A PRIZE COLLECTION - Bathurst Regional Art Gallery...reward;” Armstrong describes, “it’s own...

A PRIZE COLLECTIONStudio Ceramics from the Carillon City Festival and

Bathurst Art Prizes 1972 - 1998

Extended labels

ARTIST LIST

SIMONE FRASER, Red and Black Urn (detail) (1987 Bathurst Art Purchase)

SALLY ARMSTRONG

ROS AULD

STEPHEN BENWELL

SANDRA BLACK

MICHAEL CONOLAN

GREG DALY

PETER DOBINSON

MOLLIE DOUGLAS

IVAN ENGLUND

PATRICIA ENGLUND

MERRAN ESSON

SIMONE FRASER

PETER GIBSON

KATE GRANT

VICTOR GREENAWAY

MARTIN HALSTEAD

GWYN HANSSEN PIGGOTT

PATSY HELY

MICHAEL KEIGHERY

SUSAN LAURENT

BRIGIAT MALTESE

JANET MANSFIELD

JEFF MINCHAM

FIONA MURPHY

MICHAEL NEWBERRY

JENNIFER ORCHARD

ALAN PEASCOD

DAVID POTTER

RON ROWE

PETER RUSHFORTH

BERNARD SAHM

JOYCE SCOTT

STEPHEN SKILLITZI

PENNY SMITH

TIM STRACHAN

SANDRA TAYLOR

MARTINE TROY

MOIRA TURNBULL

PRUE VENABLES

ROSWITHA WULFF

PETER WILSON

THE GALLERY GUIDES’ EXPERIENCE

(left to right): Jan White, Peter Varman, Margaret Marshall, Mary Cuppaidge (front), Kathleen Oakes, Maureen Wells, Judith Nash, Denise Payne, Lorraine Fielding, Hilary Stitt, Barbara Holmes. Absent: Susanne Griffith, Eilish McCarthy, Joyette Swane-Fitzpatrick, Silvia Wistuba

A year ago when Gallery Director Richard Perram OAM asked the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guides to assist with curating a retrospective exhibition on the Bathurst Art Prize, focusing on ceramic pieces in the Gallery collection, the guides enthusiastically took up the challenge.

Our first step was to familiarise ourselves with the ceramics section of the Bathurst Art Prize. We found we had 58 ceramic works by 41 artists, covering the period of 1972-1998.

The Guides decided to group the works into three decades, the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and proceeded to select the artists we would research. We became detectives and tried to track the artists, a difficult task 44 years on. Some had passed away; some had moved overseas; some were no longer working in ceramics; and some seemed to elude us in spite of all our efforts.

Those we were able to contact were sent photos of their works to aid their recall. Many of the artists commented on the enjoyment of seeing the items again after all these years, and were able to tell us what was happening in their lives at the time. Some were at the beginnings of their careers and had gone on to international success; others were near the end of their careers, had perfected their craft and were making exquisite works. Whatever their story, we appreciated the time taken to reply to us, as all replies helped us to personalise the works and gave them new life. We formed a new respect for ceramic artists.

We came to understand that whilst clay offers a plethora of expressive opportunities, and the end products are often unique and magnificent, many artists have difficulties in trying to make a living through ceramic practice. Consider the frustration of a job where sometimes half your work is unsaleable due to the precarious nature of clay and firing. Potters need stamina and manual dexterity, and an intimate knowledge of the clay they work with. They need to be dedicated timekeepers; artistic decorators; able to make moulds; pack a kiln to minimise loss; create crates and boards; be a compounder of oxides, a risk taker, and a salesperson in the difficult world of art sales.

Edmund de Waal in “The White Road” summed up the uncertainty:....so when you have your basin, your jar, you must let it dry very, very, slowly. Any dampness deep in the walls will crack the whole vessel as it is fired. Then there is the decoration and all this is before the firing itself, at which point all the work, the hundreds of hours are as chaff in the wind...

One of the common findings when researching these artists was how much many of them had changed in their repertoire over the years, with some advancing/perfecting their style, and others using different sciences to perfect glazes or finish their works.

In researching for this exhibition, the Gallery Guides have been privileged to have experienced continual art education. We have visited many of the outstanding potters in our region, observing their creativity, learning about their speciality, their resources and experiences. Also we have had access to the comprehensive records and research by former curators and Guides.

The Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guides thank the Gallery for commissioning the beautiful photographic work by Greg Piper included in the catalogue, which has substantially enhanced the enjoyment of this exhibition. The time he has taken to optimise the beauty and character of each piece is obvious. The Guides also thank Gallery Curator Sarah Gurich, and Gallery Assistant Henry Denyer-Simmons, for their guidance.

We are delighted that some of the artists have been able to return to view this exhibition, and look forward to continuing our relationships with them.

Susanne GriffithBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Gallery Guide

SALLY ARMSTRONG

19. SALLY ARMSTRONG, Bowl (1983 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Bowl 1983stoneware

Award: 1983 Bathurst Art PurchaseSponsored by Bathurst City CouncilExhibition dates: 16 September – 16 October 1983Judge/Adjudicator: Barry Pearce and Dr. Peter Emmett

“Inspiration comes first, the clay is the medium and firing the completion” – Sally Armstrong 2016

Sally Armstrong is a well renowned local artist and has been working with different clays and firing techniques since completing her studies in creative arts at Charles Sturt University.

Armstrong’s prize winning stoneware bowl from the 1983 Bathurst Art Purchase is simplicity itself; a clear glaze smoothed over the ornate native floral design. The outer rough stoneware contrasting with the flawless clear glaze produces the “ultimate reward;” Armstrong describes, “it’s own beauty”.

Armstrong has had Residencies at Cowra Japanese Gardens and Canowindra, attended many workshops participated in joint exhibitions and won championships at Shows. Sally is an active member of Bathurst Potters Group. Her work is often on exhibition for sale at T.arts (Tablelands Artists Co operative) in Bathurst Arcade.

Margaret MarshallBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer GuideAugust 2016

ROS AULD

38. ROS AULD, Platter II (1991 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Platter II 1991stoneware

Award: 1991 Bathurst Art PurchaseSponsored by Bathurst City CouncilExhibition dates: 17 May – 30 June 1991Judge/Adjudicator: Peter Rushforth

Ros Auld is an Australian potter based in Borenore near Orange, in Central West NSW, specialising in slab-built, or thrown and manipulated, stoneware forms decorated with wood ash glazes and trailed and incised slips, coloured oxides and gold lustre.

Ros Auld’s Platter II is typical of her early studio practice which was focused on salt glazed ceramics and large painterly decorated, platters. In 1998 Ros Auld commented of her process; “I foolishly specialise in platters.” This comment is in response to the process of works like Platter II which come with the need for silicon carbon shelves in the kiln to hold the work in place, these shelves then have to be chipped and ground tediously back for days. This added trouble with plates is necessary for Ros Auld who stated that “there simply isn’t any other way of achieving that beautiful richness and liveliness of surface, that natural glazing and finish on the edges of forms.”

Ros Auld’s more recent work encompasses large hand-built vessels and steel and ceramic sculptures however her practice is deeply rooted in her early fascination for plate ware which fostered a patience for achieving the sleek slips, magnificent natural glazing and earthly finish that are present in Platter II. Ros Auld once commented on her adoration for the plate as a medium stating “The plate is like a canvas – a simple shape where the decoration can be dominant although somehow not as self-conscious as a canvas painting.”

Suzanne GriffithBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer GuideAugust 2016

1. BRAG [2010] Ros Auld Ceramics 28 September-18 November 2012 [Catalogue]2. Mansfield, J. [Ed] (1988) Ros Auld; Why choose salt? Pottery in Australia; December 1988, Vol 27, No

4, p433. Clayton, J. [2016] Ros Auld from Janet Clayton Galleries website; [email protected]

[as accessed October 2016]4. Haynes, P. [2015] Art; Overland by Ros Auld and Tim Winters at Queanbeyan’s Form Studio and

Gallery. In Canberra Times; published October 21 2015

STEPHEN BENWELL

49. STEPHEN BENWELL, Shrine with Donor and Saints (1995 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Shrine with Donor and Saints 1993earthenware

1995 Bathurst Art Purchase,Sponsored by the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Society17th March – 17th April 1995Judge/Adjudicator: Michael Keighery

Stephen Benwell is one of Australia’s most distinguished ceramicists. He received a Diploma of Art from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1974, a Diploma of Education from Melbourne State College in 1976 included studies in Ceramics under Professor Noel John Flood and a Masters of Fine Arts from Monash University in 2005.

This medium became the basis of his art practice, Benwell stating ‘I moved sideways into craft and pottery as a way to find a surface, a form, that I could put my painting onto.’ His work marries studio based investigations of the ceramicist with the painterly and sculptural concerns of the contemporary artist.

At around the time Shrine With Donor and Saints was created, Benwell had begun investigating 18th Century figurines. The drawn-on feel of the painterly decorated shrine, the cartoonish saints and the imaginative design of the structure, typifies Benwell’s infatuation of eyeing the classical through the present.

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guides

SANDRA BLACK

50. SANDRA BLACK, Three Pierced Bowls (detail) (1995 Bathurst Art Purchase)

3 Pierced Bowls 1995porcelain

Award: Bathurst Art Purchase 1995Purchased on advice of the adjudicatorExhibition dates: 17 March to 17 April 1995Judge/Adjudicator: Michael Keighery

Sandra Black has been creating small porcelain vessels intricately carved and pierced to perfection since her very early days as a ceramicist. Her technique is exemplified in Three Pierced Bowls; the use surgical blades and small electric drills to pattern the leather hard porcelain allows the light to penetrate into and illuminate her delicate creations. Porcelain is sensuous to the touch both during the making and the finished work.

Black seldom uses a glaze, stating, ”it looks too shiny, life is fragile, I want my work to reflect this”.

In 2014 Black took part in a residency in Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of China which signifies a constant infatuation for working with porcelain. It is a place of pilgrimage for international ceramicists and the city is famous for it’s Kaolin Clay that has been used for thousands of years.

A full time artist since 1975 Black has had 31 solo shows and participated in over 250 group shows.Her works are held by major and regional galleries in Australia, U.K., U.S.A., Japan, Canada, Netherlands and New Zealand.

