It's been a while but we are back blogging!!

Check out the website for an updated artist page including 1000's of new photos of work in the gallery

On now until Sept 5th 2015

Summer Fun & Games

featuring works from across Canada

Coming in September

Sept 1-30th  Showcase Series featuring works by our newest gallery artist Lisa MaGrath from Alberta

Sept 17th-Oct 3rd

Branching Out 

Craig Guthrie & Judy Blake

     

Material Differences Wrap-Up

Friday June 21st

Well here it is the longest day of the year and it is wonderful to see the sun shining and feel the heat as I honestly thought that summer was never going to arrive! It is the perfect time for a break and I am heading off to Bayfield for the weekend as the guest of two clients from the United States who happen to have a Canadian retreat. Can't wait to hit the road! Brian is however determined that I spend a few minutes letting people know what is going on.

Material differences our current exhibition featuring Laurie Rolland of BC, Audrey Killoran of Quebec and Zsuzsa Monostory of Ontario has been a great success. The opening was attended by all three artists and the attending guests thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to meet the artists. One guest had flown in from Orlando, Florida to meet an artist that she has been collecting for years and she welcomed the opportunity to finally meet the artist. There were guests from all over, many from the States but Orlando was the outer reach.

The gallery was honoured by a visit from the Brazilian ambassador a couple of weeks ago and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. She also made a purchase of an artist from Quebec. A media release on her visit also triggered interest from a travel writer who will be in London in July and is now planning to stop by as well.

It would appear that our new website is proving popular. Brian has spent a lot of time photographing and uploading images of work currently in the gallery. This week alone pieces have been selected by 'away clients' and are heading off to Alberta and Newfoundland.

I would like to hang around and write a bit more but Stephen just called and my chariot awaits and i am away to the country for the weekend! Have a great weekend and catch you next week!

June 12, 2013

Okay I have been a bit remiss in writing my blog. I would like to say that it is because the gallery was so incredibly busy but the truth is that many things got in the way. Suffice to say that I am glad that 2012 is well behind me.

This year has been interesting. You may have noticed that we now have a new website http://www.jonathons.ca/ and I love it. It is not only user friendly from the viewers point of view but we are able to easily upload and change images ourselves. My publisher said it was time to have an update and he generously offered to revamp the site for us. My heartfelt thanks to Brendan Frye of Ronald P Frye Publishing for heping Brian arrive at a new look that I love!

Actually my publisher Ron has been after me to update my blog. It is always good to have someone prodding and he does it with great aplomb. As many of you know last year the book on Walter Dexter RCA of Victoria, BC came out. It has been well received and now I am working on a series. Essentially the series will consist of a short monograph on an artist followed by a lavishly illustrated selection of a specific body of work the chosen artist has created. The first in the series is on the late Joanne Copp of British Columbia. It is  almost ready to go to press. Next on the list is Vera Vicente http://www.jonathons.ca/artists/66-vera-vicente.html The book on Vera is written and the photography will be done shortly and then it too will be ready to go. Other artists in the works are George Shadford http://www.jonathons.ca/artists/17-george-shadford.html Mary Fox, Ann Mortimer and Kirsten Abrahamson. If you are curious about their work just go to the main page and check out artists.

There has been a major communication shift in the gallery. We have suspended snail mail invitations and are now sending out evites. The response to the past two evites has been remarkable. The advantage is you now get both an evite about two weeks before the event as well as a reminder a couple of days before the opening. The evite enables us to give you more information about the show as well more information on the artist and the work. If you are interested in receiving our evites and ceramic newsletter just shoot me an email jonathon@jonathons.ca and I will add you.

Recently we added Doug Magrath http://www.jonathons.ca/artists/54-doug-magrath-wood.html to the gallery roster. I know what you're thinking 'but he's not a ceramic artist'. That's true but he is a Londoner and certainly London's premier wood-turner. It is the same reason that we showcase Nancy Latchford http://www.jonathons.ca/artists/23-nancy-latchford.html an incredible London fibre artist. Actually Doug just had his first exhibition in the gallery and it was a huge success and he shared the stage with Peter Thomas of New Brunswick http://www.jonathons.ca/artists/53-peter-thomas.html who arrived with his wife Karen and an incredible selection of new work.

Last week we had an opening with Zsuzsa Monostory of Toronto, Audrey Killoran of Montreal and Laurie Rolland of Sechelt. The exhibition "Material Differences" was great and opening night was a blast. Fans of Audrey's flew in from Orlando for the opportunity to meet Audrey. They had been collecting her work for years so they were thrilled to actually have a chance to meet her. Laurie had just given a workshop in Toronto at the Fusion conference while Zsuzsa gave a workshop at the London Potters' Guild that was well received as well.

