https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/making-art-city
The Otago Art Society and the Ceramics Association of New Zealand southern region are bringing their members’ works together under one roof in a joint exhibition. Rebecca Fox talks to painter Anton Lambaart and potter and ceramic artist Elise Johnston about their work.
Dunedin potter and ceramic artist Elise Johnston also enjoys the collegiality of belonging to an organisation of fellow artists.
She joined the local potters group and found the monthly meetings are a great place to learn new skills and talk to experienced potters.
Johnston studied sculpture and when she left art school was working with cardboard and paper to create her designs.
”It was a good material as it didn’t have much impact on the environment.”
But after she had children, she moved into ceramics with her mother Karen Taylor-O’Neill.
The pair created Three Cups of Tea, a line of artisan ceramics which satisfied Johnston’s need for functional but beautiful tableware.
Alongside this, Johnston has been developing her ceramic art work, setting aside time when she identified an exhibition she would like to enter or if an idea popped into her head.
”I have two parallel bodies of work going at the same time.”
She loves the medium because it is so malleable.
”You can pinch, poke and squidge it but once it’s been in the kiln it’s rock hard, durable and can be extremely functional.”
Johnston also enjoyed that there was so much to learn about it. She is doing a distance learning glazing course.
”I’m loving the chemistry; it’s really interesting the composition of glazes.”
Doing the tableware, which was quite repetitive, had meant she learned a lot about the materials and techniques she would not have otherwise.
”I’ve had pieces going through the dishwasher for years so it tests the limits of the medium.”
Having the commercial work in the kiln in her garage studio regularly meant she could add her ”experiments” at the same time.
”I have a side-line testing programme while putting the cups and bottles through the kiln.”
The pieces she is entering in the exhibition are boxes with lids made from sections of a topographic map of an area of land from the Motatapu Track to Wanaka.
She used the lines from the topographic map to create a 3-D image out of cardboard. It was then cast in ceramics and glazed.
”At the moment I’m very interested in translating the landscape we see in Central Otago or Naseby – the mountains which seem to change slightly every time using different glazes.”