Always interested and active in Education Black currently holds a part –time position at Curtin University in Perth. Margaret MarshallBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer GuideAugust 2016

MICHAEL CONOLAN

1. MICHAEL CONOLAN, Jar (1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Stoneware Jar 1972stoneware

Award: 1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic AwardWilson Stinson Regional Ceramic Prize, gift of Mary Abbott RobertsExhibition dates: 17 March – 17 April 1995Judge/Adjudicator: Mr. and Mrs. A Tuckson

Michael Conolan’s work includes platters, bowls, pots and vessels, his work covering over 50 years as a potter and more recently his body of work includes domestic tableware. From 1972 Conolan’s coarse Stoneware Jar is an example of an experienced potter continuing to hone his craft. The roughly textured wheel thrown stoneware body is emblazoned with early Irish decoration and finished with a magnesium glaze before being fired under high temperatures. Techniques Michael would’ve learnt to master whilst studying pottery under Peter Rushforth at East Sydney Technical College.

In his final year he found he wasn’t keen on being an Art Teacher. Peter Rushforth encouraged him to apply for the position of ‘clay boy’, working behind the scenes. Michael said, “Peter Rushforth was a great mentor and great person to work for.” Alan Peascod was also a good friend.

Money worries forced Michael to go back teaching. He taught at Bathurst Teachers College, then on the South Coast before returning to Bathurst to teach at St Stanislaus College. In 1975 he received a grant, so he ceased teaching and went to live in Rylstone, where he built a wood kiln. One slab of beer a week paid for his rent. 1975-78 he taught at TAFE in Bathurst and Mudgee as well as The Scots School Bathurst.

In 1985 Michael bought a small property near Hampton, and taught pottery classes near the Hampton Hotel. Anna Culliton had her first pottery classes here with Michael. Michael had a brief job with a large pottery establishment employing ten people in Dubbo and he was producing 300 mugs a day on the wheel. It was a production line, with others adding the handles. It stopped when the travelling became too much.

Michael continues to work from his studio at Hampton, using his wood and gas kilns and firing with local potters Lise Edwards and Margaret Ling.

Barbara HolmesBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer GuideAugust 2016

GREG DALY

39. GREG DALY, Etched Lustred Vase (1991 Bathurst Art Purchase)44. GREG DALY, Lustre Decorated Platter (1993 Bathurst Art Purchase)55. GREG DALY, Glaze on Glaze Decorated Bowl (1998 Bathurst Art Purchase)

39. 44.

Etched Lustred Vase 1991porcelaineous clay

Award: 1991 Bathurst Art Purchase, Sponsored by Bathurst City CouncilExhibition dates: 17 May – 15 November 1991Judge/Adjudicator: Peter Rushforth

Lustre Platter 1991porcelaineous clay

Award: 1993 Bathurst Art Purchase, Sponsored by Southern Mitchell ElectricityExhibition dates: 7th August – 5th September 1993Judge/Adjudicator: Grace Cochrane

Glaze on Glaze Decorated Bowl 1998ceramic

Award: 1998 Bathurst Art Purchase, Sponsored by Uncle Ben’sExhibition dates: 5th September – 18th October 1998Judge/Adjudicator: Bill Samuels

Cowra based Greg Daly is an internationally renowned ceramic artist specialising in rich glaze effects and the author glazes and glazing techniques. Exquisite gold lustre is laid over the vividly colourful glazes and enamel highlights this clay thrown vase, which catches the eye as it reflects light from all angles.

Daly began working with Lustre Glazes in the early part of his career and in the last 14 years has developed techniques, experimented with and written books about lustre glazes; a process he describes as involving the laying of a metallic surface (gold and silver) over glazed fired pots and other forms of Ceramics. It is a form of Alchemy, turning changing metal into glowing, iridescent surfaces that respond beautifully to changing light. Many of his designs and decorations are deemed to have an eastern influence and Lustred Vase is no exception.

Peter VarmanBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

PETER DOBINSON

7. PETER DOBINSON, Blossom Jar (1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)13. PETER DOBINSON, Blue Matt and Ash Bowl (1974 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

7.

Blossom Jar 1973stoneware

Award: 1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic Award Purchased on the advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 26 September – 9 October 1974Judge/Adjudicator: Bernard Sahm

Bowl 1974stoneware

Award: 1974 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic AwardPurchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 25 September – 8 October 1974Judge/Adjudicator: Kenneth Hood

Peter Dobinson began his potting career in 1968 when he took night school lessons from Rudolph Dybka at the Gladesville Hospital. In 1969 he worked full-time at the Ceramic Architectural Studio Dybka Tichy at Parramatta. Later, working independently from his home, Dobinson was one of the major suppliers to the Argyle Arts Centre, Sydney.

When he exhibited in the Carillon City Festival Art Prize in 1973 and 1974 he was at the start of his most productive years. At that time he also exhibited his work at the Hayloft Gallery in Bathurst.

In the lead up to this exhibition Dobinson was contacted and happy to describe his 1974 Bowl for BRAG; “The clay is likely one from Feeney’s in Ipswich that they called ‘Buff Raku’ at the time - a highly grogged stoneware type that had a lot of ironstone content, hence the vast amount of bleed-out iron. The glaze was a fairly simple ash glaze that I made up, and used on much of my work at the time. It was actually made of ash from the log fireplace in our house, with around 30% raw china clay, plus some silica and feldspar, but no oxides. The cut decoration was an attempt at a freehand bamboo- leaf look.”

Peter Dobinson’s career in ceramics has been long and varied. He has incorporated business pursuits such as a vineyard in the Hunter Valley, restaurants in Coffs Harbour, a wine shop in Canberra and teaching at A.N.U. while always continuing to pursue his passion for ceramics.

Denise PayneBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer GuideAugust 2016

MOLLIE DOUGLAS

2. MOLLIE DOUGLAS, Stoneware Jar and Lid (1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Stoneware Jar and Lid 1972stoneware

Award: 1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic AwardPurchased on advice of the judges Exhibition dates: 7 September – 10 October 1972Judge/Adjudicator: Mr and Mrs A.Tuckson

Mollie Douglas was a modest inspirational potter and teacher renowned for the meticulous finish of her hand thrown pots. She enjoyed experimenting with clay techniques and glazes, often digging and mixing together her own found raw materials. This experimentation is evident in the strikingly unique Stoneware Jar and Lid from 1972 with its unorthodox form, plaster like surface finish and combination of glazing styles.

The prize winning Stoneware Jar and Lid is typical of her work, simple in shape, perfectly glazed and designed “for use in this time and place” she said. Many similar works are held in State and Regional Australian Galleries.

After winning a scholarship to East Sydney Technical College in 1939, where she intended to study Painting and Drawing, she discovered pottery and changed courses in 1940. She won the Top Student Medal and began teaching at her old school, Abbottsleigh .Douglas continued teaching and establishing courses at Technical Colleges in Sydney until her retirement in 1989.

Douglas along with Peter Rushforth, Ivan McMeekin and Ivan Englund established the New South Wales Potter’s Society in 1955.Douglas was first Secretary and then President of this group.She represented Australia at the first World Congress of Craftsmen held in New York in 1964.

Mollie Douglas was involved in the training of many well known Australian potters between 1950 -1980. She never referred to them as” her students”, preferring the term” our students.

Margaret MarshallBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer GuideAugust 2016

IVAN ENGLUND

14. IVAN ENGLUND, Blue Stoneware Bottle (1974 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Stoneware Bottle 1974stoneware

Award: 1974 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic AwardPurchased on advice of the judge Exhibition dates: 25 September – 8 October 1974Judge/Adjudicator: Kenneth Hood

At the time of this Award in 1974, Ivan Englund was teaching at his school, the Ivan Englund Pottery School at The Rocks, in Sydney 1972-1977.

Much of Ivan’s body of work shows a regard for Japanese traditional ceramic finesse and glazing techniques and Stoneware Bottle 1974 is not dissimilar. The wheel thrown vessel has been freely and masterfully decorated a with red and mauve brushwork motif over a traditional white glazing.

Born Liverpool NSW, Englund studied drawing and painting & received a Diploma at East Sydney Technical College in 1951. He taught Art & Ceramics in Victoria, Canberra & Wollongong. Was one of the four original members of Potters Society of Australia, formed in 1956. He did extensive research on glazes and published books and articles on his work. Later Englund moved to Walcha, then Bawley Point NSW, where he worked as a full time potter. In 1995 Ivan Englund received a Doctorate from Wollongong University for his work on middle-fire glazes.


PATRICIA ENGLUND

15. PATRICIA ENGLUND , Stoneware Bottle (1974 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Stoneware Bottle 1974stoneware

Award: 1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic Award Purchased on advice of the judge Exhibition dates: 25 September – 8 October 1974Judge/Adjudicator: Kenneth Hood

Australian potter and painter, Patricia Englund made this stoneware form in the studio that she shared with her husband, Ivan Englund, at Mount Kembla in New South Wales. Englund’s work reflects a Japanese influence and an interest in the pots of ancient civilizations and the copper hues and colours from pink to blue, such as those exemplified in Stoneware Bottle, were achieved by controlling and manipulating the atmosphere in kiln.

A studio potter and painter, Patricia Englund studied painting & drawing at Julian Ashton Art School, before she took pottery lessons at the Wollongong Technical College. In Wollongong she met her future husband, the pottery teacher, Ivan Englund. Patricia would go on to teach pottery at the National Art School for 10 years

At the time Stoneware Bottle was made Patricia Englund was becoming well-known for her wheel-thrown stoneware and large porcelain forms, platters, bowls & bottles which favoured her brushwork, and showing a deep respect for Japanese ceramic traditions which would continue throughout her body of work. Englund was also known for her experimental work with glazes, many of which were based on South Coast igneous rock flows. She also produced ceramic jewellery, and was an accomplished and admired painter, especially for her pen & wash works.

Following her death in 2004, Patricia Englund left a bequest of $300,000 to NSW Art Gallery Foundation and based on this was made an honorary Foundation Benefactor. She also bequeathed a significant collection of jewellery and ceramics to the Art Gallery of New South Wales.


MERRAN ESSON

20. MERRAN ESSON, Mundaroo Series 2 (1983 Bathurst Art Purchase) 29. MERRAN ESSON, Untitled Slab (1985 Bathurst Art Purchase)

20.

Mundaroo Series 2 1983 coloured porcelain

Award: 1983 Bathurst Art Purchase, Sponsored by Bathurst City CouncilExhibition dates: 16 September – 16 October 1983Judge/Adjudicator: Barry Pearce and Dr. Peter Emmett

Untitled slab 1985coloured porcelain

Award: 1985 Bathurst Art Purchase, Sponsored by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery SocietyExhibition dates: 18 October – 17 November 1985Judge/Adjudicator: Mr Carl Andrew

Sydney based Merran Esson has two works in this exhibition, both entered the permanent collection at BRAG through the Bathurst Art Prize; Mundaroo Series 2 and Untitled slab in 1983 and 1985 respectively. Bathurst was one of the few galleries offering prize money for ceramics in the eighties and Merran Esson says she was truly encouraged by the purchase of her work. Esson would go on to be a frontrunner in Australian Ceramics for many years. She has exhibited extensively in both solo and group shows and has won many awards including a residency at The National Arts School’s Paris Studio in 2005.

