AWASH WITH CLAY studio newsletter #140

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Here’s the thing with clay printing – at least for the way I work. You can never print just one piece. It is the nature of the process that demands you pull another print (like eating potato chips, you can’t stop with one.), and then another, and then – oh well, what the hell, and you pull 3 or 4 more.  And that is being conservative.  By the end of the session there can be a dozen or more prints lying about the studio. It is usually necessary to pull at least 2-3 or more prints to “get” the one I’m looking for. And being the pack rat that I am, nothing gets tossed out, so you can imagine the results.

I’ve been working – intermittently – with the clay for about 25 years. It lends itself to decorative and abstract work, but I also use it for more realistic images, either alone or combined with another medium, usually soft pastel. I had not done any significant work with the clay for over a year when the new Holiday Inn hotel in Paducah commissioned me this spring to create 3 prints for their lobby.  Since then I have been working almost exclusively with the clay, and had made arrangements for a show of the new work in September. Unfortunately that gallery has closed and I am left with an inventory of clay prints that threatens to completely overtake the studio and gallery. But is spite of that threat, I CAN’T STOP. There are so many new techniques and approaches I want to explore, and the work is simply too much fun. There is none of the anxiety and stress associated with the other mediums, especially watercolor.

I’m sure I will eventually get back to the watercolors and acrylics, and even the pastels.  But until then I will continue to play in the clay.  I may host a show of the new work in my own studio/gallery later this year.  You can be assured I will let you know.

Here are several of my favorites from the past several weeks.

EVOLVING  14X14

VALOR  11X25

INTERIOR  8X17