An outpouring of jugs

The Toby Jug and Beyond, work by members of Nelson Potters Association, Refinery Gallery, Nelson, until November 6.

Artists need a helping hand to be creative? That seems to be the point of a themed exhibition  to draw them into new modes of expression and to spark new ideas.

I've never liked them much. I think it's the mark of a good artist that their creativity comes from within, choosing for themselves the best way they can develop, using whatever external stimulus is appropriate, but not one that's imposed.

Maybe that's why many of Nelson's top potters chose not to respond to the challenge of this themed  exhibition.
Those who did took different approaches, with Paul Laird, Charles Shaw and Nina Davis tackling the theme head-on using various characters modelled into the jug format.

Laird took a particularly New Zealand slant with a buzzy-bee jug and another modelled on a pukeko.

Shaw dived into the wetlands, coming up with some clever frog jugs with an excellent crystalline glaze.

Davis modelled stern faces on two immaculate jugs. She also clothed the forms impressively using a Japanese tenmoku iron glaze.

Getting beyond the Toby Jug, in fact almost leaving it behind, were the entries of Royce McGlashen, Katie Gold and Darryl Frost.

McGlashen played word games with the title in an elegant form called To By a Blue Jug, while Gold evoked the 18th-century England of the toby jug with romantic transfers of cottages and courting on forms that had just a passing reference to the form of a jug.

Frost was typically vigorous in his work. His titles, Not Really a Jug, No It's Not a Jug and Not Even a Jug making it clear he was giving himself licence to avoid the theme completely while exhibiting bold forms from his anagama kiln.

Caroline Earley's strangely anthropomorphic group were very appealing, strange assemblages that denied classification. Russell Harding played a straight hand with British and New Zealand references to playing cards and kiwis on his workmanlike jugs.

Sue Newitt just took the word ``jug'' from the theme and produced 18 beautiful small jugs, half in porcelain with a shimmering celadon glaze, the rest green-glazed in stoneware.

Guest exhibitor Ross Mitchell-Anyon's pouring bowls were robust, if a little over-fired, while his three large jug forms were disappointingly bulky.

The exhibition was interesting but patchy. The association faces a challenge now to find a way to get beyond the feel-good, all-inclusive average exhibition to something that shows the excellence of ceramics for which Nelson should be proud.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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