There was another little Raid on April 8th when Eric Metcalfe brought Burrard Arts Foundation Director Kate Bellringer out to Port Moody. She wanted to spend some time discussing her plan to curate a show featuring the work of Raiders. So she was encouraged to ‘doodle’ on a large platter, while Eric painted another of his lunch plates and we looked at my collection of photos of ten years’ worth of painted plates.
Eric painted his plate with grey, pink, yellow and black underglazes in his signature style.
Kate enjoyed herself by painting radiating lines in soft colours, applying dots on the back of the platter. I think she’ll be happy with her creation.
Two lunch-size plates of mine were in these recent glaze firings. They are made with my favourite red earthenware clay and painted when leather hard, with slips. The others use bisque-fired white earthenware and underglazes but the sizes are the same. I have roughly twenty wheel-thrown bisque forms to make these slab plates, made over as many years – they last for ever if not dropped! I’m quite pleased with the green, brown, yellow and red plate, with its layers of shapes and the black accents.
The two most recent Rhytons are also now fired. Both were thrown with the red earthenware and I painted the Ram with external horns when the piece was leather hard. It was such fun!
The one intended for Eric to paint in the style of the long-ago Attic Project was coated with yellow slip before bisquing. Then he applied his recognizable orange and black leopard-spot reminiscent design with underglaze. Both were then clear-glazed, just as I do the plates. I have added a photo of this Rhyton held below the original Leslie Norris print, made for the Attic Project shows in the past. And Eric sent me a photo of his recent gouache painting of a Ram Rhyton too.