Following the completion of study at Caulfield Institute of Technology, the National Art School and Monash University Merran began teaching. She taught at many esteemed colleges including Edinburgh College of Art in Glasgow, and the Academy of Fine Art in Beijing. She is currently Head of Ceramics at the National Art School in Sydney.

Mundaroo Series 2 was part of a group of pieces made between 1981-83 and was inspired by the form of a small lidded bottle owned by artist at the time. The function has been altered by the addition of decorative pieces alluding to “thunder and lightning” experienced by her when living at Mundaroo, the family farm in the foothills of The Snowy Mountains.

Merran Esson Untitled slab is the more recent work being exhibited. The vibrant and almost fantastical clay slab was inspired by visiting castles and gardens in Scotland, where Merran was fascinated by the markings on the flat surfaced sundials. Esson went on to make a “Sundial Series” and a “Gnomon Series”.

Her recent works are large scale, which evoke sensory responses through colour and form. She makes colourful buckets and tanks, many dented and pierced, not too far from her early influences of farmland at the foot of the Snowy Mountains where she lived as a child. She says I am still fascinated by farm detritus and have a desire to see my work installed in the landscape as much as possible. Most recently some of Merran’s works were selected in 2016 for inclusion in Sculpture by The Sea, a far cry from the snowy mountains her works were located on a headland overlooking the ocean.

Margaret Marshall Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer GuideAugust 2016

SIMONE FRASER

36. SIMONE FRASER, Red and Black Urn (1987 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Red and Black Urn 1983 dry glaze ceramic

Award: 1987 Bathurst Art PurchaseSponsored by the Art Purchase CommitteeExhibition dates: 16 October – 15 November 1987Judge/Adjudicator: Anna Waldman & David Williams

Simone Frazer has been creating pots for a little over 40 years, creating often larger scale works on a wheel and by using a flamethrower and gas bottle to stiffen the clay as she forms individual pieces. This technique was part of her education under Alan Peascod at the Canberra School of Art in 1978.

Simone Frazer’s Red and Black Urn could be seen to have a Mediterranean influence like much of her other work; it is vessel based and plays with classical forms. Her glazing technique of building up a multitude of layers of slips, oxides, dry glazes and of multi-firing each piece suggests a reflexive interest in materiality and an infatuation with the passage of time.

Simone has been consistent over a long period of time in using the colours and patterning on her vessels which are the connections to similar textures in the natural world and by her own interpretations of the physical world in her life experiences and the landscape, a specially the coastal areas, with its multi textured and richly coloured surface.

Her intervention in the medium is obvious in the wheel thrown forms and the manipulation by hand ribbons of rocky encrustations, signs of weathering rocks to produce a wonderful articulated surface.

She has said; “my role as an artist is not to define what beauty is, but question what has been in the past, while also bringing new elements together and pushing into new ways of seeing beauty subjectively.”

Peter VarmanBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

PETER GIBSON

45. PETER GIBSON, Blue Vase (1993 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Blue Vase 1993 stoneware

Award: Purchased from Bathurst Art Prize 1993on the advice of the judgesExhibition dates: August 7th – September 5th 1993Judge/Adjudicator: Grace Cochrane

At the time he entered the Bathurst Art Purchase in 1993 Gibson was teaching at Orange TAFE and often entered his works in the Bathurst Art Prize during this period. Peter Gibson’s Blue Vase from 1993 is made from stoneware clay, fired to 1300c. The cool hues in the glaze suggest some eastern influences and this particular type of glazing is often referred to as Chun or Jun in the Chinese tradition of delicate iron blue glazes.

Peter Gibson completed 3 years’ training at the National Art School in 1980. He continued his career as a potter while teaching ceramics at the Orange TAFE (1984 - 2001). He resigned from teaching in 2001 to establish his vineyard, Word of Mouth, on the slopes of Mount Canobolas, Orange. The vineyard also has a small gallery space that features contemporary art and photograph. Peter has gladly returned to making pots after a decade of inactivity and sells his work from his vineyard.

Since 1993 Peter has moved on to producing purely functional pieces, mainly bowls and platters.

He participated in group shows in Sydney 1976 - 84 and solo and group shows in country NSW 1984 - 93. These included Spirit, Place, Identity at the Orange Regional Gallery in 1993 and Cooramilla, part of the Open Gardens Scheme in 1998.

Denise PayneBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

KATE GRANT

30. KATE GRANT, Untitled I (1985 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Untitled I 1985porcelain

Award: 1985 Bathurst Art Purchase, Sponsored by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery SocietyExhibition dates: 18 October – 17 November 1985Judge/Adjudicator: Mr Carl Andrew

When Kate Grant entered the 1985 Bathurst Art Purchase we know at that time she would often create streamlined, geometric porcelaine sculptures similar to Untitled I. We were not able to find any more information about Kate Grant.

What we do know is that porcelain is one of the harder clays to work with and maintain its shape.

If you have any information about Kate Grant then please inform a member of the gallery staff.

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

VICTOR GREENAWAY

8. VICTOR GREENAWAY, Anonymity (1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Anonymity 1973stoneware

Award: 1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic AwardPurchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 26 September – 9 October 1973Judge/Adjudicator: Bernard Sahm

Victor Greenaway entered two works into The Carillon Open Ceramic Award in 1973; the other was entitled Bureaucrat. In the year he won this prize Greenaway was charging forward; preparing for the opening of his first studio the following year and a Churchill Fellowship to Japan.

Speaking about Anonymous from his home in Orvieto, Italy, Greenaway writes:Firstly, it is a delight to see the piece after all these years. I cannot recollect the circumstances regarding the purchase of the piece, but remember the time it was produced which was very early in my career, just before I went on the Churchill Fellowship to Japan in 1974.

Secondly, I recall the environment during that time which was during the Gough Whitlam years and a great deal of optimism both within the arts and on the world stage. The Vietnam war was coming to a close. The Americans had finally pulled out of the war and our troops were coming home.

As my skills developed in throwing on the wheel as a production thrower, I turned those same skills into making a series of sculptures. There was also a desire to make some sort of social commentary based on what had taken place in world events and the state of politics in Australia.

At that time it was common for me to be throwing repetition pieces in the order of 200- 300 small items a day. I had developed the “split flanged goblet” which was thrown in one piece (I claim to have raised my two daughters on the strength of these goblets). They were very popular and designed to be made economically.

The sculptures were using the same method of throwing the “split flange” which was all thrown in one piece. The heads were in one section and the body thrown separately, to be joined at the “leather hard” stage. Each piece was then characterised by various modelling additions, with some having additional materials incorporated, such as the smoky acrylic mask attached to this one, obscuring the vision altogether. This particular piece was glazed on the top half using a stoneware ash glaze fired in a reduction atmosphere to 1300oC in an oil kiln.

Victor Greenaway continues to be an internationally renowned artist represented widely in public and private collections both within Australia and overseas. From 2007 he has been resident in Orvieto, Italy; creating new works; organising master classes and ceramics tours. He also still maintains a painting and ceramic studio in East Gippsland, Victoria.

Susanne GriffithBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

MARTIN HALSTEAD

21. MARTIN HALSTEAD, No Title (1983 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Lamp 1983stoneware

Award: 1983 Bathurst Art PurchaseSponsored by Cuneo’s Galloping Grape RestaurantExhibition dates: 16 September – 16 October 1983Judge/Adjudicator: Barry Pearce and Dr. Peter Emmett

Martin Halstead completed a Diploma of Visual Arts at Canberra School of Art in 1982 and a Diploma of Education at Sydney College of Advanced Education in1987. When he entered the Bathurst Purchase Prize he was the Assistant to the Curator at the Canberra School of Art Gallery.

In 1986 he was awarded the prize for the best work of ceramicists under 26 years old from the Concorso Internationalle della Ceramica D’Arte in Faenza, Italy.

Halstead has combined his ceramics career with teaching in the school of Art and Design at the Orange TAFE and 1988 -2013 in the School of Arts and Media at the Moss Vale College of TAFE.

Halstead’s Lamp is made from Bendigo stoneware fired to 1200c with slips and dry glaze that appear to have scratched and faded the limestone colour and texture of the work in to the rustic, metallic final form that it takes on.

Janet Mansfield quoted Halstead’s description of his working methods in her book, A Collector’s Guide to Modern Australian Ceramics: Working needs honesty and time...With Abstract work I need to take time to develop the shapes and motifs so that they retain meaning and strength within the context of the work ...Working can be lonely, frustrating and yet rewarding with emotions ranging high and low but I am always learning and building on what I have learnt.

In the same book Peter Haynes wrote: Halstead’s decoration forces the viewer to move around the work at once appreciating the subtleties of colour and line which constitute the formal components of the decoration.

Halstead has exhibited regularly since 1982 - including in Orange, Sydney, Manly and the Narek Gallery at Tanja near Bermagui. In 1989 he was commissioned by the Queensland Performing Arts Trust to produce his iconic Instrumental Suite. In 1992 he was Artist in Residence in the Lakeside Studio in Michigan USA.

His work is held by Bathurst, Orange, Manly, Newcastle and la Trobe Regional Art Galleries, by Artbank, Sturt Gallery Mittagong and internationally in galleries in Italy, USA, Germany and Hawaii.


GWYN HANSSEN PIGGOTT

47. GWYN HANSSEN PIGOTT, Still Life (1993 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Still Life 1993ceramic (set of 5 pieces)

Award: Acquired through 28th Bathurst Art Purchase 1993 sponsored by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Society and purchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 16th September to 16th October 1983Judge/Adjudicator: Grace Cochrane

Gwyn Hanssen Pigott OAM was an Australian ceramic artist. She was recognized as one of Australia’s most significant contemporary artists. By the time she died she was regarded as one of the world’s greatest contemporary potters. She worked in Australia, England, Europe, the USA, New Zealand, Japan and Korea. In a career spanning nearly 60 years, influences from her apprenticeships to English potters were still apparent in her later work. But in the 1980s she turned away from production pottery to making porcelain still-life groups largely influenced by the Italian painter Giorgio Morandi.

