Saturday 4th July - 2 September 2009

JOHN BRUNSDON ARCA RE

GARRY JONES, ANDREW RICHARDS, SALLY WILSON, KAREN THOMAS

Paintings and Etchings by John Brunsdon and Sculpture by Garry Jones ceramics by Andrew Richards with Jewellery by York designer/maker Karen Thomas - please scroll down for photos or click on a name for the artist statement

John Brunsdon All Saints Church, Hawnby, N. Yorks, Etching £230 unframed..£

John Brunsdon Mud Flats etching £230 uf

Secret Garden, N. Yorkshire Etching £230 uf

Rugged Coast, Dorset, Etching £230 uf

Rievaulx Abbey Etching

Landing, Etching £230 uf

Walberswick, Etching £230 uf

Shingle Street, Etching £230 uf

ANDREW RICHARDS

Andrew Richards vase

Andrew Richards Jug

Silver and turquois ring

Silver and turquois pendant

Silver abalone pendant

JOHN BRUNSDON ARCA RE

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I have been making pots for over 20 years and exhibited throughout the UK and sold to galleries and shops via all the major trade fairs. I have pots in various private collections including the Rothschild collection. My work has evolved and matured and followed many different styles and techniques, but the process of making has remained the same always aiming for the highest standards, and creating original honest, and intuitive work that has been informed by historical, and hard won practical experience as a production thrower. 

I have always followed an individual and experimental approach to clay following many pathways in my development as a potter and as a teacher, this creative thirst for knowledge and passion for my vocation, I hope is shown in the work that I have produced over the years. Wisp farmhouse pottery based in Scotland was a successful pottery producing wood fired salt glaze stoneware and sold throughout the UK via major trade shows. Mill Farm Pottery based in Kettering produced garden ware and cookware for direct sale to the public and some shops.  

My formal training has been varied starting with Wrexham College of art, Chesterfield College of art and Cardiff. With teachers David Binns, Willie Carter, Geoffrey Fuller, Trevor Nicklen, Chris Yenson, Geoff Swindell, and Pete Starkey and a whole host of visiting lecturers who have been influential and enabled me to experiment and play with kiln building, glaze technology. This approach to ceramics has remained the core of my practice as a teacher and a maker today. 

For years-long before I had access to a wood fired kiln, I have been attracted to the pots of the Shigaraki, Jin Dynasty 4th century, Yue Ware of the Tang Dynasty, Momayama period in Japan and the beauty of form and shapes of peasant medieval ceramics and Buckley pottery.

The simplicity of the pots and the use of local materials clay, rocks, and ash for making glazes have inspired me to create work that is I believe unpretentious and honest my throwing ability has progressed over 20yrs and I try to impart my feelings and emotions into the pot sometimes almost deskilling.
The building of many kilns over years has also allowed my work to progress, and more recently the building of 2 kilns an Olsen fast fire and in collaboration with Willie Carter a bourry fire box side stoke kiln have enabled me to produce a variety of work that reflects my individual style. I am currently relocating and building a Bourry/oil fired kiln and in collaboration with Wrexham College of art I am firing some work in the Gas Kiln.

My work is not over decorated and relies more on the forms and the subtle relationship of intuitive decoration and the natural glazes, these are formulated from local materials and I use these as much as possible for my slips and glazes particularly wood ash from various wood burning stoves, and stone dust from a number of quarries and stone cutting businesses.

I also investigate and experiment with river iron slips and high iron clays. More recently I have found red clay that I dig from the side of a mountain in Llangollen this makes a fantastic slip and an incredible red crystal glaze. The alchemy of ceramics and the processes and stages of making are the key factors in the production of my work each one fitting together to make a whole.

I do take on commissions and enjoy the challenge of making to order having managed two professional pottery businesses, and I am at my most creative when I am working towards deadlines for gallery exhibitions this gives me the opportunity to experiment and produce new work.

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I love animals.

 Animals are everything to me; they are a continuous source of amusement, happiness, sadness and of course inspiration.

 My aim is to create humorous, three dimensional cartoon images; I attempt to attribute animals with human characteristics, using word play and common phrases, recalling the old silent movies where moments in time and emotions were captured by expression alone. 

When I create I tend to portray mainly domestic animals I know well and have connected with.

I come from Wales, but I have lived in the Midlands since 1969. My passions are linked to my childhood years spent in and around the Welsh countryside and culture. I have always been intrigued and entertained by everything nature and history have to offer.

My sculptures are a reaction to observations of animal behaviour; I set out to make people laugh.

The techniques I use involve raku because I like the unpredictable results and the excitement experimentation evokes, the natural finishes and the whole primeval smoke, fire, exposure and physical involvement of this ancient process.

 Animals are amazing and portraying them in this way is what I do.

                   Garry Jones

I am an art teacher.

For 30 years I have also attempted to be a ‘real’ artist with varying rates of success.

My aim is simply to create ‘lovely things’ for people to look at, have and enjoy, evoking the ‘feel good’ experience that in today’s fast paced, technology driven world is often dismissed or even ridiculed.

I come from the Midlands, originally Birmingham but spent all of my childhood holidays in and around Evesham surrounded by water, fields, animals, fish, family, friends and a dog. This rural environment is where my heart and inspiration lie.

My subject nearly always involves natural form, flowers, plants, animals and I often find myself been drawn back to the human form. Spontaneous happenings or observations will fuel my imagination and inspire me to create a work. The latest being this series of individual ceramic portraits of my young Lurcher, Blue and his friends.

I work in a variety of media, probably due to the nature of my job, revelling in learning new techniques and processes.

Being creative in whatever way I fancy is what I do.

Garry Jones 2009

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KAREN THOMAS

I am a jewellery designer based in the historic city of York.

Since graduating from the Birmingham School of Jewellery (UCE) in 1998, I have taught jewellery making at a local college and school, whilst also working in a trade workshop.

To satisfy my desire to design and make my own work, I opened a workshop where I create beautiful, wearable ranges of jewellery as well as limited editions, one-off pieces and commissions.

My limited editions and one-off pieces are usually inspired by my love of unusual stones.

My latest range is inspired by natural forms found on the seashore.

 

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