FREE SPEECH

Our blog is fairly new, we get few comments here.  I got one today, a snitty one liner deriding some work, sent by that infamous coward 'Anonymous'.  When I comment on people's blogs I reveal my identity and it is often a positive remark, constructive criticism or a technical question - which in turn opens an exchange of info. with the artist involved.   To quote Thumper's mother (in Disney's 'Bambi') I say 'If you can't say something good, don't say nothin' at all' - but that creates an imbalance of opinion, I get that.  I do say though, if you aren't being kind, helpful or useful - shut up.  There!  You've been edited!

BEANS THERE

We are still setting up at Heathcote - I only had my phone camera on me but these are some of Veronica McGrath's works .... they don't give credit to the surface textures and richness of colours she achieves in her multiple saggar firings but I expect to have much better pics to share soon.

LUMINANCE AT HEATHCOTE GALLERY, APPLECROSS, PERTH

Today was hectic for me.  It was the morning for delivering our work at Heathcote Museum and Art Gallery for our forthcoming exhibition LUMINANCE.  The title (my idea) was to inspire us and Andrea Vinkovic took it literally and employed Luminous Paint on her Porcelain hanging works ...........fab images will (oh yes they will) follow to illustrate.

Members of CF (Clay Feet) have somehow, all, been struggling with technical hitches - every potter knows about them, every non potter realises how many potential hitches there are.  We've had exploding, cracking, dunting, pots - and glaze glitches .......the whole textbook in fact, but still we carry on.  Have a look at what I snapped today ... these are just some snaps I took of the most recent work by Jillian Archibald.  She is pretty fearless and daring in her throwing and assembling of porcelain, and then, like me, she loves to play with her glazes.  That Lime just s-i-n-gs and I love the way it is a graduated colour. The textural areas of the white and red piece are so delicious when it is in front of you, mmm  mate, who needs food when you can mmm over this stuff? 

GONE TO POT

Gill Treichel has energy to burn, I can't imagine how she finds time to make and experiment with clay work as she does, on top of showing teachers how to teach art at ECU. Here are some snaps of her recent firings ..... these are porcelain silhouettes fired with horsehair, raku and sugar firings. Clay Feet artists are nothing if not diverse.

WALLOWING WOMEN

Sheryl Chant of Clay Feet has created a group of raku fired 'women' for the Luminance show at Heathcote this coming Friday. There are 13 figures in varying stages of 'wallowing' - I believe that by the time the final figure had been created, they were all wallowed out - the point of the process.

LUMINANCE

http://duejolly.com/

The members of Clay Feet have had more than their fair share of glitches in our studios of late but on Friday next will be showing recent work at LUMINANCE in the Heathcote Gallery, Applecross http://www.awaag.org.au/heathcote.htm. The venue is delightful and I happen to know the wine will be wonderful too as our friends at Due Jolly are providing it, just as they sponsored us at our Central Park show last year http://www.duejolly.com. It will be possible to order wine from Due Jolly for your christmas parties.

Here are some pix of what I have going in, they are currently in the kiln, and the printed work will change from black and white photographic images to sepia coloured. I hope to have some photos of work by the other Clay Feet members to show you soon.

VERONICA

Let me introduce firstly ClayFeet's newest member Veronica McGrath. I first saw Veronica's clay work at an exhibition of work by the lecturers at Perth Central TAFE. She is a sculptor but fairly new to clay. Her focus is on saggar firing achieving texure and colour in a fairly primitive firing. We are all enjoying discussing and relearning about alternative firings when we discuss her work.

Sorry for the dodgy image, it will do the trick till I find the better photos somewhere on my computer .....

CLAY FEET WEBSITE

AN INTRODUCTION

Welcome to our blog where you'll find regular updates of what Clay Feet Exhibiting Group Inc. are getting up to. Here we intend to introduce each member, show you their work, explain their inspirations and working methods and perhaps keep you filled in on how our work progresses for each upcoming event.

More complete information and lots of images of our work is on http://www.clayfeet.com.au/

For starters we recently presented an exhibition at Inner City Clayworkers Gallery in Glebe, Sydney http://www.clayworkers.com.au/. The exhibition was opened by Vicki Grima, Editor of The Journal of Australian Ceramics, a firm friend and supporter of our group.

At the same time several members also participated in CAAWA's (Ceramic Arts Association of Western Australia) group show 'BEYOND THE NULLABOR' at ADAGIO GALLERY in Glebe Sydney. http://www.galleryadagio.com/ That show was launched by Robert Bell, Senior Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, NGA with a very personal and encouraging speech.

These events were just a tiny part of the Australian Ceramics Triennale conference at the National Art School in July 09. Do you enjoy a bit of a look around? Check out
http://australianceramicstriennale.com/ and http://australianceramicstriennale.blogspot.com/
for lots of background information, images and video clips. That'll keep you busy.