Gwyn Hannssen Piggott was born in Ballarat where she grew up and went on to study a Bachelor of Arts before becoming infatuated with pottery and undertaking her first internship with pioneering potter Ivan Mc Meekin at Sturt Pottery in Mittagong NSW. Mc Meekin inspired Hanssen Piggott and she would later cite him as her greatest influence and was very grateful for sharing “A Potters Book” by Bernard Leach with her which would remain a constant source Hanssen’s inspiration. Mc Meekin also gave her a lifelong appreciation and understanding of the basic of ceramic beauty in materials and firing, Hanssen saying “He didn’t just look at pots he studied their most intimate details.” After honing her craft in the early years of her career with Mc Meekin, Gwyn moved to England in 1958 which was where she first found the notoriety that would snowball for the rest of career.

She became Australia’s most distinguished potter, creating a new language for ceramics through her idea of Groupings. Gwyn received the medal of the order of Australia. Followed by a rare retrospective at the national gallery of victoria, where 50 years earlier she had first fallen in love with ceramics.

After the death of her first husband Gwyn went to live in The Loire valley France for a few years before returning to Tasmania where she married John Piggott and continued to have solo shows in Britain, US, Germany,Canada , Switzerland,Japan,Italy and Australia.

In 2002 she made her last move to a studio in Ipswich, Queensland.

Mary CuppaidgeBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

PATSY HELY

22. PATSY HELY, Coffee Set (1983 Bathurst Art Purchase)31. PATSY HELY, Bowl Set (1985 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Coffee Set (pot with 4 cups, 4 saucers) 1983 stoneware

Award: 1983 Bathurst Art PurchaseSponsored by Commonwealth Banking CorporationExhibition dates: 16 September – 16 October 1983Judge/Adjudicator: Barry Pearce and Dr. Peter Emmett

Large Bowl (set of 5) 1985earthenware

Award: 1985 Bathurst Art Purchase, Sponsored by Bathurst Regional CouncilWinner Art Gallery Society AwardExhibition dates: 18 October – 17 November 1985Judge/Adjudicator: Mr Carl Andrew

Patsy Hely’s love affair with ceramics began with her grandmother’s porcelain china collection. She went on to study ceramics at East Sydney Technical college and was involved in establishing the Glebe Estate Workshop which included a gallery for clay workers.

In an article in Craft Australia in 1983 she says she does not think Art Deco was a creative and innovated time in pottery but she is attracted to its sense of relationship between decoration, form and colour; I am influenced by Art Deco buildings, their embellishment and independence. They seem to have more personality than other architectural styles.

In the 1990s while a senior lecturer at Lismore campus of Southern Cross University, Hely developed her interest in porcelain, exploring ideas of light, transparency and mutability. In 2003 Hely moved to Canberra to obtain her PhD in ceramics and teach at the Australian National University.

In Canberra she was strongly impressed by the change in her natural surroundings, using twigs and sprigs collected while walking in the area to decorate her work, she also became interested in birds.

She began working with white earthenware clay and underglaze colours and slips.She is especially interested in making and decorating functional ports because I feel that the use of these can enrich one’s life. I also like the boundaries that function imposes; having some rules makes the aesthetic and technical problem solving more interesting and rewarding.

Most of her work is cast in clip. She finds the making of moulds time consuming, she revelling in the variety of effects obtained. She says; porcelain is lovely to handle, and I like the look of it. I like its transparency, but not just that, I love the density of it. Also it is so much more serviceable than earthenware.

She is very interested in traditional ceramic decoration, especially 18th Century European work, and likes to make work where the decoration has a relationship to the present day. Her painted birds are not done as ornithological illustrations - they are impressions only. Hely is frequently quoted as having said, It seems to me to be a luxury to be able to earn a living from something that I love to do!

Hely has two works that are being exhibited from the permanent collection. The two ceramic sets were acquired through the Bathurst Art Prize; Coffee Set (pot, 4 cups, 4 saucers) in 1983 and Large Bowl 1985 (set of 5) in 1985 which won the Bathurst Art Society Prize for that year.

Hilary StittBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

MICHAEL KEIGHERY

23. MICHAEL KEIGHERY, Lattice Bowl (1983 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Lattice Bowl 1983porcelain

Award: 1983 Bathurst Art PurchaseSponsored by Cuneo’s Galloping Grape RestaurantExhibition dates: 16 September – 16 October 1983Judge/Adjudicator: Barry Pearce and Dr. Peter Emmett

Michael Keighery completed an Arts/Law degree in 1970 but soon realised he was more interested in the Arts than in becoming a solicitor. After working as an administrator at the Adelaide Jam Factory he completed a BA degree at the Sydney College of the Arts (1980 -82).

In 1983, when he entered the Bathurst Art Prize, he was lecturing in ceramics at both Newcastle C A E and the City Art Institute.

Frances Kelly wrote about Keighery in the Sydney Morning Herald 7/5/1983: Keighery represents one of the new breed of artist craftsmen tending away from making useful pots, heading more into conceptual art, articulate about the messages of his work, very serious about the craft scene, its polemics and potential.

Since then Keighery has had a most distinguished career in mixed media, ceramics and performance art. He is collected, respected and exhibited nationally and worldwide. His work is included in the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of WA, Powerhouse Museum, Artbank, Taipai Fine Arts Museum and many regional galleries.

Keighery has also been a prominent arts educator and policy maker. From 2003 -2007 he was Head of the Fine Arts Program at the University of Western Sydney, National President (Australia) International Association of Art and Chair of the National Association of the Visual Arts.

In 2015, to commemorate the centenary of Gallipoli, Keighery created The Dead Man’s Penny Exhibition at the Watson Arts Centre in Canberra. The ceramic scrolls and other works were inspired by his great uncle, Frank Keighery, who had died at Gallipoli. His family had been one of the more than 1.3 million families who had been sent the King’s Medal during WW1. This medal become known as the Dead Man’s Penny. For more details of this haunting exhibition see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M52SZ0gbPi8

Lattice Bowl has been created using the slip-casting method. Keighery described the process: A solid lump of clay was thrown and trimmed upside down on the potter’s wheel. When the clay was firm plaster was poured over the clay. Once the plaster was set the soft clay was removed and the plaster became the mould for the bowl. The casting slip - porcelain was then poured into the mould. The plaster absorbed the water out of the porcelain. When the “shell” was thick enough the excess slip was poured out of the mould. When dry, the casting was bisque fired to around 1020 C. The bowl was then carefully sandblasted through a plastic mesh to achieve the lattice effect. The bowl was then sprayed with a clear glaze and refired.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M52SZ0gbPi8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M52SZ0gbPi8

SUSAN LAURENT

24. SUSAN LAURENT, Lidded Box (detail) (1983 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Lidded Box 1983porcelain


When Susan Laurent entered the 1983 Bathurst Art Purchase we know at that time she would often work create slick, geometric porcelain boxes and containers similar to Lidded Box. We were not able to find any more information about Susan Laurent, only traces and photographs of a few of her works during this time.

We do know however that porcelain is one of the harder clays to work with and maintain its shape. To create a box with extra sides, precise corners and corner mount would be no easy task. Lidded Box is masterful in style and form and Laurent’s ceramics may be somewhat unrecognised but not underappreciated, the gallery is lucky to have such a work in the collection.

If you have any information about Susan Laurent then please let the gallery know.


BRIGIAT MALTESE

51. BRIGIAT MALTESE, Five Crowns, Holding Fine Fish (1995 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Five Crowns, Holding Five Fish 1991terractotta

Acquired through the Bathurst Art Prize Purchase 1995Purchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 17th March – 17th April 1995Judge: Michael Keighery

Brigiat Maltese completed a Bachelor of Education Degree at the City Art Institute, UNSW (1984 - 1987), where her tutors were Peter Traves, Marea Gazzard and Patsy Hely. She then completed post graduate studies in Visual Arts at UNSW focusing on painting and drawing (1989 -1991).

At the time Five Crowns was created Julianne Campbell interviewed Maltese for Ceramics Art and Perception No 15, 1994. Her article, aptly titled, The Fresh Face of Brigiat Maltese stated: On almost every piece striking self-portraits appear. Dark almond eyes, arched brows and loopy locks cover the surface of Maltese’s hand-coiled pots alongside animals, plants and an array of motifs and designs hinting at her Slovenian background.

The motifs on Maltese’s amphora-shaped vases are influenced by her own life experiences, classical Greek and Roman patterns and Spanish and Italian folk ware.

Maltese said: My pieces have a strong relationship to the traditional clay vessels from Europe and figurative South American vessels.

Maltese told Campbell about her desire to decorate her works: My parents’ house was full of ornaments and every piece of material was embroidered or decorated in some way. Maltese’s first works were slip cast with surface ornamentation similar to the techniques of Jenny Orchard and Patsy Hely. She later preferred traditional hand-building techniques of coiling, joining and cross hatching; Hand made things have a sense of soul, a sense of irregularity that I like. She decorated the ‘greenware’ with a combination of commercial underglazes and stains. After bisque firing the pieces were covered in a matt glaze and refired.


JANET MANSFIELD

16. JANET MANSFIELD, Container (with ball lid) (1974 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Container (with Ball Lid) 1974 Clay Raku Fired


Janet was born in Sydney. She became interested in pottery as a young mother, attending evening classes, then studying ceramics at the National Art School, East Sydney Technical College, during 1964-1965, working with experienced potters such as Peter Rushworth and Mollie Douglas.

Janet’s first exhibition was at the Alladin Gallery in 1968, which resulted in Peter Rushworth inviting her to join the Potters Society.

In 1970 Janet helped lead the first Australian Ceramic Study Group to Japan. She commented There is so much for a potter to learn in Japan, as their dedication is legendary. Raku is a type of Japanese pottery, where the fired raku pieces are removed from the kiln while still glowing hot and are allowed to cool. It is raku’s unpredictable results and the intense colours it produces that attracts modern potters.

In 1975 Janet worked with Paul Soldner in America and was introduced to salt glazing. Janet’s first wood fired kiln for salt glazing was designed and built by herself. She was drawn to the flashes of red, orange and yellow shadows it produced. Janet believed that a good pot should show the process itself.

In 1977 Janet moved with her family to Gulgong, where she continued to make salt glazed, wood fired vessels, using local Gulgong clays. She was one of Australia’s most revered wood-firers and her work is represented in major public collections in Australia and overseas.

Janet was the recipient of many awards. In 1987 she received the Order of Australia for her ongoing work to promote ceramic art. She also received the Australia Council for the Arts Emeritus Award in 1990. This is a distinction awarded to few Australian artists in any medium. Janet had 30 solo exhibitions in Australia, Japan and New Zealand and was also involved in group exhibitions in more than 20 countries. She has written and edited a number of books on Ceramics. She also was editor and publisher of the international high quality journals “Ceramics Art and Perceptions” and Ceramics Technical”.

