This piece is based on a photo I took of empty punts lined up in a canal in Oxford Englnad in 1983.  The second photo is of a new piece based on a photo taken in the Cottswolds in the English countryside on a foggy morning walk.

There are many new landscapes  in the works for two showings coming up this year and all will added into a new 2011 landscape gallery on the kilnhouse website soon.

After the sculpting is done and the clay has completely dried the piece is placed in the kiln for the  cone 04 bisque firing which will heat the clay to around 2,000 degrees Farenheit.  Once cooled the now hardened bisqueware is ready to be glazed.

For this particular piece I layered two separate underglazes (three coats each) down before applying  the  glaze.  When using semi transparent glazes the underglazes can alter the color and richness of the finished glaze.

I used a white low-fire glaze which included small crystals that melt during firing.  I painted an additional 3 layers of glaze for a total of nine coats including the underglaze for the background area of this piece.  After painting three coats of a brown low-fire glaze on the branches  the piece was loaded back into the kiln and fired to cone 06 (1870*F).

In the finished piece the true colors are finally visible including the milky white spots created by the glaze crystals.  This piece will be mounted and framed on a stained pine board and prepared for wall mounting.

Rolled Slab

For most of my pieces I start off with a 25 pound block of moist stoneware clay which I kneed  and flatten with a rolling pin. The slab thickness varies from piece to piece, but most are roughly 2 to 3 inches thick.  The slab is placed on a work board and trimmed to size.

Rough sketch

I let the slab dry under plastic wrap for a few days until it reaches the right firmness before beginning further work.  Once the clay is ready I draw a rough sketch of the image with a ceramicist’s pick then wrap it again and let it mature for a few more days until the firmness is right for carving.

First Carving

Once the clay is dry enough I begin carving with a variety of ceramicist’s tools.  I sculpt in successive layers, by sketching the next level after carving the first and so on in order to create as much of three dimensional effect as possible.

Second Layer

This ceramic landscape is based on a photograph that I took on an August afternoon near Tipsoo Lake on Chinook Pass in Washington State.  The weather had been nice all morning, but as I hiked with my kids from the parking lot to Tipsoo Lake the temperature dipped and a thick fog bank came swirling in through the trees.  I remember thinking at the time that I would like to try and capture the essence of the scene in a future landscape.

I took a fairly direct approach to the piece staying true to the photograph, but I needed to find a way to evoke the swirling fog that made that moment unusual.  Spiral shapes are a constant in much of my work and they fit in perfectly here creating a sense of motion that mirrored the graceful rolling fog of that August day.

The “Tree of Life” was well received at the Blood Center  and the simplicity and delicacy of the theme continues to inspire me to come up with new ways of approaching the subject.