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My husband left to go fishing at 4.00 am on Sunday morning so I had the whole day to finish carving a totem which had been giving me a few headaches. By the time the first hadeda called I'd already set up my work bench in the courtyard and by midday I was totally immersed in my carving. Working in quiet solitude, more often than not, helps me to find and fix any problem areas in my art.
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James Blackwell's work centres on themes of silence, nature, structure and meditation.
Silent. Mixed media by James Blackwell
Judit Varga's clay vessels have that weather-worn look that I love, reminding me of gnarled coils of bark or sea corroded conch shells.
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"I work in a quiet solitude in my studio and find this peaceful loneliness a perfect stage for my play with clay. In the silence sometimes there is a moment of harmony when the clay and I understand each other perfectly, we know exactly what the other one wants to do. Those are the moments that I long for and this longing draws me back to the studio to open up a new bag of clay and start again. - Judit Varga
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I recently discovered the small collages of Michel Lefebvre and immediately fell head over heels in love with them. Wander over to Penumbra to see more of Michel's collages, here.
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"I create these small mixed media/collage pieces every morning at 5h30, sitting at my desk with an espresso (which serves as a wash to delineate the image field!). They are, I suppose, a kind of meditation, a way to focus and begin the day. The format is small (9.5 x 14 centimetres) and I try to post a drawing every day". - Michel Lefebvre
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