STUDIO UPDATE

This month I had to wrap up all my ceramics back home tightly because I was off to Dubrovnik, Croatia for 10 days! I’ve spoken about this in the past, but I always struggle to leave my ceramics work for long periods of time. I tend to get nervous that I’ll forget what I’m doing or I’ll get distracted with new ideas that come to me whilst I’m away and in turn loose focus on current work. It’s a fine balance to get and one which I’m still learning…

So as mentioned, I needed to wrap up my work well to stop any current work drying out. Although 10 days isn’t that long, I’m aware that I’ll be going straight back into my other job so technically I’ll be out of the studio for 2 weeks. A lot can happen in 2 weeks! For people who don’t work with clay, when something is left out with no cover or wrapping it will dry out slowly making it very difficult to work with, before it becoming leather hard. You can recycle dried out clay but when you’ve got a piece of work you’ve been working on for 18 days you definitley don’t want it to dry out!

Ah the beautiful Croatian coast! I couldn’t help but be in awe of how rugged it was. I’ve been to islands in Greece before which has a similar landscape, quite barren in areas with pockets of lush greens but the coastal areas were quite different. Before arriving, I read that quite a few of the ‘beaches’ were man made. It was soon apparent that sandy or shell beaches weren’t the thing, it was concrete slabs or rock slabs on the coastal line with pool ladders mounted onto them! As first I didn’t quite get it, but slowly it became refreshing, there wasn’t the act of sunbathing (no such thing as umbrellas) as such but more perched reading and then having continual dips into the rough blue sea. Around the old down there was a ‘beach’ which was simply a bar and a ladder into the sea, people can with just a towel before quickly getting into the sea; there was a common friendliness, you could leave your bag on the side and trust that it wasn’t going to get riffled through. The important part was the blue sea and that was it.

Đuro Pulitika

During our trip, we also saw work from Duro Pultika, an Croatian artist who was well known within Croatia but not quite as well known globally. His work is so fresh and reminds me of Van Gogh; thick brush strokes, spiral patterns and a warm colour palette. His landscapes in particular were a particular favourite of mine. (Left: Spring Landscape, 1974, Right: Red Hill, 1981)

We went to Lokrum beach on Otok Lokrum island, the nearest island to Old Town Dubrovnik. The island was very luscious compared to mainland Croatia, with lots more trees, shrubs, and wildlife. The mainland beaches were lovely but being on the island beaches felt more at home with me, there was a quality which I could only describe as a watering hole.

We spent most of the afternoon resting on this beach, and it gave me time to study the people who were there also. I love being near beaches because everyone feels so natural and paired back, there no concealing of personalities especially when you’re half naked. I was drawn to a few characters, particularly the ladies on the rocks and standing in the sea. I’m not very good (trying to be) at sketching in the open air as I get very self conscious of people watching me…to combat this I like to take photos and sketch from them later. As you can see when I got home, I began making some figures which reflect my time spent on the beaches of Dubrovnik, Croatia.