Five Good Things: what to do, see and book this July

Taster classes at Studio Pottery London, Eccleston Place, London SW1, various dates

Maybe it’s the grounding scent of damp earth. Perhaps it’s the extraordinary sense of satisfaction of creating something from a clod of squelching clay. Either way, there’s something very appealing about pottery – about giving yourself over to the wheel, concentrating hard and hoping something good will come from it.

Studio Pottery London certainly recognises this. The Victoria-based atelier – which counts Alexa Chung, Faye Wei Wei and Josh O’Connor as regulars – is now, we’re very pleased to report, offering taster sessions for those interested in getting their fingers in the pie(dish), as it were. Suitable for complete beginners with no throwing or wheel experience, each class lasts three hours and will give you the chance to make multiple pots, one of which can be glazed and fired for you, ready to pick up within a month.

For details, visit Studio Pottery London’s website.

London Art Week, various venues, 30 June-7 July

Whether you’re more partial to painting, have a soft spot for sculpture, or simply like learning about new things, look to the lollapalooza that is London Art Week, which shines a light on all the sensational and wide-ranging shows – all free – hosted by the city’s commercial galleries.

This year, more than 50 of them will be taking part in a hybrid edition running 30 June-7 July, meaning there’ll be absolutely masses to have a mosey around. Most galleries will have IRL offerings (we’ll be making a beeline for Stephen Ongpin Fine Art’s display of works by 20^th– and 21^st-century female artists), but a significant handful have conceived digital-only exhibitions, if you can’t quite peel yourself off your deckchair.

London Art Week is also organising talks and tours around the galleries and museum partners. Every day at 11am and 3pm, for instance, historic framing specialist Paul Mitchell will be showing people round his Mayfair space, giving real insight into the importance of his specialism.

For details, visit the LAW website.

Shown: Winifred Nicholson, Ben with Slinky, 1927, on show at Patrick Bourne

‘Candace Bahouth: Enchanted Visions’ at Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, 1 July-1 October

It was around this time last year that we visited the inimitable Candace Bahouth, the marvellous mosaicist whose resplendent Rococo-ish creations are the toast not just of Somerset, where she’s lived for 40 years or so, but beyond. No wonder, then, that Bath’s Victoria Art Gallery is hosting a show of the artist’s gorgeous, glinting work, titled ‘Enchanted Visions’.

Taking the beauty of china as her starting point, Candace has created a magical miscellany of pieces for the exhibition, which runs 1 July-1 October – think surreal sylvan candlesticks comprising stacked teacups and porcelain birds, wire-wrapped floral tendrils and delicate blooms, for instance, or memorabilia-laden mirror frames with golden laurel leaves and cut-out crowns of gleaming gold. Regal, romantic and utterly off-the-wall, each is a celebration of the joy of making and the brilliance of beauty – and they’re for sale too.

For details, visit the gallery’s website.

‘Seeing the Light’ at Turner’s House, Sandycombe Lodge, Twickenham, 7 July-29 October

Despite having harboured dreams of touring Italy since he was a youth, it was not until JMW Turner was in his 40s that the painter had a proper chance to visit. Arriving in 1819, he was not disappointed. In the country’s violent volcanoes, mountains, mottled skies and hazy lakes, the painter found a source of near-endless inspiration, a vision of the sublime that he could and would return to and reimagine over and over again. It was, he later wrote, “the land of all bliss”.

That trip was to have a profound and lasting effect on the artist – one that, from 7 July to 29 October, is being explored at Sandycombe Lodge, his home in Twickenham (to which we recently paid a visit). ‘Seeing the Light’ focuses on his watercolours from this period: limpid and lucid first impressions of Venice, Rome and Naples. Seeing them on display here, in the then rural retreat he had designed for himself and his aging father in 1813, lends a particular resonance to these evocative pieces that makes them hard to ignore.

For details, visit the Turner’s House website.

Shown: The Roman Campagna from Monte Testaccio, Sunset, 1819. © Tate

Summer floral-drawing workshop with Scribble & Daub, Mountfield Court, East Sussex, 2 September

Yes, yes. We can almost hear your cries from here. We know it says September but – trust us – you’ll want to book this in advance.

You may not yet have heard the name Caroline Kent, but we’d wager you’ve seen her work. Trading as Scribble & Daub, the artist and illustrator is known for her deceptively simple and romantic stationery, from charming notecards and correspondence paper to menus and invitations, all letter-press printed in with her signature motifs: blousy blooms and bows, wibbly-wobbly jellies, ice-cream sundaes and joyous helter-skelters. In other words: joy.

And now – joy of joys! – she’s planning to share the secrets to her style, in a summery workshop in the gorgeous Victorian walled garden of the magnificent Mountfield Court on 2 September. Those attending will pick a bunch of flowers, before grower Isobel How leads a lesson in arranging. After a heavenly home-cooked lunch, Caroline will lead an afternoon of floral drawing in dip pen and ink. Expect to go home laden with your own notecards, armfuls of flowers and your own dip pen, full of cake, local sparkling wine and new knowledge.

For details and to book, visit Scribble & Daub’s website.