Janet Mansfield’s achievements add up to several lifetimes worth. She is remembered as a revered potter, exhibitor, writer, editor and publisher, judge and jurist, diplomat and traveller.

Maureen WellsBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

JEFF MINCHAM

26. JEFF MINCHAM, The Passing Grey of Rain (1983 Bathurst Art Purchase)56. JEFF MINCHAM, Large Geomorphic Vessel (1998 Bathurst Art Purchase)

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The Passing of Grey Rain 1983stoneware

Award: 1983 Bathurst Art Purchase, Sponsored by Cuneo’s Galloping Grape RestaurantExhibition dates: 6 September – 16 October 1983Judge/Adjudicator: Barry Pearce and Dr. Peter Emmett

Large Geomorphic Vessel 1998 ceramic

Award: Acquired through the Bathurst Art Prize Purchase 1998Purchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 5th September – 18th October 1998Judge/Adjudicator: Bill Samuels

Jeff Mincham entered The Passing of Grey Rain into the 1983 Bathurst Art Prize he was a highly revered Australian potter and Head of the Jam Factory Ceramics Workshop in Adelaide. Towards the end of his time at the Jam Factory, Mincham had started to create large raku jars like this piece. Raku is a Japanese process where low fired earthenware is taken from the kiln while still very hot, placed in masses of combustible material to reduce the oxygen atmosphere for the glaze and stain the exposed surface with carbon and then cooled very quickly. It is spontaneous, theatrical and unpredictable, producing effects that are impossible to reproduce. Mincham was infatuated with Japanese aesthetic of ‘chance beauty arising from unpredictable effects of the raku process’. Mincham continued with his interest in raku until the 1990s when he changed to working largely with mid fired clays.

In an article, “The Vessel Triumphant”, Jeff Mincham writes of a pot he had seen: ‘if I had any doubts about the power of the vessel as an expressive form they ended right there. Quite simply, this powerful gesture in clay was immutably a clay vessel, out of the long tradition of the vessel, but spoke of modern human experience with immense energy’. He could have been speaking about his own work. Mincham’s works exert a presence that is imposing, technically sophisticated and eloquent.

Kathleen OakesBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

FIONA MURPHY

37. FIONA MURPHY, Blue Vase (1987 Bathurst Art Purchase)52. FIONA MURPHY, Female Effigy I & Female Effigy II (1995 Bathurst Art Purchase)

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Female Effigy I 1995ceramic

Award: Acquired through the Bathurst Art Prize Purchase 1995Purchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 17th March – 17th April 1995Judge/Adjudicator: Michael Keighery

Fiona is an artist working in Melbourne, with an extensive exhibition practice over more than thirty years. She characteristically uses hand-forming techniques, her work is usually functional and in vase form, whilst retaining a sculptural quality. Three of Fiona’s works are featured in this exhibition from the collection and are exemplary of an emphasis on the natural world and female forms that run throughout much of her body of work. Her studio materials and hand-forming processes express the physicality of the natural world: earth, water, fire and air.

Blue Vase (1987) is Fiona Murphy’s first work entered in the Bathurst Art Prize. Decorated with rich colourful slips the vase is both sculptural and functional. It is hand built, and the softened angularity sits within the S curve. Fiona Murphy is inspired by the natural environment and says of this piece- Blue vase is a sculptural interpretation of Australian native plants like the Grevillia and the Banksia. I employ the S curve to evoke plant like growth. One may see a new plant that has burst from the seed pod and is growing toward the sun. The cobalt blue sky illuminated by the sun’s golden rays which are featured in the concave surfaces of the vase.

Both Female Effigy I and Female Effigy II entered the collection through the Bathurst Art Purchase Prize in 1995. These beautifully crafted pieces evoke elegantly simple feminine forms and each one is unique but not separate from the other. Each piece has been hand formed in a coiling fashion from thin strips of clay slab. They are further shaped with a wooden paddle. Their surfaces scored then covered with a white slip. This creates a subtle criss-cross pattern on the surface. Additional scattered scoring of the slip reveals the colour of the clay underneath. Both pieces are exquisitely finished with a satin glaze. Fiona Murphy states that the Female Effigies are biomorphic forms. Minimalist in design, they contain the concept of containment.

Fiona is an artist working in Melbourne, with an extensive exhibition practice over more than thirty years. Fiona gained a PhD in Visual Art from Australia’s Monash University in 2013. Awards include the City of Hobart Art Prize in 2005 and a Yerring Sculpture Award in 2004. A survey exhibition of Fiona’s ceramic sculpture was held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1991. International exhibitions include SOFA Chicago 2000/2001. Public collections include: National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Bank Australia, Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Queensland Art Gallery, Art Gallery of South Australia and the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Private collections are held in Asia, Europe and USA.

Currently Fiona Murphy continues to express her passion, and concern for our environment. Her sculptural installations of the coral reef, (Reef Lab 2013) and icebergs (Melt 2013) are some of her recent works that demonstrate the impact of human activity on the environment.

Eilish McCarthyBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

MICHAEL NEWBERRY

25. MICHAEL NEWBERRY, Teapot (1983 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Teapot 1983 Stoneware


Michael Newberry’s formal studies in ceramics were in the Associated Diploma ceramics course at Mitchell C.A.E in 1983-4. This course was directed at studio practise and included clay and glaze technology, electric and wood fire kiln technology, design and philosophy.

Teapot (1983) is a precise work evoking an antiquity that is difficult to achieve. The teapot has been wood fired without a glaze resulting in a course grained clay body. Its warmth of colour is a direct result of the sympathies imparted by the deposited ash and flame. Finished with a handle that is reminiscent of the aged aesthetic of the stoneware.

We have been unable to find any more information on the artist from 1983 and since. If you have any information about Michael Newberry then please inform the gallery.

Lorraine FieldingBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

JENNIFER ORCHARD

27. JENNIFER ORCHARD, Teapot 28. JENNIFER ORCHARD, Vase 32. JENNIFER ORCHARD, Large Vase 33. JENNIFER ORCHARD, Teapot 46. JENNIFER ORCHARD, Madame Butterfly

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Jenny Orchard is the most prominent artist in this exhibition with five of her works being shown that entered the collection through the gallery’s purchase and prize exhibitions from 1983-1993. Expressing the connected nature of all life and matter is at the core of Jenny Orchard’s art practice. Her work references the places in which she has lived and lives as well as her fascination with European tradition, African and Aboriginal mythologies, Australian contemporary culture and the environment. Jenny’s ceramic ‘creatures’ and vases are formed using earthenware clay. Each one of her works possesses a unique personality and defiance of convention. As Jenny explains, “Each image or ceramic forms a story on its own, but the narrative running through all of them is that of accelerated change, chance encounters and the suggestion of parallel realities.”

Jenny explains that her early work teapot (1983) was about ‘having fun with form’ and ‘was made from casts of kitchen utensils, a funnel and some steel cake decorating devices. I like the idea of re-creating domestic objects.’ She explains that she ‘was influenced by the Italian Memphis design movement of the 1980’s and talking heads music‘.

Jenny Orchard’s other work from 1983 Neo Deo urn (also known as Jug or Vase) reveals Jenny’s structural engineering background as you look at the straight lines, complete shapes and angles. The vase is ‘alive’ and the intrigue is in the name. Jenny explained; ‘The Neo Deo urn was 33 years ago, can’t believe it’s that old! My daughter was born that year and I was on top of the world. Deo is a synonym for the Greek goddess Demeter, representing agriculture and fertility, so it was a new or neo urn for her’. Since this time Jenny has made hundreds of objects and passed them on to others. Bathurst is privileged to own this very sentimental work in the collection.

Jenny Orchard’s 1985 teapot (and lid) is more traditional, plump and sturdy than her three legged teapot from 1983. Whilst still evoking a sense of play and fun it is more like something you might see in someone’s kitchen in everyday use at that time. The dramatic patterning on the teapot is the unusual feature of this teapot. A thick black stripe drapes the pot like a beauty queen’s sash and a dense black box on the lower edge is suggestive of a door. The density is softened by the gentle stars and dots and swirls, all complete in themselves.

Jenny explains that her 1985 Vase ‘was from a series I made, angular and flat at the same time. They were influenced in part by the love of Zulu drawings and house decorations. The face is based on Grace Jones, I was a big fan at the time of both Grace and Keith Haring with his murals and wild drawings. Keith came to Melbourne and Sydney in 1984 I loved his graphic style, it made a strong impression on me.’ In 1984 the New York artist and social activist Keith Haring body painted Grace Jones the Jamaican singer, songwriter and model and Jenny’s work is reminiscent of this marriage of form and style.

In 1993 Jenny had been working in her art field for a couple of decades and she was able to experiment and play with clay with a degree of reinforced confidence. Madame Butterfly is a colourful and bizarre example of her beautiful figurative work during this time. Jenny herself says ‘Madame Butterfly was just being playful, I had just started to make more figurative work and explore colour and texture’.

Born in Turkey, Jenny grew up in Zimbabwe and immigrated to Australia in 1976. She studied at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in 1980. Jenny has exhibited widely in Australia and has participated in shows in Japan, Germany, Italy and the USA. Her work has been extensively acquired and is represented, amongst others, in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Queensland Art Gallery, Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.


ALAN PEASCOD

9. ALAN PEASCOD, Tall Bottle (1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Tall Bottle 1973Stoneware

Award: 1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic Award Purchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 26 September – 9 October 1973Judge/Adjudicator: Bernard Sahm

Alan Peascod is one of Australia’s most highly acclaimed ceramic artists, who specialised in experimenting and developing unusual glazes and firing techniques. Alan studied ceramics in Australia and Britain in the mid 1960s. He would later receive a PhD at the University of Wollongong in 1995. He had been researching Islamic pottery throughout the Middle East and Europe since 1972 and incorporated some of its technologies into his own sculptural and vessel-based work, developing a characteristic red and silver lustre on a black background.

Tall Bottle 1973 could just as easily be inspired by traditional Islamic pottery as it could be from another world with its reduced sunburn-red copper glaze are reminiscent of the surface of a faraway planet. Strange and faintly etched markings that reside on both faces are only visible in a certain light seem almost alien and the bottle is finished with organic folds of clay around the lip of the small opening. Many of Peascod’s works were vastly different from one to the next and Tall Bottle certainly has its own definitive style.

Amongst other similar positions during his career, Alan was head of the ceramics department at the Glasgow School of Art from 1985–86. He was awarded eight research fellowships throughout his career. In 2002 he received an Australian Foundation for Studies in Italy Grant to work with Giampietro Rampini in Gubbio, where he researched 16th century majolica techniques, which he added to his repertoire.

