Art Exhibit: Five Forage

Comprising of new works from the Clay Collective, the Art Exhibit: Five Forage.  The Clay Collective are a local ceramic and sculptural artist group consisting of Vicki Hawkins, Sharon Hill, Marianne Jury, Catherine Spence, and Sarah Rowley-Adams. 

Catherine Spence - Ceramic Artist-Studio Potter

Catherine’s work in clay is an exploration of relationship and process between maker, materials and product; how this starts, where it goes as it develops, what defines when it ends, or if it ends.

Catherine recently left Auckland and her role as an Art Psychotherapist in the mental health and latterly palliative care sectors. She has worked in clay practice for over twenty years and has now come to live in Marlborough to continue working in and teaching this practice.

Sarah Rowley Adams - Potter

Sarah Rowley Adams went along to a weekend ceramics course in 2019 and hasn't looked back since. She joined Marlborough Community Potters three years ago to meet people when she first moved to Blenheim. Her family are passionate about interior design and modern New Zealand art, which strongly influences her work. Each piece is made to be both functional and spark joy, and is inspired by Marlborough’s colours of sea and sky, viewed daily on her walks with her dogs.

Marianne Jury - Visual Artist

Marianne is a visual artist and studied painting and sculpture in Sydney graduating with an Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts. She moved back to NZ to live and joined the Marlborough Community Potters where she started working with clay. She works on the wheel as well as hand building and likes to make objects that come from a pottery tradition as well as more whimsical artworks.

Sharon Hill - Potter

Sharon has been creative all her life. Her artistic path started out with painting and printmaking at college and, while living in Wellington, morphed into collage with found objects and resin. More recently, when she moved to beautiful Marlborough 11 years ago, Sharon took up pottery. She feels lucky to be immersed in a rich community of local potters surrounded by a stunning landscape and light that provides endless inspiration.

​Whether sculptural or tableware, all Sharon’s pieces are handbuilt. She uses a range of handbuilding techniques including pinching, coiling and slab work. With hand making, the pieces just form and evolve organically, and are heart-warmingly wonky (or perfectly imperfect) and tactile to hold. Sharon mainly uses stoneware clay as she finds it suits hand making, has a lovely speckle or texture and works well with her preferred glazes. She also uses an earthy white as a crisp backdrop to black patterns.

Vicki Hawkins - Studio Potter

After a long break Vicki has returned to clay and began to focus on domestic ware, driven by a love of its everyday practical function. Her works for this show are vessels that are more decorative rather than practical. The semi translucent deep green glaze is a reflection of the New Zealand native bush and landscapes while the forms are inspired by ancient Greek vases. Vicki finds their accentuated handles and rounded bellies which often sit on proportionally small bases an intriguing combination.