Sally Hook – bush ceramics

 

Regardez-ceramic abstract bust by Sally Hook

‘Regardez’ – Sally Hook

 

The following two busts are from Sally Hook’s current series ‘Hairdo Cult’

 

‘We are strange creatures and our heads can be reminiscent of sprouting potatoes, aliens, animals or transcendent god-like beings.  Our personalities are the motivating energies that squash our eyes, pout our mouths and arrange the planes of our faces to express ourselves, our life’s paths.  It is an unending feast of diversity and our hair – those who have it –  is our crowning glory.’ –  Sally Hook

Sally’s website here

 

Debutant ceramic bust - Sally Hook

‘Debutant’ – Sally Hook

 

Highness - porcelain abstract bust of a girl by Sally Hook

 ‘Highness’ – Sally Hook

 

 

 

For the majority of Sally Hook’s 34 year artistic career she has worked in the field of the clay arts. This included a stint for over a decade in manufacturing molds for the ceramics industry, specializing in Australian themes. Her journey has covered a versatile range of designs including utility ware, abstract, representative and figurative in both hand built and wheel thrown pottery. Most of her current narratives are created with hand built forms, which she is the most comfortable with, and her inspirations are drawn form a combination of the classical arts and the long history of human expression depicted in ceramics.
Sally’s studio is in an idyllic location half way up the East Coast of Australia in a native sub tropical bush forest near Nambucca, surrounded by multi level gardens, stone stairways, pools, organic vegetable plots and forest views. Numerous windows in her studio bring this lush vista inside. Her present studio has been recreated from the ashes of her previous gallery/studio which was destroyed in a fire in early 2014. Thankfully, she has embraced the challenge of regeneration, and feels her art has been stimulated by the upheaval.
Her love of the craft of ceramics has taken her to Bali, Italy, France and China with international residencies and workshops, to evolve her knowledge and skills. Despite her interest in the approach of different cultures to the art of pottery, and doing numerous workshops with a diverse range of artists, her primary artistic motivation is still drawn from her own inner instincts and originality.

 

 

birthrightThe-recognition-of-inevitable-renewal-'Cycle' - ceramic sculpture by Sally Hook

Birthright – The recognition of inevitable renewal ‘Cycle’ – Sally Hook

 

 

 

butterfly catchers 50cmMade from white earthenware clay.Coiled,scratched design, blackstain, burnished.Fired to 1080 degrees C.

‘Butterfly Catchers’   – Sally Hook

Made from white earthenware clay.Coiled,scratched design, black stain, burnished.Fired to 1080 degrees C.

Height 50cm

 

 

 

Sally-Hook-- 3 Doovas figurines

Doovas – Sally Hook

 

 

Fried-Art-gallery-in-garden-Newee-Creek

Sally Hook studio gallery

 

 

 

illusionists - ceramic teapots by Sally Hook

‘Illusionists’ – Sally Hook

 

 

 

Jongleur-en-Jeune-55cm Sculpture of a juggler

‘Jongleur en Jeune’ – Sally Hook

 

 

 

Merging-with-the-Goddess painting by Sally Hook

‘Merging with the Goddess’ – Sally Hook

Acrylic on canvas

 

 

 

Myths, Memories, Moments in Time by Sally Hook - Unicorn carrying a wombat, koala and dodo sculpture

‘Myths, Memories, Moments in Time’ by Sally Hook

 

 

 

nefertiti_amenhotep-and-me by Sally Hook Three ceramic heads combined

‘Nefertiti Amenhotep and me’ by Sally Hook

 

 

Sally Hook image

Sally Hook

 

 

 

Noir-et-Blanche'-Jongleur - ceramic art by Sally Hook

‘Noir et Blanche Jongleur’ – Sally Hook

 

 

 

ORANGE-WHITE-JUGGLERl'Orange-et-blanc-JongleurJuggler sculpture by Sally Hook

‘Orange et blanc Jongleur’   – Sally Hook

 

 

Potentate-by-Sally-Hook - ceramic sculpture of a King on a throne

‘Potentate’ by Sally Hook

 

 

