A HELMSDALE Otter

This is a Blog Posting for Ian...
I started doing some postings about GB’s ornaments but they faded out in favour of other Hebridean things. So here is one of the many I missed. It’s an otter (as if you needed telling that) made by Helmsdale pottery.




I cannot find a website for Helmsdale Pottery and wonder if it is still going. They are listed at the local community website for Helmsdale in Sutherland but the link to their site is broken. They manufacture(or manufactured?) decorative ceramics, specialising in wildlife themes, for gallery and craft retail outlets. Established in 1973, Helmsdale Pottery is owned and run by David and Penny Woodley. With over 30 years of combined experience, the company produces a high quality range of animal stoneware sculptures, specialising particularly in wildlife and birds.

ART shops

GB and I called into a couple of art shops on the way down from Scotland and among the artists with whom I was impressed were Bob Tucker, Jim Taylor and Julian Friers.

BOB TUCKER


Bob Tucker was born in Newton Abbot, Devon in 1951. He still resides in the Devon area with his wife Joy and their four young children. Since 1972 he has painted a wide range of subjects in particular landscapes and seascape pictures. He has no formal art training preferring to learn from other artists and studying old masters on the subject. Working in oils he seeks to combine pictorial accuracy with the atmosphere of the subject. He has an impressive number of customers who collect his work. I just loved the way he played with light on water.


Bob Tucker Title Wembury Devon 1997
Medium - Oil on canvas Size without frame -12" X 16" Price - £550


JIM TAYLOR (J.R.Taylor)



Born in Gateshead in 1935 Jim Taylor is a self taught artist. He started work at 15 years of age with a poster printing firm in Newcastle Upon Tyne. After National Service he pursued a career in commercial and industrial art. Self employed since 1970 he built up a range of clients which included British Steel, Jaeger, ICl and Vaux Breweries. Now living in Cumbria he does some commercial work as well as painting lakeland scenes, humorous animal drawings and children.


JULIAN FRIERS


Born in 1956 in Northern Ireland where he presently lives with his wife Jill and their three children, his paintings have been exhibited extensively throughout the world where he continues to achieve acclaim from critics for his spontaneous painting style. Julian has been inspired by the landscape and wildlife of Scotland and his native Ireland for twenty years.

WILD CHINA

GB and I hardly saw any television during the five weeks I stayed with him. One programme we did watch was the series “Wild China” on BBC2. It was a brilliant combination of looking at the scenery, the wildlife and the local people. I usually watch television and do something else at the same time – looking up when there sounds to be something of interest. In this case I couldn’t look away – it was just too good to miss.
The narrator was Bernard Hill. He didn’t impose his own personality on the program but had just the right voice and intonation to make the commentary first class. all in all it was one of the best wildlife programs I have ever seen. If you missed it and it is repeated please take a look.



There is a BBC DVD but I don’t know how comprehensive it is – the series was six hour long programmes.

STIRLING CASTLE

At one time or another I've been to most of the major places in Scotland. Aberdeen and Stirling were two exceptions until last month when GB brought me through Stirling - only Aberdeen to go.



Stirling Castle is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. It has featured in lots of books I've read, most notably in Nigel Tranter's historical novels. The Castle sits atop the Castle Hill, a volcanic crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. Its strategic location, guarding the crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification from the earliest times. The Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and is managed by Historic Scotland. To the left of the gatehouse, and forming the south side of the principal or upper court, is the Palace block. This was begun by James IV, but is mainly the work of King James V. With its combination of renaissance and late gothic detail, it is one of the most architecturally impressive buildings in Scotland, covered with fine stonework.




Most of the principal buildings of the Castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. In the 13th Century Edward I's Scottish campaign included a siege on Stirling Castle. Historians recorded that this was where Warwolf, the largest trebuchet believed built, was first used, with devastating effect. There have been several other sieges of Stirling Castle since the Wars of Scottish Independence, the last being in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobites unsuccessfully tried to take the castle. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1543.

EASTER Island GB

And if you think this is being cruel to my brother – I could have made him a gargoyle on Lews Castle!