Louise Ranshaw’s “torn rims, textured surfaces and altered forms” opens at Gallery Blackheath on May 5, 6-8pm. After 40 years of working with clay, Ranshaw still finds great enjoyment in working with it.
“I like to push it to extremes – squeezing it till it tears, paddling it out of shape. My work tends to follow an organic aesthetic – ragged edges, crusty surfaces. The art of soda firing suits this style of work very well – a vapour floating through the kiln coating the pots where it touches them.
The roots of her work are in the appreciation of natural forms and themes. In nature there are no straight lines or perfectly rounded forms - nothing is “perfect”. So Ranshaw’s work features torn rims, textured surfaces and altered forms.
“Torn rims are my horizon lines. The forms of pods, seeds and foliage are represented in objects and decorations as merely suggestions.”
“I am continually experimenting with new ideas and recently I have been working with glazes and surface finishes that fire to a lower temperature. Some of these may lend themselves to some more contemporary work.”
The exhibition runs until July 2.
