Peter Wray & Judy Collins, Neil Pinkett, Sutton Taylor

PETER WRAY & JUDY COLLINS

Peter and Judy relocated to West Penwith in 2008.  They share similar responses to materials, landscape and the art process, and so collaboration enables them to collectively express their individual responses in a way which brings new meaning to each.  Wray’s interest in the personal significance of sheltered spaces such as harbours, quarries and inlets, and Collins’ focus on the edges of things, where differences merge – sea/land, man/nature, etc – and the extremes of weather, make a fertile combination.  While initial inspiration and content may vary for each work, certain elements link their individual contributions – an interest in textural qualities, sensitive use of colour, experimentation with the medium and a mutual respect for the subject matter.

NEIL PINKETT

Neil born in St. Just, Cornwall in 1958, began his artistic career as a successful illustrator but moved into the fine art arena with a hugely successful debut solo exhibition in 1996. Since that date Neil has become one of the foremost landscape painters in Cornwall. His work has been exhibited at a large number of venues throughout the UK and has also toured in America.

Painting trips form a fundamental basis to his painting practice and include a 1000mile cycle journey from Cape Wrath in Scotland to Cape Cornwall in 2006. The expedition was meticulously planned, and he cycled through Scotland, North West England and Wales and the entire Atlantic coast of Devon and Cornwall. The physically demanding trip saw Neil produce a prolific amount of watercolours and sketches along the way of sweeping valleys, mountains, land and seascapes. In 2008 he canoed down the River Shannon in Ireland painting from an easel stashed across the bow of a specially adapted canoe. The Shannon is the longest river in both Ireland and Britain at over 200 miles long from its source to the sea. In 2009, Neil undertook a second epic canoe and painting trip starting near the Forth Bridge in Scotland, through the Forth and Clyde and Glasgow and then out to the Inner Hebrides of Arran and Mull.

He is currently showing in Cornwall, Bristol and Bath, including Cornwall Contemporary (Penzance), The Tyler Gallery (Mousehole), The Summerhouse Gallery (Marazion), and The New Craftsman (St Ives).

SUTTON TAYLOR

‘What is Lustreware? In the history of Ceramics Lustreware is defined as `an iridescent metallic surface used in the decoration of ceramics`. It is certainly that – but here it is rather more complicated. Historians believe that the technique of combining precious metals and ceramic glazes first emerged in ancient Egypt when glass – makers attempted to make glass vessels resemble solid metal vessels by coating the surfaces in gold or by incorporating gold into the glass. This may well be the case, for glazed pottery is coated in a film of glass.

The word `lustre` derives from the latin `lustrare` – to illuminate – with connotations of being shining, splendid and brilliant. Throughout history potters have attempted to revive the technique and have often been brilliantly successful – but alas with breathtaking failure rates. Historical records are full of despair – eg: “only one in a hundred is good” – and consequently the successful pieces were highly prized and extremely costly.

I think I do rather better than one in a hundred, but there is a significantly high failure rate. In the world today there are literally only a handful of potters working successfully in Lustre, although many try and abandon the attempt. Why is this? This is because the technique is capricious and infuriatingly difficult to pull off. Best results happen briefly before the point of destruction, moments before the glazes boil and blister, seconds before the metals volatile and disappear up the chimney and this golden moment must be detected whilst the gases in the kiln are oxygen free. This is made more difficult by the fact that this moment does not always occur at exactly the same temperature and if held too long the lustrous vanish. Too short a time is equally disastrous. Humidity and general weather conditions affect it – so instinct has to be relied upon. After close to forty years of experimentation I continue to be baffled and exasperated by the unpredictability of the technique.

Gold, silver and copper are the chief metals used although these may be modified by cobalt, manganese, nickel, chrome and bismuth. The famous tempting ruby reds of history were made with inclusions of mercury. I manage to avoid this. The potters did not live long. These metals are used on the glaze, in the glaze and under the glaze. The metals are used in the form of soluble salts or increasingly in the form of finely powdered pure metal. A high concentration of metal will produce a film of pure metal, less will make solid colours and less will give transparent colours, opalescence and iridescence.

Why do I persist and continue to be frustrated by the complexities disappointments and high failure rate? It is because when it does work the colours are like no others and one day I will make a colour which has never been seen before’.