Monday 6 December 2010

Frosty Monday and the Fieldfares in the orchards


Well I made it to the workshop on Friday and it was indeed, as my friend's picture had shown it - bloomin' snowy and bloomin' slippy. In spite of the man flu, I bravely soldiered on and managed to get the pots wrapped and packed and into Exeter in time for the opening - just.


The drive back was precarious, it doesn't look much, but the lanes out in the sticks aren't gritted and as soon as you get to a hill, it becomes a game of stop, start, stop, reverse, run-up, go........ hope for the best.

Anyway, I made the opening in a somewhat unprepared fashion and chatted, through a fever of man flu, to the good folk who came on such a cold night. I didn't take any pictures, I'll get some later in the week.


This morning I walked to work. This is the frosty orchard.


The trees were full of Fieldfares, they always are at this time of year, they migrate in from Northern countries for the winter months.



It was chilly, but beautiful.



I have been waiting to get on to sgrafittoing this puzzle jug and the walk through the orchards inspired it's development today. Usually I pinch a traditional rhyme from old puzzle jugs, but this one has one of my own, written in a similar, folksy kind of way. It says:



Fill me full with cider sweet

From orchards where the fieldfares meet

And puzzle as I challenge you

To drink, not spill, my appley brew.




So far it has a number of birdies that look (very, very)vaguely like fieldfares- well they have speckles and two wings at least. They're hanging out on the bare, winter trees. I could make them look more realistic(yea right) if I were to copy them from a book, but I like the idea of drawing what I think they look like, as they would have done in the days before photography. I hope that they capture the naive essence of the old North Devon slipware jugs that I admire so much. Many hours of scratching still to go this pot.

Well that's all for now other than to invite once again, anybody who would like to come to:
The Exeter show
The Cambridge show





Goodnight all

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some lovely work,did you see the prog about st.ives, the old fisherman was the best artist would be very suited to harvest jugs and scatchy work.We had 2ft of the white stuff closed everything down.
Lovely stuff from the last firing is it the new chimney

Tim

doug Fitch said...

Hey Tim
No I missed it, but I heard about it, I'll have to look on iplayer. I made a harvest jug based on Alfred Wallis paintings a while ago for a comission - it worked really well, had the right naieve feel about it. Our snow's mostly frozen and turned to ice now. Yes, the chimney made a massive difference - next fring will be even better I think because we'll not pack it as tight. Was a huge relief to get a good firing again, hadn't had one for a while

cookingwithgas said...

love the poem for the jug- and the birds- scrumptious.
Hope the man flu goes away along with the ice and snow!
I like to look at snow, not that fond of the stuff so I hope to live through you.

ang design said...

scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch....get that fire cranking and stay warm mr fitch...sweet naive birdies :))

Ron said...

Great poem!

klineola said...

Wonderful words and pictures.

Mr. Young said...

Really liked the last firing! Can't wait to see that puzzle jug fired, it should look great!

Congresburypotter said...

Love the poem!!! And the birdies too.

gz said...

good to see an original poem being used!

Joe Troncale said...

I like your fieldfares very much.
Really nice work.
Stay warm!

Peter said...

Happy Christmas from us Down Under!