Scout Dures
Newtown High School of Performing Arts
FLEAS ON THE BLUE AND SILVER PADDOCKS
Ceramics
Stoneware Clay
The concept behind my body of work was to use clay forms to explore the beauty of the Australian landscape, and particularly a journey up the coast. As a young girl growing up I spent my holidays at Seal Rocks with my family and my intent was to further explore those memories. My work includes a range of clay making techniques including wheel throwing, coil building and slip casting. My passion for ceramics flourished when I went on a road trip up the west coast and discovered a deeper appreciation for the Australian bush and wildlife.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Robert Gray (poet); Hayley West (ceramicist).
Marker's Commentary
This highly sustained installation work creates an evocative representation of the colour, forms and textures of the Australian landscapes through an extensive range of ceramic vessels of different sizes forms and heights. The extraordinary variety of vessel forms are expertly and sensitively constructed using wheel throwing techniques, slip casting and hand building, demonstrating a sustained engagement with these materials and construction practices. The distinctive colours of the Australian bush, grey greens, ochres, browns and deep blues are suggested through the choices to use a range of fired on colour using glazes or slips as well as some forms left with unglazed terracotta clay bodies. This suggests significant experimentation and a selectively focused application of colour. Choosing the installation form with the placement of the vessels as if scattered across the horizontal plane of the paddock makes reference to the iconic landscape paintings of Fred Williams. The choice to represent the Australian bush using these vessel forms across a diversity of tones and hues, also shows an awareness of and connections to Modernist traditions across Australian ceramics, in works by Janet Mansfield, Chester Nealie and Peter Rushforth or contemporary works by Pippen Drysdale and Jeff Mincham. This body of work underlines a highly informed ceramic practice of exceptional quality.