 

Sally Hook ceramic sculpture bust

Ceramic bust – Sally Hook

 

 

 

Sally-Hook vase in black and white with hand drawn figure art

Vase with hand drawn figures – Sally Hook

 

 

 

Sally-Hook-Australia-ceramics

Sally Hook ceramic figurine

 

 

 

SALLY-HOOK-CERAMIC-ART My garden is inside me

‘My Garden is in Me’ by Sally Hook

 

 

 

Sally Hook-ceramics- vase with black and white striped handles

Vessel with striped handles – Sally Hook

 

 

Sally-Hook-pottery - tripod vase with twin handles

Tripod vase – Sally Hook

 

 

 

Simpatico-goats-small-50cm-tall-White-Earthenware Coiled, scratched design, black stain, burnished

‘Simpatico Goats small’  by Sally Hook

White Earthenware Coiled, scratched design, black stain, burnished.

50cm tall

 

 

 

Strange-Fruit-2-Sally-Hook

‘Strange Fruit’ – Sally Hook

 

 

 

Totem street-vase by Sally Hook

Sally Hook

 

 

 


Tanned-couple-in-bathers-front 30cm tall by Sally Hook

‘Tanned couple in bathers’ by Sally Hook

Height 30cm

 

 

 

The-Jest---Sally Hook ceramic bust

‘The Jest’ – Sally Hook

 

 

 

 

Totem-Vases-1,-2,-3 by Sally Hook

‘Totem Vases 1 2 3’  – Sally Hook

Height –  69  64  63 cm

 

 

 

Two-tri legged-vessels by Sally Hook

Tri legged vessels – Sally Hook

 

 

Wave water-vessel -front - Sally Hook

Wavy vessel – Sally Hook

 

The following pieces were from Sally’s exhibition of figurative sculpture – ‘The Women of Vallauris’ at the Aqui Siam Ben Gallery, Vallauris in 2005 during her residency at AIR Vaullaris

 

 

Passage---Couloir-de-Femme-53-cm-tall by Sally Hook

‘Passage—Couloir de Femme’ by Sally Hook

53 cm tall

 

LIFE-IS-JOY-OR-LIFE-IS-NOT Choix-Height-30cm Abundance-Height-30cm by Sally Hook

‘Life is Joy Life is Not’  – Sally Hook

 

 

 

queen_largeReign-de-la-Maison-30-cm-tall

‘Reign de la Maison’ by Sally Hook

 

 Observations by Sally Hook on Picasso at Vallauris

 

Vallauris’ potters suffered a decline of their fortunes through the twentieth century, enduring two devastating wars and the rise of plastics, which made disabling incursions into their domestic ware market. During the post war period however, there were still 60 potteries surviving in Vallauris, when a random visit by an artistic genius changed it all……..
It was in the mid 20th century – 1946 – that Pablo Picasso arrived in Vallauris one July day to look at a Pottery, Flower and Perfume expo (exhibition), when he met Georges and Suzanne Ramie of the Madoura Pottery, who invited him to visit their studio. He made two small bulls and the head of a faun and the rest, as we know, is history. His return (a year later) and through the following decade of working with the Vallauris potters, changed the villages’ ‘traditional craft’ reputation into one of exciting contemporary design. In fact, Picasso modernised ceramic art altogether.

Picasso had had fifty years of development of his own unique aesthetic, and applied this instinctively like a maestro onto ceramic surfaces. He had a diligent work ethic with his co-workers who assisted him in his explorations of what was possible, and for then, implausible new techniques in altering and combining forms, glazing, decorating and once-firing. It seemed that everything he made worked – in spite of his experimentation – and worked wonderfully. One of his co-workers and technical advisors – Jean Derval (who still creates imaginative ceramic sculpture in Vallauris today) remarked later – “It was tiresome to work besides someone who was successful at everything”. Picasso remained a potter as well a painter, sculptor and printmaker, with a prodigious output, making over 4000 unique ceramic pieces until his life ended in 1973.

 

Sally’s website here

 

 

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  1. By It's a potters world on September 17, 2015 at 7:49 pm

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