Gillian McMillan combines a true love for birds, a fine eye for colour, hands which have learnt to mould clay, and a free-flying imagination ready to form a bird into a jug, or a jug into a bird. Either way, the combination of bird form and jug shape is without pretence. The splendid Rooster in this show asserts loudly, “I am a very fine Rooster, and a most effective jug.” In fact the Rooster, some fifteen years ago, was photographed by Gillian in the small pottery village of La Bome in France.
Gillian writes of “exploring the amazing variety of shapes and colours in the world’s bird population. I play with the possibility that the birds can be jugs or other functional vessels. Some are uniquely imaginary, and some are coloured using real species as inspiration. For each bird I make a drawing and decide how to break it into the thrown shapes. The legs are merely indicated, sometimes forming a pedestal…or becoming part of the jug’s volume. It amuses me to consider how I can throw beaks, tails and heads. It’s important to me that the viewer can discern the methodology…”
