STUDIO POTTERY CLASSES

For almost two decades, Clay At The Precinct has been connecting people to creativity and enabling excellence in all aspects of working with clay

Join Me in one of our small friendly and relaxed workshops and get in touch with your inner clay-worker!

Absolute beginners to experienced artists are catered for in our well equipped studio. Learn wheel throwing, sculpture, hand building, or slab construction. Explore surface decoration, or develop glazes. Personalised tuition is guaranteed with small numbers of students in each workshop.

Classes are held Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. 
Classes are available in 10 week terms and include  tuition, tools, firing, and glazes. clay is available to purchase at the studio, or bring your own, or dig some up!

The Community Arts Precinct is located in Chermside Street, at Wellington Point in a tranquil parkland setting only 200 metres from the Wellington Point Rail Station

Contact Me for details richarddehaan@optusnet.com.au

Sculptors Society Interview

This is a transcript of a recent interview with Sami Butel, for the Society of Sculptors Queensland.

S.B. I see you working mostly in ceramic. As a sculptor is there any other mediums you enjoy working in?

R.B. I made a decision a few years ago to work within some self imposed limitations. One of these was to restrict the material I work with to ceramics. At the time there seemed to be certain freedoms to be gained by simplifying the language I was using. I’m not planning to change this in the short term, but I can certainly imagine my work in other media, steel, rubber, aluminium, are all interesting to me.

S.B. What is it about ceramics that you enjoy so much?

R.B. I don’t know whether I’d describe my relationship with ceramics as enjoyable. There are enormous frustrations involved; a lot of my work is uniquely unsuitable for fabrication in clay. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of ceramics are the people who live there. That and the extreme fringe dweller status of clayworkers, I have always been drawn to the difficult and deeply unfashionable.

S.B. What are the main concepts you're working with in your art?

R.B. Right now I am exploring surface tension and the meniscus. For a the last few years I have been making work that is trying to respond to questions raised by discoveries in elementary particle physics and quantum mechanics, like condensed matter theory and supersymmetry. I am intrigued by the way physics interprets and reveals the natural world. It’s a distillation; nature seems to be intensified when viewed through the reductive lens of science and mathematics. There is an extraordinary beauty and elegance revealed in this process, one that champions simplicity, completeness, balance, and order.

S.B. I see a real architectural feel to your work. Do you have a background in architecture/design?

R.B. I hear that quite a lot. I was once a footwear designer, although I don’t think that informs the work I am making now. I am certainly interested in architecture, although I am increasingly irritated by the efforts of some curators to blur the boundaries of art, architecture, and design. As talented as Hadid, Herzog, de Meuron, and Gehry, et al. may be, they don’t make art. I’m more interested in the tectonics of building, the behaviour of materials under stress, and the forces that govern (or curb) the possibilities of the built environment.

S.B. What shows/awards have you been involved in recently?

R.B. Late last year I had an exhibition in the Ivory Street window at Artisan, and I was involved in the end of year showcase for Southbank Institute of Technology.

S.B. What do you see for the future of sculpture/ceramics in QLD?

R.B. Honestly? Nothing Rosy.

S.B. What are your plans for developing your arts practice?

R.B. I knew there was something I’d forgotten…… Note to self; develop arts practice.

Schmik Store

You can now find my work at Schmik Store at Brisbane's Portside Wharf at Hamilton

Schmik is a temporary artist concept store showcasing the work of some of Brisbane’s leading artists, designers, and craft makers. Proudly sponsored by Multiplex Portside Wharf Pty Ltd, Schmik offers the public the opportunity to purchase distinctive, hand-crafted works of art, craft, and design direct from the makers and support the local contemporary visual arts community.

http://www.schmikstore.blogspot.com/

New work, November 2007

Emergency Family Repairs.
A work from 2004 that has just gone to live in Belgium.

Work acquired by St George Bank September 2007