Alan Peascod is remembered as one of Australia’s most highly regarded potters. Also as an influential teacher, mentor and friend to many in the ceramics community of Australia, especially in the places where he lived and worked, the Illawarra, Canberra and later Gulgong.

Hilary StittBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

DAVID POTTER

35. DAVID POTTER, Decorated Urn 1986 (1987 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Decorated Urn 1987earthenware

Award: 1987 Bathurst Art PurchaseSponsored by Rothmans Foundation PrincipalExhibition dates: 16 October – 15 November 1987Judge/Adjudicator: Anna Waldman & David Williams

David Potter was born in Melbourne and worked as an apprentice boiler maker before being accepted into a Diploma of Ceramics at the Caulfield Institute of Technology (Monash University) in 1976. He then went on to obtain a Diploma of Fine Art (Ceramics) in 1980 and a Graduate Diploma of Fine Art (Ceramics) in 1981 at RMIT. In 1982 he completed a Graduate Diploma in Education. After winning the Bathurst Art Prize in 1987 David would go on to receive a Master of Fine Arts degree by research from RMIT in 1995.

Although, classically beautiful in form, David Potter’s large Decorated Urn, exudes a forceful & raw energy and presence through its sheer size, ridges & furrows and unique scratched surface pattern. David is known as a ‘poetically brutal clay artist for his sensual lines and tormented surfaces’. Potter’s work is also known for its fascinating surface texture and patterning, inspired by his interest in ancient cultures, ethnographic metaphors of the past and modern technological ways of communicating.

Decorated Urn is wheel thrown and characterised by its intense lapis lazuli blue and dark black slips underplayed by the earthly raw clay. When this pot was recently photographed for this exhibition by the talented Greg Piper, the BRAG Curator, Sarah Gurich, noticed that a form of another pot can be seen emerging from the surface pattern and texture. Can you see it too?

Peter Westward, painter and friend of David’s, of Potter’s work that it ‘is made with such a sense of urgency through such a forceful process, that it appears at times to have a sense of clumsiness in aspects and a great deal of rawness. It despises wimpy sensitivity and porcelain - like delicacy. But it has many sophisticated subtleties in the way it looks and is read. Wherever one’s eye and body happen to wander around his work, everything contributes to the total effect. Scripts & scribbles suggest the ancient city life of the Byzantines and the Egyptians’

David Potter passed away in 1997 at the age of 42.

Barbara HolmesBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

RON ROWE

10. RON ROWE, Round Out (1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Round Out 1972stoneware


Ron Rowe described his work at this time as ‘ceramic sculptures....constructed from thrown forms that consisted of spheres, hemispheres, rings and cylinders. They were whimsical space age forms with titles that revealed their presence. Titles were…No Milk Today, Ring Balls, Hot licks, I Can’t Hear You and Round Out amongst others.’

Ron Rowe trained as an art teacher at the South Australian School of Art where he received tuition in clay, both pottery and sculpture. At that time there was no separate Department of Ceramics or full time course in ceramics. He attended a further three years of night classes under British artist Bill Gregory who taught a non-functional, conceptual approach to ceramics that he found appealing. Round Out 1972 was made soon after his return home from three years working in London and New York. At the time of making this work he was Lecturer in Sculpture at Torrens CAE School of Art, Adelaide. He continued as a Lecturer at the South Australian School of Art in Stanley Street, North Adelaide, then at the School of Art at Underdale and later became a Senior Lecturer in Digital Studies at UNISA, City West Campus, until his retirement.

The 60s and 70s in Adelaide were a time, for some ceramicists, to extend the boundaries of ceramics as a way of expressing ideas (‘from frivolous inventions to symbolic statement to abstract aesthetic concepts’ rather than following the established, functional, Japanese inspired pottery tradition promoted by English ceramicist, Bernard Leach. They were, instead, influenced by the ‘funk’ ceramic movement centred on San Francisco, which drew its inspiration from the freedom and counter culture of the 60s. Funk can best be described as ‘sculptural work that combines a Pop Art sensibility with the history of ceramics as a decorative art’. This regional ceramic movement was later dubbed ‘Skangaroovian Funk’ for a retrospective survey held at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1986. It was a term derived from ‘Skangaroovia’, an alternate name for South Australia suggested by Daniel Thomas, the then Director of the South Australian Art Gallery.

Ron Rowe wrote about his work during this time: ‘I like to oppose the natural tendency of clay by making forms geometric, symmetrical, basic and repetitious, with a completeness that could only have been made by man. These early ‘Out Series’ sculptures, with obvious machine overtones, relate to man-made objects. It is my intention to make the forms almost perfect, but as they are made separately they acquire their own individual characteristic.’

Ron Rowe developed his work further in sculpture and later digital art and web design. He is represented in collections throughout Australia and continues to exhibit both here and overseas.


PETER RUSHFORTH

3. PETER RUSHFORTH, Storage Jar (1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Storage Jar 1972 stoneware, salt glaze

Award: 1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic AwardPurchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 27 September – 10 October 1972Judge/Adjudicator: Mr and Mrs A. Tuckson

The late Peter Rushforth began his pottery practice more than 50 years ago when his preferred technique of wood-firing was in its infancy in Australia. Rushforth served in the armed forces from 1939 to 1945. He was held as a Prisoner of War in Changi and Burma, returning to Australia at the end of the war. He first became interested in potting while studying at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Scheme which was established to provide training for returned servicemen. After fine arts training, Rushforth moved to Sydney in 1950, where he became a full time Ceramics teacher and then head of the Ceramics department from 1952 until 1978. Peter moved to a studio at Church Point NSW in 1966, and then later to a studio in Shipley in the Blue Mountains to practice pottery full-time.

Rushforth was influenced by his knowledge of traditional Chinese and Japanese pottery techniques and came to an appreciation of the Japanese Mingei (folk) aesthetic which he studied in Japan. His work also had strong Australian influences such as colours of the landscape and use of local clays and feldspar; influences which can be seen in Jar, Salt Glazed 1972. Rushforth mostly made wheel thrown pots that are beautiful in their simplicity. Rushforth preferred to work with a fifty year old kick wheel, made from a crank shaft with a kick bar and a heavy fly potting wheel.

Rusforth believed that definitions for what makes a ‘pot’, varies as much as the life styles that people pursue; some like the classical styles of traditions past, others like any experimenting and the excitement that comes with any irregularity that occurs in the kiln as an act of nature.

Peter Rushforth’s work is represented in Regional, State and National Galleries as well as a large representation in many overseas countries and private collections. He has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas including: the10th International exhibition of Ceramic Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1956; the first solo show of Australian Pottery to be shown in Japan, 1975; and in major retrospectives at the National Gallery of Victoria, 2013 and S.H. Erwin Gallery, 2014.Awards and commendations include the Churchill Fellowship award, 1967; the Bathurst Art Prize, 1972; the Order of Australia Medal in 1985, for service in the Ceramic Arts; and the Australia Council Emeritus Fellowship, for 50 years as a potter, 1993.

Peter Varman Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

BERNARD SAHM

4. BERNARD SAHM, Flattended Pot (1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Flattended Pot 1972stoneware

Award: 1972Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic AwardWinner Open AwardExhibition dates: 27 September – 10 October 1972Judge/Adjudicator: Mr and Mrs A. Tuckson

At the time of the 18th Carillon City Festival Art Prize Sydney born Bernard Sahm was gaining recognition as a talented Australian potter, building his body of work characterised by hard, strong and vitrified stonework, a style exemplified by Flat Ended Pot 1972. Sahm would later describe his body of work ‘in general as a bias towards social realism tempered with humour and experience.’ Now considered as one of Australia’s most innovative and thought provoking ceramic artists, Bernard Sahm studied at East Sydney Technical College, with practical training in both commercial and studio workshops in Australia and Germany before coming to Crowan Pottery. Sahm negated the idea of focusing on technique, believing that technique was simply a means to an end. He gave the example that ‘Being obsessed with technique is to be involved in a minor thing. It’s like someone watching a cricket match and concentrating on the way the bowler holds the ball. The major thing is the whole game-whether it is being played in such a way that it enriches the person involved or even the spectator’.

On the face of Flat Ended Pot 1972 the eye is drawn immediately to the capital ‘T’ symbol; beautifully shaped and blackened with pinwork surrounds. Why has the artist included this symbol? Was the symbol Baroque or maybe the Greek Tau meaning life; trinity and divine grace? Without clues, Sahm keeps us guessing.He once explained that his work is an ‘attempt to add some significant quality to man’s existence; and man’s personal development. My own and, if possible, somebody else’s-rather than just make things for sale.’

Later in 1973, Sahm would be the adjudicator at the next and nineteenth Carillon City Festival Art Prize and in 1974 he was appointed the Inaugural Head of Ceramics at the newly developed Sydney College of the Arts a position he held for 10 years before retiring to Laguna, near Wollombi with his wife Pam where they set up a new studio on their property. Bernard Sahm is represented in ceramic collections in state galleries and overseas. His obituary stated that ‘His work came to parody the pomposities, conformities and absurdities of contemporary society.’ The art critic James Gleeson once wrote ‘his work elegant, strong, never dull, much like the man’.


JOYCE SCOTT

17. JOYCE SCOTT, Shaping Spirit (1974 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)18. JOYCE SCOTT, Emerging Ripples (1974 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

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Shaping Spirit 1974stoneware


Earth Contours (aka Emerging Ripple) 1974stoneware

Award: 1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic AwardPurchased on advice of the judge Exhibition dates: 25 September – 8 October 1974Judge/Adjudicator: Kenneth Hood

Joyce Scott was born in England and migrated to Adelaide in 1951 and has two works featured in this exhibition that were both acquired through the Carillon City Festival Prize in 1974; Earth Contours and Shaping Spirit. Encouraged by her mother to draw, from an early age, Joyce eventually studied sculpture, life drawing, print making and wheel thrown ceramics at the south Australian school of art. Scott was hooked when she began exploring the hand building possibilities of clay, saying ‘how fascinating it felt, pressing, pulling and squeezing a malleable ball of clay into endless shapes and textures opening up a plethora of ideas ‘.

Joyce liked the idea of large uncomplicated forms with thin walls and the works exhibited here from 1974 reflect and were inspired by the Australian landscape. Celebrating the vitality of the land, Scott’s works reflect a duality of reality she describes as both ‘looking outward and looking inward at the essence of life. Joyce reflects on the conceptualising of these two works saying ‘This was an exciting time as I could see ideas everywhere. I remember my garden spade cutting trenches into the soil creating undulating brown waves which contrasted against the flat surrounding earth. This sculpture became “Earth Contours.” As my circular piece began to take shape it so lifted my spirit that I called it “Shaping Spirit.” Quite naturally my work became imbued with a unique Australian feel. As time passed my creative ideas became more sculptural as I carved and cut into a variety of textural surfaces, inspired by an abundance of nature’s own treasures.’

