12.The Pot Book, the iPad & La Gomera.

Hello potters and friends,

Let me show you Alan's Christmas present to me this year.

'The Pot Book' by Edmund de Waal.

Fantastic! Emanuel Cooper wrote glowingly about it in one of last year's Ceramic Review Magazines, and he didn't exaggerate, it really is good. There are excellent pictures on every page giving us as good a view of each piece as it's possible to get from a photograph. And below each picture he gives some info about the potter, along with some technical information that is so often missing from other books or magazines.

It's a big, big book and I definitely recommend it.

But now, let me move from book to...  iPad. 

You may already know that British artist David Hockney has a new exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. Nothing unusual about that, except, it includes pictures he has created, first, on the iPhone in 2008, then he graduated to the iPad, when it became available in 2010. After reading about it, and because Alan has just bought an iPad, I got straight onto Google, looked at the pictures, and began searching for the App that Hockney used.

A David Hockney iPad Pic'

The App he uses is called BRUSHES, and it costs about £2.50 or around $3.

I'M HOOKED ALREADY!

......and I've only had it a couple of days.

And I expect you'd like to see my efforts so far?  Now, don't expect too much. You need longer than a couple of days to get to grips with this. I do paint, and I do draw but, up to now, I've always used some kind of implement.  Like a brush. The tip of my forefinger is a whole new ball game. But anyway.... here goes....

Effort No' 1

Mixing the colours was a bit tricky, as you can see.

So then....

Effort No' 2

Tree in La Gomera.

This is a copy of a sketch I made in La Gomera in the Canary Isles just over a week ago. That's why I've been out of communication with you all for most of this month. 

The trip was a treat to mark Alan's retirement; or rather the beginning of it, and it was great fun.

Tourists haven't yet discovered La Gomera, unlike Tenerife that you can see in the mist across the water. 

The Banana Plantations. 

Their bananas can't be exported to the EU because they're told that they are not big enough nor straight enough, would you believe!

Me, looking back to Santiago. 

I wish I could say that I discovered some La Gomeran pottery, but as it is entirely a volcanic island, there is no clay to be dug. There must be a few potters there but I suspect that they make functional pots that are not sold to visitors. Not yet, that is.

So my first advice for 2012 is; buy The Pot Book,  and have a go with Brushes on an iPad. 

In the meantime I'll be warming up the basement for some new work.

Happy Potting Folks