ABSENCE AND PRESENCE IN MARK MAKING Once a Whole Forest - 2021 - Glazed Terracotta and White Clay - H36cm W43cm D2cm
Alongside works created through careful and controlled planning, other works like the one above have been realised intuitively, slowly shifting in direction between abstraction and figuration at different stages of its making. Often starting with a blank slab of clay my working methods are not so far removed from painting; I create my canvas or sheet from clay and I work upon its surface with a brush. However, rather than sitting proudly on the surface the brush marks I apply are temporary, they act to preserve what is already there, in this way my methods have a closer connection to printmaking. The use of resist materials protect the surface from erosion and wear, the brush mark will almost become absent, as I pre-empt the next stages of making, where I use reductive processes to remove ceramic material untouched by the brush. On the work above I chose to obscure most of the preserved marks made using a dry paint-like glaze which leaves just an impression of my past mark making beneath its surface. Some areas have been sanded back to reveal lines of darker tone, the image left is one that alludes to a landscape; a tree and path, perhaps once a whole forest.
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