MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Spring 2020

64 a counter out of a door from the basement and moved it around. I’d come back from work and be like, ‘Where’s the kitchen?’” When Skinner was finished, the place was transformed. He installed a beam to replace some posts. He replaced the electrical, plumbing and furnace. He installed new flooring and bathrooms. Walking into the home now, it’s totally different. You can’t help but feel like you’re walking into a gallery, because essentially you are. The walls are lined with ceramics and paintings by local artists. A Paul Mantrop here, a Sue Miller there. A Jim Stacey, Andrew Peycha, Tanya Zaryski and many more. There’s even some original Steve Corner (“Steve the Potter”) work on display. The spacious rooms are full of light and colour; tactile pieces line the walls and cupboards, begging to be picked up or touched. “It’s hard to separate the artist from the house, the craft from the house,” says Lise. “Our love of ceramics and three-dimensional art and one-dimensional art kind of go together. It was all about showcasing our ceramics collection and our art. We have so much art from local artists. It’s very gallery-like, but when we do the pizza oven, it’s all helter-skelter. There’s flour everywhere.” The wood-fired, indoor pizza oven, built by John Davies (The Stone and Plaster Company), is just one focal point of the long, beautifully lit kitchen. “We should call the kitchen the living room,” says Lise. “It’s where life happens.” Of course a potter’s house wouldn’t be a potter’s house without a studio. Steve’s studio faces west and is filled with light and the inspirational work he creates. His work is on sale throughout the region; check it out at The Cheese Gallery, The Art Bank Collective, The 100 Mile Store, Sideroad Farm, Dags and Willow Butter, and elsewhere. The kiln is in the garage. It’s a Geil reduction kiln capable of cranking out 250,000 BTUs; Steve generally runs it at 2350 °F. Much like the art Steve creates, the home is a testament to an artistic vision. How do you turn a lump of mud into something beautiful? Lise and Steve have managed to do just that. “We love it,” says Lise. “We love the location, the view. The fact that you get here from a sideroad connected to a sideroad. The house is smaller by local standards, which we love, and we have everything we need including room for bees, apple trees… and we can throw our cross-country skis on and head out the back door.” Some people seem to have it all figured out.