The Wood Stack

So much work went into this and the outcome strangely satisfying that i really did feel it deserved a post.....On a sunny Sunday afternoon in June it was finally time to get serious about splitting and stacking wood for the fast approaching woodfiring scheduled for 9th July.


There had been a delivery of milled pine from Penrose State Forest just sitting near the wood kilns at Sturt for a while and we could no longer ignore the fact that the logs needed to be slip and stacked before the 4 day Anagama woodfing. 


So I wasn't the one operating the chainsaw but I was stacking the split pine. This wood had been sitting out in the rain for a number of weeks and so we really needed to dry it out. I found the structure and colours of this stack very appealing.....so much so that I have started some drawings based on this very wood stack.   
  

Lines, colour, light and dark

The thiner, longer pieces of wood for the side stocking during the firing 

An afternoon well spent....this is only a small portion of it.

The Studio Corner

Bits and pieces 

So this is the studio.... my sunny little corner at Sturt pottery in Mittagong. Over the last 5 months this space has been my lovely creative refuge. I have struggled and toiled over ideas and processes but this studio has always felt supportive and friendly. the perfect work space and one  I long for whenever I am away from it. It makes me happy.
I feel so luck to have spent half of my year at Sturt surrounded by amazing, practising ceramicists and crafts people. I have been offered so many opportunities and have met incredible talents.

It's always good when you can't see the bench underneath the work.

my view out the window.

The genius of Leunig

These last few weeks have been quite strange....apart from developing a very annoying and persistent cold I have also started to feel the pressure of looming deadlines and the stress of expectations. Up until this year I have always found so much joy in making works for myself and exploring way of incorporating narrative into my ceramic work. It is only now that I realise it is not just my involvement in the work that matters. 

I recently received an email from my friend Andrew, who has been such a great observer of my state of mind while I work on my current project, in this email were two Leunig images that he had related to my ladder and boat forms. These were such a lovely reminder of how beautiful and profound Leunig's artwork is. They echoed a lot of how I have been over thinking things lately. time to think more intuitively. Thanks Andrew.   

both these images really speak for themselves.... 

I love the name of the boat. The Sea Wolf

windows

Such a still, quiet landscape. Beautiful shot captured by the amazing Kern

The house I once lived in for a year in Newtown

Lines and textures in a landscape

I have always been so taken with the landscape around me. there is always so much to learn and to appreciate about places and spaces, the people that occupy them and what they surround themselves with.

For the past few years this has been a subconscious focus for my work and it is only know that I am beginning to see that landscapes and my own surroundings influence the forms and surface treatment of each piece. They are like looking through windows or door ways and capture a little moment of that place.   

my Grandma's place northern NSW.

the beginning

This happens to be a very scary thing, starting a blog about my journey through the wonderful world of art. My self conscious side takes over and I find myself writing, deleting and rewriting the same thing over and over. However I feel this is not the way to start a documentation about my making processes.....SO I have decided that this will be a truly honest account of my first official year as an artist......with hopefully many more years ahead. X 

  

small and wonderful things I love having in the studio

my favourite glaze test.

The glaze tests....this really is the beginning

OK so this is not the beginning of my adventures with clay but this is the first time I have documented them. After spending 4 amazing years at The National Art School studying ceramics I am now out in the art world and finding my feet. I hope to write about the enjoys of making, the people I meet and the places that inspire me.....Oh and there will be pictures lots of colourful, bright, exciting images.