and with the verses written upon them they are perhaps enjoyed more by "big children".

They all work and are meant to be played with and the three that arrived for the exhibition

were certainly played with at the exhibition opening.

They look very simple but the workings are very complex and very well conceived and crafted.

Regardless of anything else the old wooden plinths that they stand on are a thing of beauty,

I have an image in my mind of Jane spending hours on the beach each day searching for

driftwood, maybe not but it is hard to imagine that they came from anywhere else.

Plus I like the romantic image in my mind.

The piece above is 'March Winds April Showers',

as the handle is turned the woman waters the flowers which then grow.

Very clever.

Her version of 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' sold at the opening but we do still have

'Lavenders Blue Lavenders Green'...........Love Machine.

With a title like that you just know that it is different.

The spoon on the stand is yet another creation from the multi talented Karen.

Simple and beautiful, is the best way to describe it.

With the title it explains itself.

"A Swarm of Bees In June Is Worth A Silver Spoon".

Although the spoon might be antique silver the Bees are cast from Pewter.

Karen created them from clay

"holding them with a toothpick, as they were drying too fast in my fingers".

Then when they had been fired she cast them individually, each individual Bee is beautiful and highly detailed and I couldn't help but ask "wouldn't it have been easier to have cast from life"?

She told me "no", because all of the real detail would be lost and the only way she could show detail was by exaggerating everything.

I have since found this is true as I have seen various insects including Bees that have been cast from life and they all appear fuzzy and blurred.

What she will make next is any ones guess but I just know that the best of Karen's work is still to come and I know that she will go onto great things.

It is not if, just when.