Joyce says that recognised and acknowledged in 1974 with the Carillon Festival Ceramic Award was important and gave her the encouragement to follow her own desires and pursue a career of creative endeavour. The Judge of the award Kenneth Hood described her as ‘a potter of major talent who manages to combine a feeling of massiveness with a sense of lightness and elegance.’

Joyce is represented in the National Australia Gallery , Canberra , and has won awards in Japan. She has also exhibited in prestigious Galleries such as the Bonython and Holdsworth Galleries and has had 10 independent exhibitions. Stephen Skillitzi, lecturer of ceramics at the South Australian School of Art, described Joyce as ‘a ceramic artist with significant vision’.

Mary CuppaidgeBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

STEPHEN SKILLITZI

11. STEPHEN SKILLITZI, Slab Pot (1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

Slab Pot 1973stoneware


Stephen Sktillitzi made his first ceramic piece at nine years of age and from 13 years he was producing pieces using a home-made pottery kiln.

Slab Pot is a complex stoneware piece. It is composed of two convex shapes joined at the sides. With its swathe of blue, translucent, liquid glaze it evokes a marine quality. One could perhaps visualise it by the sea. The bi-valve form is also connected internally by several hollow ceramic tubes. Many of the tubes have openings at the front and back permitting the viewer to peer through. The rear varies slightly with multiple clay pieces that fan out from the rim creating a tessellated effect. The sculptural nature of the piece is consistent with Skilllitzi’s motivation to be a ‘sculptor rather than a vessel maker’.

Skillitzi says ‘This 1973 stoneware pot was created when I was teaching Ceramics at Woollarah Art School, Sydney. My teaching philosophy was to ‘lead from the front’ by working alongside students… that’s the Art experience I had when at high school from 1960 and later when studying in USA university Art Schools in the 1967-1970. Using swirling curvaceous textural cut-through circles of differing sizes juxtaposed with smooth areas is a career-long repeated theme…perhaps echoing moon craters. Sculpture within the world of Utility is a liberating nexus.’

Skillitzi was an innovative figure of the Crafts Movement of the 60s and 70s focusing firstly on clay then glass. While he was studying and lecturing in USA from 1968-1970, Stephen Skillitzi started to embrace glass as an art form. Since then he has had a long and productive career in glass, and pioneered studio glass practice in Australia. In 2015 he was awarded the Ausglass Medal for his contribution to Australian Studio glass. Stephen Skillitzi readily acknowledges that ‘a lot of techniques for my preferred medium, glass, have evolved from my clay background.’

Stephen Skillitzi is represented in all National and State Galleries and many Regional galleries, as well as overseas including several USA Museums.


PENNY SMITH

5. PENNY SMITH, Raku Form I (1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)12. PENNY SMITH, Earthenware Two (1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)

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Raku Form I 1972stoneware

Award: 1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic AwardHighly CommendedExhibition dates: 27 September – 10 October 1972Judge/Adjudicator: Mr and Mrs A. Tuckson

Earthenware II 1973stoneware

Award: 1973 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic Award Open Award WinnerExhibition dates: 26 September – 9 October 1973Judge/Adjudicator: Bernard Sahm

The loose flowing, wavy, organic forms that decorate Penny Smith’s Raku Form 1 are reminiscent of sea creatures, volcanic lava flows or an architectural facade by Gaudi. The work is hand-formed with a spherical basic shape and decorated with neck frills, reflecting her pleasure in the handling of the clay and experimentation with the plasticity of the material. The remarkable appearance of the surface of this work is a result of the raku firing reduction process (or smoking), where the pot is placed in containers of combustible materials which blackens raw clay and causes surface crazing with exciting and unpredictable effects.

Penny Smith says of the work she produced at that time: ‘Through the exploration & exploitation of hand processes came the appreciation of the ‘living ‘ sensuality of the material that I felt so strongly during the manipulative processes. The necessity to ‘contain’ this freedom rapidly became apparent to me, if loose organic forms were to be avoided. Qualities imbued in me by the design training started to emerge.......the aesthetic of repetition, adoption of certain, mechanical approaches to achieve clean, uncluttered lines. Colour was of little importance, preference being for the natural colours of various clay combinations, as dictated by firing results.’

Since producing this early hand fashioned, natural clay-coloured and raku fired ceramic in our collection, Smith’s later work changed markedly. It was influenced by her ecological activism, residencies in Barcelona, where she was influenced by Art Nouveau buildings especially the work of Gaudi and a residency at Arabia Pottery in Helsinki, Finland, known for its innovative design and beautiful tableware.

Penny Smith, although born in Germany, spent much of her childhood and youth in England where she initially trained at High Wycombe Technical College in furniture design in the late 60’s. Through this training she developed a commitment to form, function and process, a commitment that distinguishes her work to this day. She migrated to Australia in 1970 and was self-taught in ceramics. In 1974 she was teaching pottery at adult education classes at the Hobart College of Advanced Education and later went on to become Head of the Ceramics Studio at the Tasmanian School of Art, University of Tasmania.

Penny Smith has had a distinguished career as a ceramicist, writer, and lecturer and her works are exhibited nationally and internationally.

Judith Nash Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

TIM STRACHAN

34. TIM STRACHAN, Large Wood Fired Jar (detail) (1985 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Large Jar 1985wood-fired terracotta

Award: 1985 Bathurst Art PurchaseSponsored by Bathurst City CouncilExhibition dates: 18 October – 17 November 1985Judge/Adjudicator: Mr Carl Andrew

Tim Strachan’s impressive earthenware work Large Jar is crafted from unfiltered terracotta and carefully emphasises balance and form. The raw terracotta offsets the shadowy tonal swirls of black and grey which were achieved by placing different types of seaweed between the pots once they were in the kiln. The swirls billow around the jar imbuing it with an otherworldly quality. Strachan says that his ‘wood-fire pieces have a freedom of surface finish which is dictated by the flame of the kiln, like shade of our emotions.’ Strachan has also stated that this work exemplifies that he was ‘inspired by ancient wood fired ceramics’. He also reflects that connecting to his spirituality has influenced his art practice and ‘allows him to bring beautiful and meaningful pieces into other people’s lives’.

At the time Large Jar was entered in to the Bathurst City Art Prize in 1985, Tim was also well known for his beautiful porcelain pieces with crackle glazes and skilled brush work. He worked prolifically at the time, on once producing 99 small jars in a day. His platters and tableware were in high demand around Australia during this period.

Tim trained at the Jam Factory in Adelaide under Jeff Mincham in 1980-81, following a certificate course in ceramics. When he finished school Tim Strachan went left the city for the countryside and did a variety of work from cattle farming to leather making. Strachan continues to work today from his studio in the Adelaide Hills. While still creating ceramic pieces he has extended into painting and combining paint and terracotta. He has also branched into video and film making. Tim Strachan has had numerous solo exhibitions and is represented in a number of State and Regional galleries.


SANDRA TAYLOR

43. SANDRA TAYLOR, Dance of Indecision (1993 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Dance of Indecision 1993

Award: Acquired through the Bathurst Art Purchase1985Purchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 7th August – 5th September 1993Judge/Adjudicator: Katrina Lumley and Grace Cochrane

Sandra Taylor graduated from East Sydney Technical College in 1966 where Peter Rushforth had been one of her tutors. She then had a career of teaching for 26 years at secondary schools and TAFE Colleges in Sydney and at the Sydney College of the Arts. She moved to Northern NSW in 1982 where she taught at TAFE Colleges while establishing a cattle breeding property. In 1992 she taught ceramics to Aboriginal students at Malabugilmah near Grafton.Her works are held in many regional collections, in all state galleries and in the National Gallery.

Dance of Indecision had been exhibited in her Yarns from the Bush exhibition at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney in 1992 before entering the 1993 Bathurst Art Purchase. Robyn Tudor once wrote that ‘Sandra Taylor is one of Australia’s most significant ceramic artists...Irony, satire and a peculiarly homespun sense of wry humour transform her ceramics into poignant visually communicated social commentary. Her choice of subject matter celebrates the rural character. She captures the raw Australian essence, the powerful and particular character of its people. Her drawings of dogs, dingoes, cattle, fish and dead trees form part of a narrative.’

Taylor described her coiling technique saying that coiling ‘brings you closer to the clay eliminating the need for tools and simplifying the making process. It allows the pot to grow and respond to the maker’s hands.’Taylor described the conceptualising behind Dance of Indecision and the importance of a works title:

‘The title, Dance of Indecision, was very important. At the time I ran a cattle property and there was a drought. Having experienced the devastating effects a drought can have on a herd of cattle I was faced with taking another huge risk or selling the herd. This was my “Dance of Indecision”. It was a tortuous sort of dance. I’d run out of money so couldn’t count on hand-feeding the herd. If I sold the cattle I was admitting defeat. I’d left the city 10 years or so earlier and embarked on a very different path, not knowing one end of a cow from the other! I was now at the crossroads. The dance was excruciating. I rang for the trucks to take the cattle to the saleyards. I was defeated but the cattle would stand a chance...Titles of works have always been important to me. They seem to help me make sense of the confusion of life and add an edge to my work. My work has always reflected my life experience.

Taylor had her last ceramic show in 1996 after being awarded an Australian Fellowship. She is currently working on a retrospective exhibition of her work at the Grafton Regional Gallery in 2017.


MARTINE TROY

40. MARTINE TROY, Parrot Teapot (1991 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Parrot Teapot 1991

Award: Winner of Cash Chapman Memorial Award at the Bathurst Art Purchase1991Purchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 7th August – 5th September 1993Judge/Adjudicator: Katrina Lumley and Grace Cochrane

Martine Troy’s Parrot Teapot was the winner of the Cash Chapman Memorial Award at the 1991 Bathurst Art Purchase. It exemplifies a love of vibrancy, fun and nature that runs throughout much of her work. Martine would often work in themes and completed series of usable domestic pieces and utensils. She made a large range of works featuring colourful birds, animals, fish, flowers, faces and human figures .Her pet poodle featured in a series of platters on a bright yellow background. One judge at the time of the Art Purchase was full of praise for Martine and remarked that her ability to draw on a curved surface appeared similar to that of Picasso.

As a child Martine showed a constant creative urge, always drawing, painting, making clay objects, writing and sewing. She wrote and illustrated a children’s book, remade Op Shop clothes into fashionable wearables and was a passionate gardener.

