Ceramics and Pottery Arts and Resources

 

 

‘Findings#8’ – Nancy Selvin

2012

 

 

‘Bottles’ – Catherine White

 

 

Still Life 3D

 

Nancy Selvin and Catherine White are both talented artists that fuse imagery of pottery, real pots and drawings into clever collages that blur the distinction between 2D and 3D, to present hybrid wholistic dimensions that could almost be described as 2.5D, presented in a still life tradition. The matt finishes they both favor with their pottery tends to support a flatter, non reflective appearance, that blends more naturally with their 2D backgrounds. Nancy uses historical and functional themes to pay homage to the diversity of pottery while Catherine draws on seasonal themes using fresh produce and flowers to embellish her pottery.

 

Nancy Selvin

 

“For over four thousand years ceramic artists have made all manner of clay objects: ritual bowls, tiles covering vast palace walls, jars for oil, pots for tea, industrial toilets, bricks for construction, plates for dinner. My work acknowledges this historic tradition and pays tribute to the ceramic forms that surround us.” This statement by Nancy Selvin sums up her current direction in the clayarts where she focuses on the relationship of human beings to objects and the implied history contained in those forms. Below is an example where the composition has origins in the rows of canning jars that lined her mother’s pantry. She uses images of books, bottles, teapots and historical context in her ceramic sculptures by exploring the surface design and arrangement of various forms.The resulting vessels serve as a canvas for building up surface and information. Her forms are completed with simple screen printing techniques and underglaze applications.The text, screened on the surface, hints at the ideas contained within.

She also uses still life constructions that are metaphorical pots, ignoring function but built from traditional and authentic material. The seemingly casual arrangement, the architectural format and the brushwork on the surface directly address the painter’s still life tradition.
Nancy Selvin is an independent studio artist living and working in Berkeley, California. She has taught for more than 40 years at colleges and workshops internationally. Nancy trained as a sculptor at the University of California, Berkeley and studied with Ron Nagle and the late Peter Voulkos while earning her master’s degree at UC Berkeley. Here she grasped the lessons of scale, volume, compositional finesse and, most importantly, energy — how to channel and express it.

 

Website

 

 

 

Nancy Selvin – ‘Findings#21′

 

 

Nancy Selvin— ‘Teabowl with Rim’

 

 

 

Nancy Selvin

 

 

 

Nancy Selvin

 

 

 

‘Is Less More’ series by Nancy Selvin – ceramic bottle in wall display box

 

 

Red bowl and white base – Nancy Selvin

 

 

 

‘Rinsing’, mixed media on paper by Nancy Selvin

 

 

 

Four ceramic bottles on a shelf    Nancy Selvin

 

 

Large coil and slab built vase – Nancy Selvin

 

 

 

Nancy Selvin mixed media wall art

 

 

 

 

Nancy Selvin bowl

Forrest L. Merrill Collection

 

 

‘Checking the firing’ – Nancy Selvin

 

 

Nancy Selvin

 

 

‘Sifting Glaze’ – pottery collage – Nancy Selvin

 

 

Nancy Selvin – Tea bowl with Marbled Napkin, Mix Media on Paper

 

 

 

Large Rutile Pot, 2014 Nancy Selvin

26×18 inch diameter

 

 

‘Pareve’ -Nancy Selvin mixed media

 

 

‘Oxen Mixing Clay’ – Mix Media on Paper – Nancy Selvin

 

 

Catherine White

 

Catherine White uses hand drawn paper backgrounds to highlight the shape and textures of her pieces with contrast and perspective

“Using a poetic language of material, shape, and surface, my plates, bowls, cups and vases seek to translate life and landscape. I often collect local raw materials, transforming them by manipulating clay bodies, surface slips, and firing effects. Each object has markings and irregularities that intentionally reveal the touch of the hand. One recent focus, a series of landscape plates, reveals painterly transformations of shadow and contour, each set creating site-specific layerings of atmosphere, terrain, and light.

Because pottery itself abstractly expresses—through clay, glaze and shape—nature’s landscape, it can be as spirited as a spring day or as barren as a raw and sullen winter afternoon, barely touched with color. I am aiming for distillations from nature, historically alive and poetically inspired. In my studio practice, throwing and hand-building are also intertwined with extensive drawing, painting, and collaging on paper. Firing ceramics in both a gas kiln and a woodfired anagama kiln, objects are often roughly layered with white slip and celadon glaze or stripped to essentials when woodfired. Choosing to exploit both surface and volume while remaining within the sphere of physical function, my forms range from intimate cups to large coiled jars  As depicted in my clay and paper works, images range from seasonal portraits to drawings of digested visions, quite specific yet not overly-literal.’

 

Website

 

 

 ‘Water Reflections’ plate – Catherine White

 

 

 Dogwood flower mix media on paper – Catherine White

 

 

 

Catherine White

 

 

Catherine White – pottery brushing

 

 

Grape tendril mix media on paper – Catherine White

 

 

Ceramic terracotta platters with red chillies on hand painted paper – Catherine White

 

 

Wild onion on paper mix media – Catherine White

 

 

 

Winter Solstice – teapot and cup on hand painted paper – Catherine White

 

 

 Sprouting peas on hand painted paper – Catherine White

 

 

‘Bottles’ two asymmetrical ceramic bottles on hand painted paper – Catherine White

Winter Solstice series

 

 

Anagama ‘Box Kite’ – Catherine White

2016

 

 

Catherine White – ceramic cup

 

 

 

Catherine White – Winter Solstice Gourd

 

 

‘Boulder’ – Catherine White

 

 

Catherine White

 

 

‘Moon Vase’ – Catherine White

 

 

 

Ribbed Vase – Catherine White

 

 

 

‘Shell Bowl’ with hand painted background – Catherine White

 

 

 

Catherine White

 

 

 

‘Triangles’ – Catherine White

 

 

Catherine White – Pumpkin on a ceramic platter

 

 

Catherine White

 

 

 

Chinese Magnolia Seed Pod on a  footed ceramic platter – Catherine White

 

 

 

‘Monkey Balls’ – Catherine White

 

 

 

Catherine White – ‘Pepper Line’

 

 

 

‘Cycladic Shadow’ – Catherine White

2010

 

 

Rotated Cocoon – Catherine White

 

 

‘Acorn spoon’  Catherine White

October 2014

 

 

Catherine White — Bearded iris in rockscape vase

 

 

Catherine White

 

 

‘Vines and Bottles’ – Catherine White

 

 

 

Rambutan on wood fired plate – Catherine White

 

 

Catherine White—Anterior aspect shadow

2010 Winter Solstice

 

 

Giorgio Morandi still-life

 

 

 

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