exhibition

From the Earth

by Theo

I joined the Hakatere Ceramics and Pottery Club at the beginning of the year and I entered six pieces in their exhibition as well as creating and donating a tile for the group project.

You are here, Tile

My, You are here, tile is a reasonably accurate hand drawn scale map of the Ashburton District featuring State Highway 1 (red), State Highway 77 and State Highway 79 (yellow) as well as the major roads and rivers. It was created from a slab of Whitestone clay with the features inscribed and painted with oxides and underglazes and then fired with a clear glaze.

You are here, Ceramic Tile, approx 200x200mm
You are here tile, before bisque firing.
Tiles, Hakatere Ceramics and Pottery Club group project in their From the Earth exhibition at Ashburton Art Gallery.
Nest vessel, Blue vessel, House of neglect, Hexagon Vase, Flying pig money box, Ring; ceramics.
Nest vessel, Blue vessel, House of neglect, Hexagon Vase, Flying pig money box, Ring; ceramics.

Nest vessel

I squeezed clay through a cookie press to create fine coils and formed them into a nest shaped vessel. Colored with red, blue and yellow underglazes and fired with a clear glaze this pot won the Best Novice Hand Work in the exhibition.

Nest vessel newly formed. Clay
Nest vessel, after glazing and final firing.

Blue vessel

My first attempt at creating a vessel on the wheel, this simple pot has a turquoise glaze.

Bowl and blue vessel (right), first wheel work prior to glazing.
Bowl and blue vessel (right) after final firing.

House of neglect

A slab work tower resembling a ruin decorated with black glaze.

Hexagon vase

A slab work hexagon shaped vase with oxides on the exterior and black glaze interior.

Flying pig money box

A functional sculpture of a hollow flying pig with a slot to accept coins. Coins can be retrieved through a hole on the underside covered with a ceramic stopper.

Flying pig money box, after final firing.

Ring

A fleur-de-lis extruded from a cookie press and joined to a coil of clay formed this large wearable ring fired with a black glaze.

Ring, after bisque firing, prior to glazing.
Ring, after black glaze firing.

The Hakatere Ceramics and Pottery Club’s exhibition “From the Earth” is at the Ashburton Art Gallery from 18 October to 19 November 2023.

Pocket

by Theo

This year, I joined Hakatere Ceramics and Pottery Ashburton to learn more skills and make art with clay.

Pocket is a handwork piece that I formed after the noticing the canvas pattern left from rolling the clay. I carved the stitching and added clay for the stud features and after drying, I bisque fired the piece.

The club held a Raku Firing day and so I glazed Pocket with a copper glaze on the studs and another glaze I have forgotten the name of. Raku Firing is exciting. The work is heated to over 1000 ºC and then quickly removed from the hot kiln and placed into a combustible material and starved of oxygen to produce a myriad of colors in the glazes and black where the clay was unglazed. The results are often unexpected.

Pocket, ceramic, approx 20 x 20 x 4 cm
Pocket, ceramic, approx 20 x 20 x 4 cm

Pocket has been entered in the Ashburton Society of Arts’ 59th Annual Exhibition and is available for sale at the Ashburton Art Gallery from 4-28 July 2023.

Pocket (ceramic) at Ashburton Art Gallery

Stamp

by Theo
Stamp, woodcut block print, 297 x 420 mm (A3), framed
Stamp, woodcut block print, 297 x 420 mm (A3), framed

Inspired by a postage stamp found in a pencil box purchased from a second hand store, Stamp is one of my first successes in wood block printing. The wading bird seemed out of place on the stamp so my print has it standing in and on an imagined environment.

The signature follows the theme and is stamped from a set of alphabet stamps also acquired from a second hand store.

I enjoy the challenge of working reflectively and inversely to produce an the printed image.

Stamp (detail)
Stamp (detail)

Stamp was entered in the Ashburton Society of Arts 58th Annual Exhibition and could be viewed (and purchased $190) at the Ashburton Art Gallery from 5-29 July 2022.

Small Worlds

by Theo
Small Worlds, Acrylic, aluminum foil, wood, air dried clay on reconstructed canvases, 13x13cm

Small World North

Small World North, Acrylic, aluminum foil, wood, air dried clay on reconstructed canvas, 13x13cm

Small World South

Small World South, Acrylic, aluminum foil, wood, air dried clay on reconstructed canvas, 13x13cm

Small World Stewart

Small World Stewart, Acrylic, aluminum foil, wood, air dried clay on reconstructed canvas, 13x13cm

With the recent pandemic and lockdowns travel globally has been limited. This has been hard on Kiwis who love to travel the globe and occasionally bump someone they know from home. They establish their common connections and exclaim “Small World!”.

And also during some of the travels of my life, I have met people who have not travelled very far from where they were born. Sometimes you hear of people who have spent their entire lives living and working on a bridge in a European or Asian city, or had never left the small village they were born in. Their worldview is often small.

These globes are for the travel-challenged.

Small World North, Small World South and Small World Stewart were entered in the Ashburton Society of Arts 58th Annual Exhibition and could be viewed (and purchased) at the Ashburton Art Gallery from 5-29 July 2022.