Brian is busy gearing up for our August exhibition "Canadian Imports" that will showcase the artists we represent who were born outside of Canada and now make Canada their home. It promises to be a great exhibition with representation from New Zealand, Japan, Korea, France, Namiba, South Africa, Iran, England, USA, Brazil, China among others. So often there is a tendency to forget the incredible influences the immigrant has in helping make our art scene so vital. This exhibition will place the work of the immigrant artists front and center. I can't wait for the show!

Some of you may remember the "Fired Up!" 25th anniversary exhibition in 2009 when we also brought Miss Conception, Toronto's premier female impersonator, to London. She performed at Scot's Corner our favourite watering hole a few doors from the gallery. Well we are bringing her back! She will be performing at Scot's on Thursday August 8th. The opening for "Canadian Imports" will be Wednesday August 7th. The Delta Armouries hotel is providing a special rate for our out of town guests.

Speaking of "Fired Up!" I would like to announce that the August 2014 show will be "Fired Up" - Celebrating 30 Years! You heard it here first! More details to follow in the months ahead.

I think I will blog off by saying that I will try not to be so long in writing my next blog entry! Keep in touch and Keep smiling!

Friday! It is a glorious day and I am getting ready for my trip to Owen Sound tomorrow. I am speaking at the Tom Thomson Gallery at 2PM on collecting Contemporary ceramic art. I have never been to Owen Sound before so I am looking forward to seeing the gallery and more importantly seeing Virginia Eichorn the director. I first met Virginia when she was with the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo. Our mutual love of contemporary Canadian ceramics always gives us lots to talk about. The last time I saw Virginia was in Regina at the McKenzie Gallery where I attended the opening of the Jack Sures retrospective. It will also be nice to see the exhibition again as it is currently being hosted by the Tom Thomson Gallery.

If you haven't had a chance to see the exhibition then go! It is worth the trip. It is fascinating to see Jack's work dating back to the beginning of his lengthy career a a maker and mentor. I was blown away by some of the pieces that I saw in Regina and I am really looking forward to revisiting them.

I have been showing Jack's work for almost ten years now and I particularly enjoy his bandicoots, whimsical four legged creatures get into mischief as they cavort and frolic on some of his vessels. they are a testament to Jack's wonderful. and occasionally ribald, sense of humour.

I will be travelling with Julia Krueger a noted ceramics historian and researcher. I am looking forward to hearing her presentation. Julia, originally from Regina, is currently at the University of Western Ontario teaching and researching. Her home base is now Calgary a place I really need to visit just so I can see her collection of Canadian ceramics. Julia has a discerning eye and I love seeing collections.

Thursday - Ruth Gowdy-McKinley & Mary Fox

Let me tell you that it is not easy to do this everyday but I am determined to have a blog a day. Actually it is interesting who reads it. I had a call from Mary Fox in Ladysmith today as a direct result of my blogging. Mary is an amazing ceramic artist who we have been showing for over ten years. I first saw Mary's work in Toronto at Gallery 611 (or 621 or something like that). Anyway it was a great gallery and carried some wonderful work. Unfortunately like many galleries it is no longer with us. They worked hard to promote ceramic art in Toronto and if it hadn't been for them I may never have seen Mary's work. That would have been a loss. I can still remember her exhibition as if it was yesterday. Tall and squat bottles in a deep blue with a wonderful crawl glaze, they were as joy (and are a joy!) to behold. We have a large selection of Mary's work on hand and have had the pleasure of Mary's company a number of times both here and at her awesome home and studio in Ladysmith. If you are ever on Vancouver Island visit her (and her little dog too!)


This is an example of one of  Mary's rare and unique chalices with stone base.
This particularone is currently in Ladysmith. Mary's Chalice's are only available here
and in her studio. There are fewer than 25 of this particular Fox sculpture and
each is as unique a a fingerprint.

 My publisher Ron was in today and we were reviewing our plans for the book on Joanne Copp "Elegance" and the book on Ruth Gowdy-McKinley "An Exuberant Toast". Ron has some great ideas on how the books will look. I am particularly excited about Ruth's book as it appears that the first 200 copies will have tipped in images on a wonderful stock. This premium edition will be beautiful. There will also be another edition - same content different stock and without the tipped in images. He is very keen on promoting Canadian contemporary ceramics and I am fortunate to have a publisher as excited about promoting Canadian ceramics as I am.

Brian has been avidly devouring all the source material that we currently have on Ruth and earlier today uploaded some new images to Face book. Within an hour he was contacted by a ceramic artist in Ottawa who credits their interest in clay totally to Ruth. It never ceases to amaze me how wide a net she cast in capturing peoples attention. When it came to ceramics she was considered the doyenne. She loved clay and loved function and she was incredible. Stay tuned for more!

