I often get asked about inspiration and it trips off the tongue easily that the place we live in inspires us – the weather, the colours, the water. And it is true. But I don’t think it is actually such an obvious process…​ Read more below…

 

​We recently spent some time in the city of Leeds and I was equally inspired – so much colour, architecture, character and characters, movement – if I had had clay with me I could easily have got carried away. So it’s not about where we are so much as listening to where we are, noticing where we are, allowing ideas to grow and letting them be. I always looked on artists who claimed ‘inspiration’ as so far ahead of anything I could do – how do you look at a view and translate that into an object? For some time after starting to have a go with clay I was not even conscious of inspiration – I just played and created and it was all a bit random looking back but slowly some themes start to gather – the water, the mountains and the changing light… Not to mention my failed attempts at representing gorse. I have so many photographs of ferns too but somehow haven’t managed to translate that into clay yet – I am working on it. I love the way they slowly uncurl and the way their colour changes from new growth to dying back. Maybe that bit of inspiration won’t ever work its way into the clay effectively. We shall see.

So I guess a lot of it is about being responsive – and Argyll does make that easy. If you haven’t explored this area yet check out these websites for Argyll and Cowal – you can find them both on Facebook too. We have such beautiful coastlines, castles, wildlife… and a few cars in front of you is a tailback. Just a walk to the Post Office finds me snapping with my camera, watching the sea birds, seeing the light on the water change. Come, enjoy, relax… and be inspired!

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply