The magic of firing

I will never cease to be amazed by the magic of glazing ceramics. The sheer expectation of before and after firing is culminating at the kiln opening. This latest one was a very successful one, a mid fire kiln -at temperature reaching 1200 degrees for the non initiated-
 For my latest series, I am working on two styles of artworks as I am preparing for a show in Brisbane in August. All are bird views of imaginary yet plausible Earth landscapes.

Before firing, texture highlighted at the raw stage with Copper and Cobalt oxides:

:

After firing, a whole new world... with lakes and mountains, valleys and plains...

OR FROM THE OTHER SERIES:

Before firing, almost like a watercolour painting

But after firing, quite a spectacular dry land covered by a wild flower spring blanket

More to come in preparation to Terra - Aqua show. 

Meandering

This is my artist statement linking all my new body of works in Meandering. Posted here might have more readers than on the gallery wall! I hope you enjoy the ideas behind the thread.

“Each meander has a life, a birth and a growth. 

Each one has a character, a feeling associated with…like music, like a poem...”

Beatrice is exploring the relationship between meanders and landscapes. Inspired by existing rivers, the meandering series respond to a semi abstracted bird eye view of the Earth. Meandering is the common thread, the link from one artwork to the other and it carries the journey.

The journey: Meandering through Google Earth, flying above the Australia coast and beyond, zooming in, framing, zooming out, moving again, surfing the clouds... all in search of the perfect meander.

Those ribbons of flow, nourishing the Earth and linking mankind create infinite permutations of shapes and forms within the constraints of the meander. Scale is of importance, balance in the cropping frame, details kept or fully abstracted, man made marks or natural forms, finding and being absorbed in the visual tension of certain geomorphologies, of certain landscapes.

A meander has a life, a birth, a growth. When mature, it has a full belly, a redundancy protruding till it bursts. Then flat and linear again before it re-flows, following an eternal repetitive cycle of growth.  Its life time is infinite and spatially moves around, walks around, eats around.  It can starve and shrink, and in the process creates crevasses and scars. Or flow and flood out of its very own bed, transforming its waist line, fattening it, and eating every piece of land or man-made forms in the process.

The process: Meandering through mediums and through scales. Alternatively focusing on the snake carving the Earth by highlighting and showing the river itself...physically scoring and carving my medium, then filling it with paints or glazes. Other times, the river and its meanders are painted or glazed first. Then come the surroundings, the backdrops, the backgrounds, and the feel for the area the ribbon is cutting in or adorning! Sometimes even the meander is just the excuse to be absorbed in the spatial abstraction of the landscape itself.

Meandering has been an internal journey, a constant search of self, all within the boundaries of my energy field and energy limits. Going downstream... floating with the flow, carving away my very own bed. 

Still working on my last painting for "Meandering". One week to go so why not, never too late, as long as the paint can dry with this weather!

So exciting! As I love transforming a gallery space and give the viewer a unique journey around. This one will "meander" to follow rivers and bends, oxbow lakes and loops. And will bounce from one painting to a ceramic...

Meandering will be up and running as of Sat 9th March till Thursday 4th April at the Old Pomona Railway Station Gallery. Mo-Fr 10 am -4pm and sat 10- 1pm

One more show...up and running

Hourrah!  On the walls till March 9th March.

as I managed to get in between the drops dry to deliver and set up a solo at the Maroochydore Library today. Entitled "Rock and Water", with 18 paintings on the walls and with my vases and "Thunder Eggs" on the shelves. 

Inspired or not inspired?!

Always such a pleasure to share artworks in a library. Not that people look at them a lot but unknown to them they create an atmosphere that surrounds them, impregnates them like smoke would do. 

And what fun it was to be asked by a young student from Switzerland whether it was OK to take some photos of my artworks ! I felt like a VIP!

Back to electricity

After those last few days where we had outdoor showers with buckets filled from our water tank and as we depleted all our house candle stock, life resumes. It was an "interesting" experience, no more communication, not even telephone contact. I hope you were all safe despite some potential inconvenience. 
It now feels so good to go on with my work...

I am preparing for a solo show beginning of March. It is called "Meandering". There I explore the relationship between meanders and landscapes, allowing for artistic licence to abstract our planet Earth. I still keep in parallel my clay creations and my painting as I find they truly enrich each other.

Here is a detail of "Lucky", a large painting in the making. Its name is the result of meanders leaving behind them shapes like horseshoes when they grow and shift. Those dead branches of water cut out from the main stream get a life of their own and scar the landscape for a long time. Fascinating patterns!