Martine completed a Graduate Diploma Art and Art Teaching, followed by Diploma of Creative Arts at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga and Bathurst. She continued her ceramics whilst teaching at Lithgow High and lecturing in Art Teaching at CSU. Martine has works in private collections and galleries in Australia, Mexico and United States.

Poor health has prevented Martine from continuing a productive life as an artist of extraordinary talent. Shirley Troy, a fellow artist and former colleague of Martine’s at Charles Sturt University says, ‘Martine could see possibilities to create all her life, and was ever ready to share her skills and her ideas.’

Margaret MarshallBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

MOIRA TURNBULL

57. MOIRA TURNBULL, Where I Live - Spirit House (1998 Bathurst Art Purchase)

Where I live – Spirit House 1991

Award: Acquired through Bathurst Art Purchase1998Purchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 5th September – 18th October 1998Judge/Adjudicator: Bill Samuels

Moira studied Functional Pottery at Armidale TAFE in 1984 followed by several courses at Wollongong and Bega TAFE. She exhibited in various shows from 1985 to 2000. Most of her work appears to have been shown on the far South Coast of NSW, at Bega, Cobargo and Canberra.

Moira’s ceramic vase titled Where I live – Spirit House appears to be a hand coiled pot. Ambiguous symbols of animals and figures pattern the vase, like a pirate’s treasure map it even has directions scrawled in to it. Inscribed on the work are the following words ‘Turn left at Cobargo bridge, wander now up the mountain. Turn left at Old Creek Road. Left again.’ These mysterious though explicit directions may be describing how to find the Spirit House, appearing to suggest where Turnbull was living at the time the vase was made.

Unfortunately Moira Turnbull has been difficult to track down, adding to the mystery surrounding this beautiful treasure from the BRAG collection.

Please inform a member of staff at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery any information about Moira Turnbull.

Barbara HolmesBathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

PRUE VENABLES

53. PRUE VENABLES, Three Jugs (1995 Bathurst Art Purchase)54. PRUE VENABLES, Two Jugs (1995 Bathurst Art Purchase)

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Two Jugs 1995 / Three Jugs 1995

Award: Acquired through Bathurst Art Purchase Prize 1995 Purchased on advice of the judgeExhibition dates: 17th March – 17th April 1995Judge/Adjudicator: Michael Keighery

In the late 70s, after graduating in Science from Melbourne University, Prue Venables travelled to the UK to study music. However, after attending classes in pottery, she redirected her life and says ‘when I first touched clay, I was instantly diverted from science and music into a world of making. I had no choice but to follow this path’. After studying and working in a pottery studio in London she returned to Australia in 1989. In London her work was characterised by highly decorative surfaces, back home in Australia a growing interest in simplifying forms and reducing their dependence on surface decoration led to a radical change in her work; ‘I made the decision to move away from the soft fragility of earthenware to the clear, hard, ringing translucency of porcelain. New approaches to making emerged….New forms developed.’

The simple forms of the vessels in both Two Jugs and Three Jugs belie the technical complexity and painstaking work required to achieve their elegance and delicacy. ForThree Jugs the vessels were thrown without a base and after some drying but while still soft (timing is important here and depends on the climate) pushed into shape. A base is cut out using the jug to measure and then carefully joined. The handles are shaped when soft and attached when leather hard/nearly dry. Throughout this process the piece is smoothed and excess trimmed. After drying the jugs are glazed and, in this case, a fine cobalt blue line painted to accentuate the changing planes. They are packed into a gas kiln for firing to 1300 degrees centigrade, under reduction (reducing the amount of oxygen).

The same can be said for Two Jugs, the forms look simple and refined but the making process is laborious and complex. The forms were thrown initially on the wheel and then reshaped while still soft. The bases are added when leather hard. The pieces are reduction fired (reducing the amount of oxygen) in a gas kiln. For every 20-30 pots Prue Venables makes, 10 will be of acceptable quality.

Prue Venables is interested in placing her pieces together as a way of creating dialogue and narrative and perhaps also as a reference to her earlier interest in the pauses, rhythms and harmonies of music. ‘I enjoy the way in which objects alter the space around them, at times enlivening, at times bringing a sense of stillness.’

The initial influences on her work come from her childhood. She has recalled being thrilled by an illicit play with her mother’s small opaque white glass jar of cold cream and the reverence and ceremony of her grandmother’s bone china tea service. The jugs may start as functional objects, their clear lines reminiscent of industrial production, but the slightly askew forms create sculptural objects that appear both traditional and modern. The fall of light and luminescence provided by the porcelain and glaze give the objects great calmness and purity. The jugs transcend their ordinary everyday use to become ritual objects for contemplation, In 1995 Kevin White of Pottery in Australia wrote that ‘Prue Venables’ pots have always been finely made, and like their maker serious and gentle.’

In the same year, Prue Venables won the prestigious Fletcher Challenge Ceramic Award in New Zealand with a group of three jugs. The judge, Takeshi Yasuda, noted ‘such simplicity is hard to achieve, free expression is much easier. They are very quiet, they don’t shout out loud, but once you notice them, they are very difficult to ignore.’


PETER WILSON

41. PETER WILSON, Jar (1991 Bathurst Art Purchase)48. PETER WILSON, Earthworks II (1993 Bathurst Art Purchase)58. PETER WILSON, Ancient Landscape (1998 Bathurst Art Purchase)

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Peter Wilson has two works that entered the collection at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery through the Bathurst Art Purchase Prize in 1991 and 1993 respectively. Jar won the Cash Chapman Memorial Award in 1991 and two years later Earthwork II was selected for purchase. In the early 1990s Peter Wilson was vigorously experimenting with new textures and forms and developing some of his signature glazes. He described it as a period of prolific growth and production.

Peter explained that in 1991 when Jar was made that he ‘had been using iron and chun glazes since 1983 and loved the variety of glaze qualities that you could get, ie; purples through to light blue to white are possible depending on the variables as mentioned, thickness of application, temperature and kiln atmosphere are all variables as well as the ingredients of the two glazes, the tenmoku and chun so controlling these variables was crucial to consistent results but even then, variability was always part of the process- akin to gambling!’. Tenmoku is stoneware glaze which is deeply stained by iron oxide. Tenmokus are usually dark brown and black with some rust patches, but occasionally they are yellow, green or purple ‘Chun’ or Jun’ is pale blue, opalescent stoneware glaze named after a town in northern China where it was first made in the 11th century. The Jun glaze is related to a celadon glaze, being a feldspathic glaze on a buff body and fired in a reducing atmosphere.

Two years later, Peter Wilson entered the Bathurst Art Purchase Prize successfully again with Earthworks II. He reflected on this period saying ‘At that time, I was studying with Owen Rye, a major ceramic artist at Monash University and had met many other ceramic artists all working with him, so there were many new ideas to which I was exposed, wood firing, raku, and ideas from many sources. I also had commenced working with John Olsen who was living at Rydal and we had begun a collaboration which lasted 7 years. There were lots of ideas, discussions, the influence of the Spanish painters, Miro, Picasso, Tapies, and this impacted on the work we produced for several exhibitions of work. Olsen had spent several years in Spain painting with his family courtesy of a private benefactor in the 1950s and this had been a huge influence on his work. It was also to influence a subsequent body of work that I produced using raku techniques, the Earthworks series-some of the best work aesthetically that I have done.’

Peter continues his ceramics creations and his learning experiences today. He is a revered asset and friend to many within the Australian ceramics community. He lives locally and recently had a solo exhibition here at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.


ROSWITHA WULFF

6. ROSWITHA WULFF, Mediaeval Jug (1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize)42. ROSWITHA WULFF, Bowl (1991 Bathurst Art Purchase)

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Mediaeval jug 1972stoneware

Award: 1972 Carillon City Festival Art Prize, Carillon Open Ceramic AwardSponsored by the Bathurst and District Chamber of Commerce Exhibition dates: 27 September – 10 October 1972Judge/Adjudicator: Mr and Mrs A. Tuckson

Bowl (Platter) 1991stoneware

Award: Acquired through the Bathurst Art Purchase Prize 1991Purchased on advice of the judge Exhibition dates: 27 September to 10 October 1972Judge/Adjudicator: Peter Rushforth

Roswitha Wulff (1941- ) was born in Tabrize, Iran but spent her early childhood with her mother, potter Helma Klett, in Germany. She came to Australia at the age of eight. In 1964, she obtained a ceramics certificate from the East Sydney Technical College. From 1964-65, she worked with Robin Welch and Ian Sprague at Sprague’s Mungeribar Pottery in Upper Beaconsfield, VIC. In 1966 she worked at the Sturt Pottery in Mittagong, NSW under Les Blakebrough. Between 1967 and 1969 she travelled overseas, spending 6 monthe with Robin Welch after his return to England and 9 months as a full-time thrower at Briglin Pottery, London, as well as working in potteries in Denmark and Germany. From 1969-70, she worked in North-West Pakistan as a research scholar for the Smithonian Institute and the University of NSW. Returning to Australia in 1970, she set up a workshop in Paddington, NSW, with the help of an Australia Council grant and taught part-time at the East Sydney Technical College and the Willoughby Workshop Art Centre

At the time of the Bathurst Art Prize award, Roswitha Wullf was concentrating on Japanese Shino glazing and Bizen-type pots and platters, working in a restrained way, producing beautiful functional and conceptual works. Her stoneware jug is a perfect example of her work of that period. Based on her philosophy that well executed pottery using traditional skills and techniques is how we connect with our physical world and well-being.

Wullf says of her work ‘In this world of change and distraction, the quality that I strive for in my work is a quiet simplicity. Making pots is a ritual – a celebration of the physical nature of being, and a renewal of life’s energy, unfolding through the process of making. The adventure is in the pursuit. Using the language of wood firing, I create a personal vocabulary portraying the Australian landscape of which I am greatly attached. My form is influenced by art nouveau or jugendstil, reflecting the other half of my heritage.’

Born in Tabriz Persia (now Iran), her father, Dr Hans Wulff, was a German goldsmith and engineer, who was interned by the British to Australia. Roswitha remained in northern Germany with her mother, a potter who used a wood fired kiln with a friend to produce functional pottery. When Roswitha was eight she and her mother joined her father in Australia. She went to school in Sydney and studied at the East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School) under the tutelage of Peter Rushforth who introduced her to Japanese wood-fire, its philosophy and aesthetic. In 1978 she returned to Germany intending to hone her skills while living there. However she missed the Australian bush with its subtlety of colour. The colours used in her work reflect this.

Since then she has been a lecturer and Head of Ceramics in many institutions, including the National Art School. In the 1990s, she moved her studio to Botany Bay, NSW, where she still lives and works.

Lorraine Fielding Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide

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