In the ’80s I discovered from a friend that a few artists living along the river in Chiswick opened their studios one weekend a year. I got to know Mary Fedden and Anthea Craigmyle this way and bought some of their work.
Since then this has burgeoned into Artists at Home, sponsored by John D Wood, and this year there were fifty-seven Open Studios. It is a bitter-sweet experience for me. Mary Fedden died a few years ago and Anthea has not been well. Here is the last picture by her that I bought. It is of one of her pupils taking a lesson in her studio. She reluctantly told me her name as it is quite well-known. I will respect her tact and not share it.
So this year I leafed through the booklet listing the artists with more sadness than enthusiasm. However, that is how I came to meet the lovely Caroline Winn. She is a potter based betwixt Chiswick and Cornwall and makes quirky semi-abstract pieces that I instinctively knew would appeal. I immediately bought these two for the kitchen and the garden.
The top piece makes me smile every time I look at it. To create something so light-hearted and joyful marks Caroline out as an unusual and talented potter. Incidentally, she makes no bones about drawing inspiration from other better-known artists, including my teacher Gordon Baldwin, though, frankly, you’d not get much of a laugh out of any of his work.
Here’s something I made in the late ’90s. The green disc on the left dates back to my schooldays.
I’m hoping to buy a more substantial work by Caroline soon. I have tended to avoid buying ceramics because of their fragility but I’m now prepared to take the risk. Books Do Furnish a Room (vol X in Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time) may be true but a mix of pictures, bronzes and ceramics furnish a house much more satisfyingly; although I like lots of books too.
One summer holiday I built a wood-fired kiln at Barmeath. Foolishly I took a short-cut and sealed it with a concrete slab that exploded rather spectacularly as the kiln heated up. Unlike The Doors I was too dispirited to light my fire again.