<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>330377</docID> <postdate>2024-10-07 11:27:47</postdate> <headline>Village artists show their skills</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-330383" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/‘Rectangular-Vase-Ian-Jones-photographer-Ari-Rex.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Rectangular Vase, by Ian Jones, Photo: Ari Rex</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">Craft / The Places we Inhabit: Vessels from the Villages. At Canberra Potters Gallery, Watson, until October 20. Reviewed by <strong>MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE</strong>.</span></p> <p><strong>Canberra is surrounded by many smaller settlements or villages, where ceramicists are able to work freely, particularly if they fire their kilns with wood. </strong></p> <p>Three artists are from Gundaroo: <strong>Moraig McKenna</strong>,<strong> Ian Jones</strong> and <strong>Joey Burns</strong>. McKenna and Jones are well known in Canberra, and exhibit regularly. Indeed, McKenna recently held a very successful exhibition at this gallery.</p> <p>Burns is a wood-firer, and his pots capture the textures and colours of the surrounding landscapes. They are robust, with the charm and unpredictability of the wood-firing process. The forms are strong, all with natural ash glaze – which gives an appealing, uneven surface.</p> <p><img class="size-full wp-image-330384" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Joey-Burn-sake-bottle-business-card-2024-e1728260661589.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="736" /></p> <caption>Joey Burns' sake bottle.</caption> <p><strong>Kate McKay</strong> has a fascination with blue on white glaze, on a dark clay body. She has recently discovered a dark clay body on her farm in Collector and is pleased with the way the blue reacts on the white slip on her vase or jar forms. I find the forms heavy and feel they need to be a little more refined.</p> <p>The patterning made during the lifecycle of the Longhorn Borer Beetle on the trunks of eucalyptus trees is the inspiration for vessels and a wall piece made by <strong>Robyn Booth,</strong> from Sutton. She presses the clay into the tree trunk, allowing the process to form the tiles. Works titled Trunskscape I and Trunkscape 2 are delicate and understated. The colours are subtle and the porcelain clay creates an appropriate canvas for them. Several works titled Tree Pressings, with a flat tile supported vertically, are less successful.</p> <p><strong>Malhala Hill</strong>, from Wamboin, is showing several thrown and manipulated porcelain pieces, glazed in a rich deep blue. The night sky in Wamboin has inspired her. She has carved into the surface creating textures that reflect the changing skies.</p> <p>Braidwood offers <strong>Lea Durie</strong> a landscape full of inspiration, with a sense of warmth and creativity. She is showing a large group of forms which are evocative of a child’s interpretation of a house – a pointed roof and four walls. They are arranged in a row across the end of the gallery. Each is decorated differently, and each has a slot in the roof – similar to a slot for a money box. She uses wild clay – which I assume is clay she has dug – with slips and oxides. The most successful work is titled Home is Where I Belong, in commercial and wild clay, with slips, oxides, and glazes. The surface is lively, light in colour, and more inviting.</p> <p>Another potter from the Braidwood area is <strong>Lisa Madden</strong>. She is showing numerous sets of works – a bottle, or a cup, or a beaker – sitting on a free form tray. Unfortunately, many of the objects do not sit evenly on the surface of the tray, or hang over the sides: an interesting concept fails on this ground. Even if it is not the artist’s intention for the pieces to be functional, I believe they should meet some basic requirements. In Set 1 a cup with an interrupted rim sits well on the free form tray.</p> <p>Ian Jones and Moraig McKenna are the two remaining exhibiting potters. Jones’ work is gutsy, with all the hallmarks of a successful wood-firing potter. The textured surfaces are lovely, with warm colours. McKenna’s work is sophisticated and elegant. The decoration on Long Tray depicts the hills on the horizon of her studio.</p> <p>It is such an interesting idea to have an exhibition of ceramic artists who live in villages surrounding the ACT – surprising perhaps that it is the first. The show is a chance for us to see what is happening outside the city.</p> <p> </p> </body>