Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Visit to KZNSA - Chia Chi Chen

1. KwaZulu Natal Society of Art
2. The exhibition is called 'Interpreting Ceramics' and it was organized by the Ceramics Association of Southern Africa KZN Region.

3. Title: Counting Clouds
Name of Artist: Carol Hayward Fell
Material: stoneware and porcelain
Size: approximately 30 x 20cm
Price: R4170

4. The artist used the slab building method to create this sculpture.  This involves rolling out slabs of wet clay then moulding and cutting it to the desired shape.  The texture for the horse's mane, tail, and the bird's feathers were carved in, while the clouds around the horse were added on.

5. The sculpture depicts a horse with a bird on it's back.  The horse has a pattern of cloud-like shapes around it's body while the bird has feathers. The piece is white and has not been glazed.

6. I really like this sculpture as it is very unique, yet still elegant. I chose this piece to study as the pattern on the horse's body was very interesting and it caught my eye.

7. Colour: The entire sculpture is white.  This creates a sense of harmony in this piece.

Texture: There is real texture around the horse's body (cloud shapes), the horse's mane and tail and on the bird (feathers). These different textures create contrast in the sculpture.

Shape: There are organic cloud-like shapes around the horse's body. The repetition of these shapes creates rythm.

8. The artist is well established, she has a Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carol-Hayward-Fells-Carolart-Studio-her-Ceramics/123707121009712?fref=photo )

9. The piece was placed on a fairly tall stand that I was able to walk around. This enhanced my viewing of the piece as I was able to see all around the sculpture and I could see the details very clearly.

10. The piece is purely for display

1 comment:

  1. Hi there, Thanks for lovely blog on my horse - you definitely had a close look at Counting Clouds. Did you see the horse and the birds are all looking upwards at the clouds? I think a lot of people missed that because on the opening night none of my work has titles. Even the zebra was called Horse No. 1 !
    Just a point. You say: " The artist used the slab building method to create this sculpture. This involves rolling out slabs of wet clay then moulding and cutting it to the desired shape." Actually I do not roll out any slabs at all - the method I use is called coiling and you can actually see the coils inside the neck going right up to the head. The legs and tail are also made out of coils and not carved at all, as you suggest. I build up the tail and the manes by adding thin sausage coils and sticking them on to the horse.
    I make all my horses out of a beige, buff-coloured stoneware clay which Is a rather dull colour. I then cover it by painting on 3 layers of pure white porcelain clay (slip) to make the horse completely white. Once dryish I trail all the finely detailed patterns onto the surface of the horse by using a tiny bottle filled with white slip with a fine syringe needle attached - rather like cake decorating on a tiny scale.
    If you would like any more information - please just ask.

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