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A PRIZE COLLECTION Studio Ceramics from the Carillon City Festival and Bathurst Art Prizes 1972 - 1998 Extended labels ARTIST LIST SALLY ARMSTRONG JANET MANSFIELD ROS AULD JEFF MINCHAM STEPHEN BENWELL FIONA MURPHY SANDRA BLACK MICHAEL NEWBERRY MICHAEL CONOLAN JENNIFER ORCHARD GREG DALY ALAN PEASCOD PETER DOBINSON DAVID POTTER MOLLIE DOUGLAS RON ROWE IVAN ENGLUND PETER RUSHFORTH PATRICIA ENGLUND BERNARD SAHM MERRAN ESSON JOYCE SCOTT SIMONE FRASER STEPHEN SKILLITZI PETER GIBSON PENNY SMITH KATE GRANT TIM STRACHAN VICTOR GREENAWAY SANDRA TAYLOR MARTIN HALSTEAD MARTINE TROY GWYN HANSSEN PIGGOTT MOIRA TURNBULL PATSY HELY PRUE VENABLES MICHAEL KEIGHERY PETER WILSON SUSAN LAURENT ROSWITHA WULFF BRIGIAT MALTESE SIMONE FRASER, Red and Black Urn (detail) (1987 Bathurst Art Purchase) THE GALLERY GUIDES’ EXPERIENCE A year ago when Gallery Director Richard Perram OAM asked the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guides to assist with curating a retrospective exhibition on the Bathurst Art Prize, focusing on ceramic pieces in the Gallery collection, the guides enthusiastically took up the challenge. Our first step was to familiarise ourselves with the ceramics section of the Bathurst Art Prize. We found we had 58 ceramic works by 41 artists, covering the period of 1972-1998. The Guides decided to group the works into three decades, the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and proceeded to select the artists we would research. We became detectives and tried to track the artists, a difficult task 44 years on. Some had passed away; some had moved overseas; some were no longer working in ceramics; and some seemed to elude us in spite of all our efforts. Those we were able to contact were sent photos of their works to aid their recall. Many of the artists commented on the enjoyment of seeing the items again after all these years, and were able to tell us what was happening in their In researching for this exhibition, the Gallery Guides have been privileged to have lives at the time. Some were at the beginnings of their careers and had gone experienced continual art education. We have visited many of the outstanding on to international success; others were near the end of their careers, had potters in our region, observing their creativity, learning about their speciality, their perfected their craft and were making exquisite works. Whatever their story, we resources and experiences. Also we have had access to the comprehensive records appreciated the time taken to reply to us, as all replies helped us to personalise and research by former curators and Guides. the works and gave them new life. We formed a new respect for ceramic artists. The Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guides thank the Gallery for We came to understand that whilst clay offers a plethora of expressive commissioning the beautiful photographic work by Greg Piper included in the opportunities, and the end products are often unique and magnificent, many catalogue, which has substantially enhanced the enjoyment of this exhibition. The artists have difficulties in trying to make a living through ceramic practice. time he has taken to optimise the beauty and character of each piece is obvious. The Consider the frustration of a job where sometimes half your work is unsaleable Guides also thank Gallery Curator Sarah Gurich, and Gallery Assistant Henry Denyer- due to the precarious nature of clay and firing. Potters need stamina and Simmons, for their guidance. manual dexterity, and an intimate knowledge of the clay they work with. They need to be dedicated timekeepers; artistic decorators; able to make moulds; We are delighted that some of the artists have been able to return to view this pack a kiln to minimise loss; create crates and boards; be a compounder of exhibition, and look forward to continuing our relationships with them. oxides, a risk taker, and a salesperson in the difficult world of art sales. Susanne Griffith Edmund de Waal in “The White Road” summed up the uncertainty: Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Gallery Guide ....so when you have your basin, your jar, you must let it dry very, very, slowly. Any dampness deep in the walls will crack the whole vessel as it is fired. Then there is the decoration and all this is before the firing itself, at which point all the work, the hundreds of hours are as chaff in the wind... One of the common findings when researching these artists was how much (left to right): Jan White, Peter Varman, Margaret Marshall, Mary Cuppaidge (front), many of them had changed in their repertoire over the years, with some Kathleen Oakes, Maureen Wells, Judith Nash, Denise Payne, Lorraine Fielding, Hilary advancing/perfecting their style, and others using different sciences to perfect Stitt, Barbara Holmes. Absent: Susanne Griffith, Eilish McCarthy, Joyette Swane- glazes or finish their works. Fitzpatrick, Silvia Wistuba SALLY ARMSTRONG Bowl 1983 stoneware Award: 1983 Bathurst Art Purchase Sponsored by Bathurst City Council Exhibition