"Pare down to the essence, but don't remove the poetry" - Leonard Koren.

Having gathered and a selection of handmade pots and had a go at the kintsugi technique (see my previous post), it was time to create the photographs I envisaged. And what I had in mind was a series of very simple still lifes: minimal, muted in colour palette and with beautiful light and shadows, so that the images were something like simple meditations on form and texture, light and shade, with the focus on the gold lines in each piece. 

I love to use natural light and I knew that the light out in the south-facing summerhouse at the end of my garden would be perfect; you can see the space in the the pictures below. The light is not only strong and directional on a sunny day, creating the perfect shadows, but it would also give me the chance to use the rather ugly mottled glass window panes to good effect! So I set up and photographed all of the pieces in there, set on a whitewashed chest and a table I'd made from pallets, with an old sheet hanging as a backdrop, and the beautiful dappled light created by the window panes.

I've loved every bit of this kintsugi project and am delighted that a series of images from the project will be exhibited at the Guildford Arts' summer exhibition in July. Entitled "A line of gold', they've been printed by east London-based print studio Point101, who produce fantastic quality prints on a great range of specialist papers, and their customer service is second to none. And they're offering all of my readers a 10% discount on your first order of giclée prints using the code 'cathy101'. Go go go! 

If you'd like to come and see my prints, along with work by other artists in a range of media, you are warmly invited to the exhibition which opens on 4th July, with a private view from 6-8 pm on the evening of 3rd - all the details are below. I'll be there on the 3rd, and also from 10-12.30 on Saturday 7th and Wednesday 11th. Do drop me a line if you're planning to come along, or just pop in to say hello. I really hope to see you there.