Sue and John go for a ride

 The weather has continued to be dreadful ... rain, rain and more rain.  So we decided to have a change of scenery.  I had seen the details of an exhibition of ceramics about 2 hours away in the Aveyron and it seemed a suitable destination for a day out (with picnic!)

The journey took us across country into some lovely rolling landscapes.  

We stopped for our lunch looking out over this view before we continued on alongside the Lot river which was flooding its banks.

You can see why we didn't try to sit at the picnic table!

The Exhibition centre 'Le Don du Fel' was very isolated in the middle of some fantastic scenery and, to my surprise, was started by an English couple more than 20 years ago.

The purpose of this visit was to see the exhibition of a Catalan, Claudi Casanovas, who works in a monumental scale producing pieces which are very 'earthy' and textured ... sculptural rather than utilitarian.

This huge piece would look fantastic in our courtyard but it is in the tens of thousands of euros.

Even his small 'vases' (and this was about 20 cms across) was some 1300 euros.

I love this style of very rough, earthy type of ceramic, with echoes of the japanese aesthetic but I do not have an oven and so I am now thinking and investigating trying to achieve this look but using different materials.  Time will tell.