dates: 16 September – 16 October 1983 Judge/Adjudicator: Barry Pearce and Dr. Peter Emmett “Inspiration comes first, the clay is the medium and firing the completion” – Sally Armstrong 2016 Sally Armstrong is a well renowned local artist and has been working with different clays and firing techniques since completing her studies in creative arts at Charles Sturt University. Armstrong’s prize winning stoneware bowl from the 1983 Bathurst Art Purchase is simplicity itself; a clear glaze smoothed over the ornate native floral design. The outer rough stoneware contrasting with the flawless clear glaze produces the “ultimate reward;” Armstrong describes, “it’s own beauty”. Armstrong has had Residencies at Cowra Japanese Gardens and Canowindra, attended many workshops participated in joint exhibitions and won championships at Shows. Sally is an active member of Bathurst Potters Group. Her work is often on exhibition for sale at T.arts (Tablelands Artists Co operative) in Bathurst Arcade. Margaret Marshall Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide August 2016 19. SALLY ARMSTRONG, Bowl (1983 Bathurst Art Purchase) ROS AULD Platter II 1991 stoneware Award: 1991 Bathurst Art Purchase Sponsored by Bathurst City Council Exhibition dates: 17 May – 30 June 1991 Judge/Adjudicator: Peter Rushforth Ros Auld is an Australian potter based in Borenore near Orange, in Central West NSW, specialising in slab-built, or thrown and manipulated, stoneware forms decorated with wood ash glazes and trailed and incised slips, coloured oxides and gold lustre. Ros Auld’s Platter II is typical of her early studio practice which was focused on salt glazed ceramics and large painterly decorated, platters. In 1998 Ros Auld commented of her process; “I foolishly specialise in platters.” This comment is in response to the process of works like Platter II which come with the need for silicon carbon shelves in the kiln to hold the work in place, these shelves then have to be chipped and ground tediously back for days. This added trouble with plates is necessary for Ros Auld who stated that “there simply isn’t any other way of achieving that beautiful richness and liveliness of surface, that natural glazing and finish on the edges of forms.” Ros Auld’s more recent work encompasses large hand-built vessels and steel and ceramic sculptures however her practice is deeply rooted in her early fascination for plate ware which fostered a patience for achieving the sleek slips, magnificent natural glazing and earthly finish that are present in Platter II. Ros Auld once commented on her adoration for the plate as a medium stating “The plate is like a canvas – a simple shape where the decoration can be dominant although somehow not as self-conscious as a canvas painting.” Suzanne Griffith Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guide August 2016 1. BRAG [2010] Ros Auld Ceramics 28 September-18 November 2012 [Catalogue] 2. Mansfield, J. [Ed] (1988) Ros Auld; Why choose salt? Pottery in Australia; December 1988, Vol 27, No 4, p43 3. Clayton, J. [2016] Ros Auld from Janet Clayton Galleries website; [email protected] [as accessed October 2016] 4. Haynes, P. [2015] Art; Overland by Ros Auld and Tim Winters at Queanbeyan’s Form Studio and Gallery. In Canberra Times; published October 21 2015 38. ROS AULD, Platter II (1991 Bathurst Art Purchase) STEPHEN BENWELL Shrine with Donor and Saints 1993 earthenware 1995 Bathurst Art Purchase, Sponsored by the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Society 17th March – 17th April 1995 Judge/Adjudicator: Michael Keighery Stephen Benwell is one of Australia’s most distinguished ceramicists. He received a Diploma of Art from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1974, a Diploma of Education from Melbourne State College in 1976 included studies in Ceramics under Professor Noel John Flood and a Masters of Fine Arts from Monash University in 2005. This medium became the basis of his art practice, Benwell stating ‘I moved sideways into craft and pottery as a way to find a surface, a form, that I could put my painting onto.’ His work marries studio based investigations of the ceramicist with the painterly and sculptural concerns of the contemporary artist. At around the time Shrine With Donor and Saints was created, Benwell had begun investigating 18th Century figurines. The drawn-on feel of the painterly decorated shrine, the cartoonish saints and the imaginative design of the structure, typifies Benwell’s infatuation of eyeing the classical through the present. Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Volunteer Guides 49. STEPHEN BENWELL, Shrine with Donor and Saints (1995 Bathurst Art Purchase) SANDRA BLACK 3 Pierced Bowls 1995 porcelain Award: Bathurst Art Purchase 1995 Purchased on advice of the adjudicator Exhibition dates: 17 March to 17 April 1995 Judge/Adjudicator: Michael Keighery Sandra Black has been creating small porcelain vessels intricately carved and pierced to perfection since her very early days as a ceramicist.

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