3 panels x 60 x 50 x 5 cm
Earthenware paper clay, glaze, lustre, acrylic paint, glass
SOLD

This place, this space, is wide and high, long and majestic in its beauty and promise. There are rocks and sand and tiny plants with colour and dew. The water stretches upstream beckoning a longer walk – one yet to be done. This is what draws me back. This place is without par; it is open, ancient and quiet except for those rich and timeless sounds of water, birds and rustling leaves.

We’ve said hello only once to other walkers. We’ve travelled many miles over bitumen and dirt and through deep waters, we’ve climbed the sandstone escarpment and then walked relieved through a wild rocky garden to the top of Gungkurdal (Twin Falls) in Kakadu National Park. The real magic of this place is where the sand swallows the creek whole, where water moves unseen beneath your feet. Under it goes….to emerge from beneath the rocks further downstream, a quick hello to that immense view, before plummeting 150 metres to the pool below.

I use paper clay – material from the earth combined with cellulose to make thin, strong forms. I cut long ribbons of this clay and use my fingers and arms to mimic and feel that flow. I make the ribbons curl and move forward and under, to show you how water can disappear. I use only enough glaze and colour to highlight, but not take away from, the form of the materials. Assembling and attaching individual pieces to the glass is also an exercise in imagining how molecules of water combine and behave as a fluid. The design evolves as I work with pieces that have emerged from one, two or sometimes even three firings. It is all a delicate process; as it should be for an artwork seeking to evoke nature’s form and flow and to take you to a place of peace.