Wednesday - Copp - Gowdy-Mckinley

Wednesday - Copp - Gowdy-Mckinley -

Morning everyone - or later than that if you are reading this at another time.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of some pieces by Ruth Gowdy-Mckinley. It should be arriving today. I got the list of what is coming from her daughter Lauren and there are some pieces that are quite rare as Ruth was specifically asked to make them. Once they arrive I will post images in the 'latest acquisitions' blog. I hope everyone reading this is aware that there are actually three blogs. One is dedicated to daily musings (this one), another to new acquisitions and a further one to upcoming events. Not to worry as I am also getting use to keeping my thoughts separate - not always an easy thing to do! No doubt there will be crossovers in information.



This is an incredible example of one of Ruth's teapot.
We are pleased to be able to offer it for sale. The small 'shot'glass
is one of twelve currently available. These were original



Back to Ruth. I am diligently working on my book "An Exuberant Toast". The book has been in the planning stages for what seems a very long time but it is finally making progress and publication day is August 9th, 2012. Actually it will coincide with the publication of "Joanne M. Copp - Elegance". For those of you unfamiliar with Joanne she was an artist living on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. Her work consisted of exquisite coil built vessels. Joanne loved working with clay and loved creating. Her untimely death in 2010. Joanne's last message to me was:


"Hi Jonathon...you are really getting around! Any fabulous news? I am holding my own here...hoping all is well with you...Hi to Brian!

Best, Joanne





This is a wonderful example of Joanne's work
featuring a 'Moon Gold' interior (combination of
gold and palladium) Private Collection - Not For Sale


Joanne would have loved my finally getting around to regular blogging. She would often call just to chat and hear the latest goings on of the clay community in Canada - creators and collectors. She loved it all! I am so glad that her daughter Alicia has given me the okay to go forward on writing a book on her. My publisher, Ron Frye, is also pleased. He was totally smitten by her work when he saw it. Joanne's work is incredibly rare. The time to make it and the high mortality rate of pieces, a result of her chosen method of firing, has left very few pieces available. Actually to my knowledge there is actually none currently on the market. "Elegance" is my way of making sure she is not forgotten.

Canada has so many incredible ceramic artists but unfortunately they don't always get the recognition they deserve, we are a big country and that alone tends often tends to isolate artists in their particular area. It was with that realization that I set out to create a gallery where people could see a nation-wide cross section of the incredible talent that we have. Whoops....I better be careful or I'll be soapboxing about Canadian ceramics in a minute.

LOL......I guess my blogging is appealin to people as I just had a call from a gentleman, living in London, who has discovered the website. It would appear that social media works!. Anyway we had a nice conversation about one of the artists whose work is on the site. I won't say who but I will include an example of her work. For your homework you can now find her on the site. Didn't realise that this was going to be an interactive blog did you?

This is the artist whose work sparked the call this morning.
Browse through the artists to discover who it is! Clue: It is Raku
and the piece is NOT illustrated.

I don't know if i mentioned it but I will be in Owen Sound this weekend giving a talk on collecting Canadian Ceramics. The talk is at the Tom Thomson Gallery at 2PM.

Well I guess that about does it for today. I am now awaiting the arrival of the painting by Jamie Jardine that I wrote about earlier this week. I am going to start putting a title with the name of the Canadian ceramic artists mentioned in the day's blog.

Have a good day! If you are firing today I hope the kiln gods will be with you!

Brian and I have instituted a new window changing schedule. The window is changed every Monday and Wednesday and Friday. Our windows really are our best advertisement and it is amazing how frequent changes are noticed. We are often having people pop in just to tell us how much they enjoy checking out our windows. Yesterday, being Monday, Brian put in two of our "Upstarts". In 2010 we had an exhibition titled "Upstarts". The exhibition featured many of Canada's finest ceramic artists born before 1940. The show was a huge success. These are the artists who really have made a difference in how we look at clay today.

Mayta Markson RCA of Toronto, Ontario. was one of the first ceramic artists to get the designation RCA (Royal Canadian Academy) in 1976 along with Luke Lindoe (1913-2000) and Ruth Gowdy McKinley (1931-1981). Mayta does two bodies of work: functional and sculptural. At the exhibition in 2010 I acquired a wonderfully decorated large platter enhanced by incredible brushwork. I had to track Mayta down and getting her to participate in Upstarts was, for me, a real coup. Currently we have some terrific pieces by her including one of her great teapots. Mayta was part of the Five Potters, a group that included Bailey Leslie (1904-1998), Dorothy Misanik, Marion Lewis and Annette Zakuta. They were active in Toronto in the sixties and seventies and had a studio on Davenport.

Mayta Markson RCA Teapot $175
Note the matte swirl brushwork

In the other window Brian has put two superb pieces by Ron Roy,. Ron is a glaze master and the two celadon pieces, a vase and a platter, are beautiful. Ron is the man many potters turn to when they are looking to perfect a glaze or are having trouble with an existing glaze. A man of few words but a great sense of humour we are very fortunate to have examples of his work on hand. Ron's current production is very small. I am grateful for each piece that I currently have on hand.

Ron Roy Celadon vase