Derekthered's Corsica blog

Catherine d’Angeli is a potter and a sculptress, and she is in the process of building a new workshop, teaching unit and showroom at Santa Reparata in Corsica’s north west – the Balagne.

She’s a Calvi girl. But she has learnt her craft in all kinds of unlikely places. While working as a French assistante at a school in Chertsey, England, she took an evening course in pottery, and from then on she’s never looked back. After gaining a Diploma in Ceramics from the École des Beaux Artes in Vallauris – made famous by its association with Pablo Picasso – she felt she wanted to move back to the place of her birth.

When I met her a few days ago, she was more concerned with architects drawings, getting new windows fitted and installing basic plumbing than in talking high art. All things going well, the new unit should be finished within the next few weeks and she’ll be open for business.

I was permitted to see a little of her work. The sculptures range from human figures to animals – some astonishingly lifelike; some more abstract, with confident lines that indicate the spirit of the animals she loves rather than their exact physical shape. On the pottery front, she’s doing lots of work in the fashionable Raku style at the moment but her range goes much wider than that.

I’ll forecast that much of her subject matter will be about cats over the next few months. She has just acquired two very naughty but delightful kittens who distracted us with their antics during our brief chat. By the time they are a bit more grown up she will probably be ready for her first intake of students.

If you’re interested in learning a little about the art and craft of pottery in delightful and inspiring surroundings, contact Catherine on catdangeli@free.fr.

# posted by Derekthered @ 7:54 AM