work in progress

Making work for Tweed River Art Gallery show for March 2012. There will be a series of wall mounted clouds with Chinese cloud pattern in white slip. And another series of stylised dragon fangs which will have a red glaze highlighting embossing on the clay.

fairytales in fairyland

Pictured at Grafton Regional Gallery are works from my Fantasia Australis series. 'Endless summer', 'Spice mix', 'New Arcadia' and 'On the sheeps back' are four of the seven in the series. The text for the series follows.

Once upon a time, there was a place called Australis which flowed with cheap milk and there was more than enough of everything. Even the honey bees were top notch and exported first class to California almond orchards. Australis had golden migrants on 457 visas. They happily worked unpaid overtime to support the nation. Balmy tropical waters lapped the coast. The people of Australis developed deep tans. Meanwhile a villain silently went about bleaching their coral. Australis dug up 28% of the world's coal exports. It was hard work but necessary in their quest for a prosperous future. Big Red held the key to Australis's transformation. The promise was peace and security along with a quarter acre of feasting and fornication. Australis was a suburban paradise, a utopian poetic idyll, a safe haven free from infection, an unspoiled harmonious wilderness. Australis was gifted with people from many nations. They had many restaurants and cafes and lived together happily ever after.

Cataract Gorge

Kings Bridge Cottage at Cataract Gorge was built in Arts and Crafts style. It is a stunning setting for the artist in residence program auspiced through Launceston City Council. I spent most of the time working on drawings for the Hobart show 'The Strandline'. I also made some preparatory designs for my next series of ceramic wall sculptures based on casuarina trees.

Strandline opening night

Deborah, Rebecca and Louise Fulton at opening night of The Strandline- a tale of two sisters. Rebecca, the third sister, opened the show with a charming speech.

We also had a didactic panel about the show.

The strandline: a term referring to the margin of the sea where all things afloat find a resting place; a converging point, a liminal happenstance region through which the briny deep deposits flotsam and jetsam at the top of the tide; a coastal Plimsoll line where tidal pulse is made manifest.

The Strandline: an exhibition of furniture, sculpture and drawings by Deborah and Louise Fulton which dovetails both the high water mark and two sister’s art practices.

A strand, a string - two siblings plied together to form a sisterly bond. Divided by geography, one living on the island, one on the mainland, the strandline links them through the tidal flow. Five decades have bonded a strandline with all the subtleties and collaboration of sibling push and pull.

The exhibition directs attention to the family line and what connects siblings. Here timber and clay have replaced familial stories. Timber transformed to driftwood, earth transformed to clay and then both to a new occupation as artwork is drilled, carved, sanded and polished.

kiln props

Come hell or high water

Strandline: An exhibition dovetailing both the high water mark and two sister's art practices. A term referring to the margin of the sea where all things afloat find a resting place, where the briny deep deposits flotsam and jetsam, a liminal region where tidal pulse is made manifest, a coastal Plimsoll line.
A strand, a string - two siblings plied together to form a sisterly bond. Divided by geography, one living on the island, one on the mainland, the strandline links them through the tidal flow. Five decades have plied this strandline into a tightly bonded cord.
The exhibition directs attention to the family line and how time connects siblings. Here timber and clay tell the evolving story. Time and tide and two sisters converge.

The Strandline-a tale of two sisters

Only 21 sleeps before I drive down to Tasmania for the artist residency at Kings Bridge Gorge Cottage in Launceston. The kiln has been working overtime firing work for our exhibition opening on Friday 22nd July at Salamanca Arts Centre. I have compiled a CD for the opening which includes music on a maritime theme. It includes music from Master and Commander, Hornblower series, the Onedin Line Katchaturian theme, you get the idea. I made a candle holder for the opening table decoration from some driftwood I found on Lighthouse Beach.

studio time

I sent off my finished artwork to Grafton Art Gallery a couple of weeks ago under considerable time pressure. I used a plaster mold to help make the basic shapes for Fairytales in fairyland. I made seven versions of mythical Australia. This one is 'On the sheeps back' (each sheep is stamped with 457, referring to Australian 457 guest worker visas). The show opens in July along with local artists like Katka Adams and Avital Sheffer.

garden shards

Archeologists of the future will have rich pickings in my patch of soil. I keep chucking stuff out when it doesn't quite make the grade. This piece had problems with the glaze shelling off.

Salamanca Arts Centre

My sister Deborah and I have booked Sidespace Gallery at Salamanca Arts Centre for a pop-up show in July. We have swapped some ceramic and timber pieces through the mail to work on collaboratively. I'm working on two small figures suspended on driftwood which incorporate Deb's 'Port Jackson shark egg' corkscrew-like pieces. I have also started preliminary drawings which use rotalaria, twins and apes.

pandanus musings

Waiting for results from the kiln firing. Took some photos for publicity for Hobart. And a photo of the livingroom with the afternoon sun.

summervale residency

What a great experience it was at the Summervale residency, auspiced by Cudgegong Gallery. Wide blue skies, fields full of wild flowers, the long dusty Barney's Reef road to walk along.

high water mark

I'm going hunting for driftwood at Ballina beach this week to use in sculptures. I'm having an exhibition in July with my sister based on the theme of the strandline. We spent many weekends with our grandparents at the beach as children so it is a fitting subject for a joint show.