New Ceramics by Katharina Klug

 

Like her compatriot Lucie Rie, Katharina’sloves to use a manganese glaze together with hand-drawn marks in crayon.  She says, ‘ While striving for perfection in the shape of the vessel, I deliberately embrace imperfections in my surface pattern designs. I draw freehand onto the form using my crayons. These hand-drawn lines make the work lively, rough, immediate and unique and preserve the moment of mark- making. Inspiration comes from little snippets of observation in my environment. Lines are jumping out at me in almost anything – architecture, stripes on cloth, wires and cables, plants and grasses to name a few.’

 

‘You can see the strong opposites at play – not only between shape and pattern but also between the inside and the outside of the pots. Katharina uses her own glazes based on recipes developed and refined over years of making, There is black versus white, monochrome v colourful, glossy v matt.’  And of course there is a great variety in the form of the pieces she produces – ‘ When working on the wheel I play with proportion and detail to craft a visually pleasing object. Starting with a lump of clay and transforming it into a finished piece using only my hands fills me with pride. I feel a continuous drive to improve and learn, to hone and grow my craftsmanship.’

‘In My Craft or Sullen Art’ by Dylan Thomas

In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.
Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.

 

Katharina’s impressive collection of work will be on show until 22 June along side the sculptures of Anna Gillespie and the mixed exhbiiton of painitngs in our ‘Classical Roots’ exhibition. Included in the latter is a new work from the inimitable Andrew Crocker……

 

‘Happiness’ by Raymond Carver

‘So early it’s still almost dark out.
I’m near the window with coffee,
and the usual early morning stuff
that passes for thought.
When I see the boy and his friend
walking up the road
to deliver the newspaper.
They wear caps and sweaters,
and one boy has a bag over his shoulder.
They are so happy
they aren’t saying anything, these boys.
I think if they could, they would take
each other’s arm.
It’s early in the morning,
and they are doing this thing together.
They come on, slowly.
The sky is taking on light,
though the moon still hangs pale over the water.
Such beauty that for a minute
death and ambition, even love,
doesn’t enter into this.
Happiness. It comes on
unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,
any early morning talk about it.’

 

 

Click on the images above to take you to the current exhibition webpage for Katharina’s exhibition which runs until 22 June 2024.

The show runs concurrently with the painting exhibiton ‘Classical Roots’ and sculpture by Anna Gillespie

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Thank you very much for reading.

Aidan