Playing with Clay cont...

Merry Christmas! :)

It's been a long while since I last talked about that clay Bas Relief tile class Jeff and I took back in the fall. I kind of left that conversation hanging and I'd been meaning to show the finished tiles for quite some time. So here we go...

I call this one "Mountain Meadow".

It's a 12"x12" tile made from red terracotta clay. The scene I chose to depict is two trees growing serenely in a meadow overlooking a mountain vista. It's rather stylized and an interesting exploration into the artform for the first time. I particuarly like how the mountains turned out. It was a challenge to depict depth on a half-inch thick tile. I decided to keep any colouring to a bare minimum. I didn't want to hide the lovely rich red of the terracotta too much.
And here's my big project from that class:

This one I decided to title "Far and Away". It's another scenic, but this one is based loosely on one of my photos (refer to my earlier post "Which Way Up?"). This is the bisqued (kiln-fired) semi-final version of this piece. It started out as four tiles, but due to time constraints, I had to modify it slightly. It's now three 6x6" tiles. I actually like it better this way. The intent is still there and a fourth tile wouldn't have added anything extra to the composition except to create more of a panoramic aspect ratio. I'm pleased with how this one turned out. Tile-making really speaks to me for some reason. I felt a style of my own developing immediately and I found I could get into a groovy creative zone quite easily. It's great art therapy!

With my "Far and Away" piece, I still need to apply glaze before it's deemed complete. There will be some risk as I'm not very experienced with glazes and I'm a bit nervous about how my colour choices might turn out. I hope to be able to return to the Port Moody Art Centre in the New Year or Spring to continue further explorations with clay art. I'm looking forward to it!