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| Sue Jones & David Middlebrook |
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Sue Jones
My work practice essentially focuses on tableware, made on a potter's wheel from refractory clays. An experimental approach maintains my personal interest in the clay material itself. A wider rationale for the work is to convey specific visual and tactile qualities of clay pots, made by hand to the people who choose to use them.
For more than thirty years, aesthetic and environmental concerns have influenced my preferences for raw glazing and single firing. Within this framework, the challenges have been to adapt my glazes and methods to the physical and chemical properties of different types of clay. The textures of iron bearing clays and their ability to interact with glazes were significant factors for my earliest work. Multi-layering of glazes to achieve subtle differences and depth of colour became more important in later pieces, which needed whiter fine-grained clays to act as canvases.
The practicalities involving my current work with porcelain clay bodies usually require two firings. Porcelain demands patience, but the rewards are worthwhile. Transmitted light can enliven a form and reveal hidden detail. Paradoxically, physical strength underlies the fragile appearance of thin vitrified porcelain. When unglazed though polished, it is silken to touch. These qualities allow each piece to visually stand alone, as well as to function in a domestic role.
David Middlebrook
The desert and the horizon have always been at the base of my art, combining my love of Australian literature, with an emphasis on isolation and alienation, and using this as a metaphor for my personal journey.
Drawings are always done in the landscape, working in Central Australia in areas around Alice Springs, or NSW in areas west of the Great Dividing Range.
The paintings are done in the studio and are simplified and are a condensing of colour, form and experience.
They are an emotional response to the landscape and less literal than the drawings. |
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