John Tuckwell – Ceramacist
I am obsessed with clay.
My particular weakness is porcelain. From my perspective I can’t see why anyone would use any other medium to create art. Porcelain gives me a pristine white surface to work on. I can add colour to the white porcelain to give me a wide and sharp palette. I can form my coloured and painted surface to give me three dimensional possibilities.
There are a lot more things that ceramicists do with clay. All of us benefit from thousands of years of pottery. My work only has a small amount of the function and history still existing in the piece.
I grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney. In 1985 I moved with my partner to a bush Block in the Bellingen Valley. My life before that was a long way from art. I worked in the motor trade mostly in spare parts and sales before moving North.
I grew from an accidental entry into ceramics making earthenware animals for the souvenir and housewares market before becoming more serious with clay and some time later taking formal study.
For a few years I used the landscape as a direct reference. In my mind the direction for my current work is simply an abstraction of the previous landscape work. Some pieces are layered so that, in the end, the deepest layer is all but lost.
My workshop is at my home. My practice is made up of some teaching and lots of making pots. Outlets for the work are a mixture of exhibitions, competitions and a few nice galleries.
The last year has been busy. Since winning the Bellingen art prize in September 2010 I have had three exhibitions including the current solo show at Nexus Gallery in Bellingen.
