Showing at Southdown Marketplace 2011

Southdown Marketplace is on Saturday November 5th and I'll be selling pottery in booth #1. It's a fine arts and crafts festival with a variety of work. A booth became available last minute and I decided to go ahead and take it. I don't know how much I'll be able to setup this fast but I'll try and show as much as possible. It should be a beautiful day with a good turnout.

The show is at the Southdown Plantation grounds at the corner of Hwy 311 and St Charles in Houma, Louisiana.

My Pottery Used for Illustration in HandbuiltPotteryOnline.net

I'm a little late in writing this but better late than never. The owner of Handbuilt Pottery Online requested the use of some of my pottery to be used in her October issue. I did proudly accept and she used two of my sgraffito pieces. I must mention the wonderful article she wrote about the history of the sgraffito. Anyone wanting to learn just about everything there is to know about this technique should read the article. I felt honored that she used my Pelican platter for the illustration of the article. The other piece she used was of an Iris on a small vessel and was entered in the "Sgraffito Gallery II". I found her website interesting and enjoyable. There's photos of beautiful work and lots of information on pottery making.
I hope that you enjoy it.

To see the article on sgraffito click here: Strange Name Beautiful Technique
To see the website home page click here:  Handbuilt Pottery Online

Downtown Art Gallery 630 - Spring Art Show 2011

Downtown Art Gallery 630's annual Spring Art Show will held from March 27th through April 12th. The registration is today and I'll be entering two paintings and two pieces of sgraffito pottery. Art lovers should get out and see the show. It's a great chance to see what the local artists are doing.

The gallery is located at 630 Belanger St. Houma, Louisiana

Ikebana Containers in Use

I made the arrangement above to showcase two of my pottery Ikebanas. The flowers for the arrangement only cost $4.00 at my local grocery and I already had the stones.


I love flowers and one day came across an Ikebana arrangement. It was love at first sight. It’s such an artistic way of arranging flowers that I was drawn like a magnet. Ikebana is the Japanese Art of Floral Arrangement where you use very few flowers arranged in an asymmetrical way.  It is now becoming popular all over the world.  Greenery and other materials such as branches are incorporated in the arrangement. Ikebana not only showcases the flower's bloom but also celebrates other parts of the plants like the stems and leaves. It is a minimalistic form and usually only consists of a few blooms in the arrangement. The materials in the arrangement are placed so that they are balanced which can be easily done once with little practice. The design is often made using a  triangular pattern. A triangular pattern is achieved by taking three flowers or foliage branches and arranging them so that when you draw an invisible line to each tip end it will form a triangle.

I enjoy the concept and I use the basic idea to make my own arrangements. I find it easy and inexpensive to pick a few flowers and some greenery from my yard, stick them in pin frog and I have a beautiful display. A small bunch of flowers at my local floral department can make a nice arrangement that is also very beautiful while still very inexpensive.
There are many types of containers and I offer some on my Ikebana page on my website, but you can also use many of the items on my "Open Vessels" page. All you need is a Kenzan (pin frog) which holds the stems in place. I send one along with pots listed on the Ikebana page. Please note that Ikebana containers that are tall and cylindrical do not use a Kenzan.

For more information go to this informative link: All About Ikebana

Thursday is Painting Day

Today is going to be deemed my “Painting Day”. I was invited to paint with some artist friends on Thursdays at Downtown Art Gallery 630 so I jumped at the chance. How can I pass that up? It’s so cold that I don’t feel like working with clay and this will be a nice break. So this morning I threw together my supplies, grabbed the first good subject I could find and ran out the door. I arrived at 10:00 AM…. perfect.

I couldn’t imagine a better time. The company was enjoyable and inspirational as was expected and I can’t wait to do it again. Once a week on Thursdays is what I’m going to strive for. Hopefully I’ll be able to work that in every week. I’m happy with my work. Here is the completed painting. It’s a 9 x 12 oil painting on gesso coated board which is what I usually work with. I will add it to my website at a later date. http://www.cnbpottery.com/ 




Lonely Apple
9 x 12