Samantha Clark & Belinda Glennon
Cover image: Samantha Clark, ‘Undulations’, gouache and pigment ink on Arches paper, 2022, 60 x 112 cm
This catalogue was produced for the exhibition ‘Undulations’ at the Birch Tree Gallery, Edinburgh, March 24 - April 22, 2023
COPYRIGHT © 2023 · BIRCH TREE GALLERY
I live in a place of water. My home lies beside a wide freshwater loch, Orkney’s main reservoir. The burn that flows out of it skirts the edge of the garden. The sea that encircles this island is just visible, over the rise of the fields. This water has seeped into me, into my bones, my blood, my dreams and drawings. Every day I watch this water. And then I try to draw it.
Drawing water is a paradox. Water’s essence is movement. And yet drawing takes the hand’s gesture and holds it still, recorded in the mark that remains. The slow, repetitive method I employ makes each drawing a receptacle of time, a net that gathers up all these moments so they are visible in a single instant that shows the timespan of the drawing’s own making. Not to stop the flow, but to introduce a meander, an eddy. Then you can get beneath the undulating surface glitter and see there is depth there too.
Drawing is a way to come to a place of stillness in which I can pay more careful attention to the natural world, to the fleeting moment and how rich and complex our experience of it is. It is a tool for attuning the mind, for bringing it into the present with a kind of calm focus, and then sharing that experience with the viewer.
Samantha Clark
My ceramics have developed over the years from an intense desire to throw on the wheel, to expressing the colours and textures of the Isle of Harris to decorate the surface of my work. My connection to Harris runs deep. I spent my childhood summers at my grandparents’ house, travelling north from the south of England to the island. The wild, rugged beauty of the island as well as the warm, unique culture contrasted with life in the flat arable landscape of East Anglia and still fills me with the same sense of freedom, like I can breathe.
The surfaces created in this new work are exploring lines and contrasts: the hills, the waves, the sky, the lazybeds, rivulets in the sand, tidelines. Natural lines arenever identical; always changing with the weather, tides and light. The carved lines with smooth turquoise glaze contrast with the rough, rocky, lichen glazing giving impressions of land and sea. These pieces are thrown on the wheel, and some forms are altered at this stage. When vessels are ‘leatherhard’ the lines are carved and fettled. I inlay the lines with a grey glaze, and wipe back to leave only in the indentation and dip the vessel in the turquoise glaze. The stony, lichen effect glaze consists of of 6 layers sponged on to give the unique, individual finish of rough rocky land and resembling lichen.
Belinda GlennonWheel thrown stoneware vessel, glased with grey (lines), turquoise glaze with six layers of sponged glaze; (#23) 13h x 10 cm, (#21) 10h x 9 cm, and (#19) 23h x 16 cm
Wheel thrown stoneware vessel, glased with grey (lines), turquoise glaze with six layers of sponged glaze; (#18) 24h x 14 cm, and (#8) 10h x 9 cm
‘Incoming
Squall’, 2023 arcylic on cradled board, 46 x 46 cm
‘Rippling’, 2023
gouache and acrylic on Arches paper, 26 x 40 cm
‘Fathom’ , 2023
gouache and acrylic on Arches paper, 27 x 40 cm
Wheel thrown stoneware vessel, glased with grey (lines), turquoise glaze with six layers of sponged glaze; (#11) 11h x 9 cm, and (#4) 15h x 12 cm
Wheel thrown stoneware vessel, glased with grey (lines), turquoise glaze with six layers of sponged glaze; (#2) 16h x 14 cm and (#24) 10h x 9 cm
‘From Marwick Head’, 2023
gouache, arcylic and aluminium leaf on cradled board, 46 x 46 cm
‘From Northside’, 2023 acrylic, gouache and chrome ink on cradled board, size: 46 x 46 cm
‘From Skaill’, 2023
acrylic, gouache, chrome ink & aluminium
leaf on cradled board, 46 x 46 cm
‘Shimmering’, 2023
gouache and acrylic on Arches paper, 27 x 40 cm
‘Slow Waves’, 2023
gouache and acrylic on Arches paper, 27 x 40 cm
‘Birsay
‘Night Sky from Northside’, 2023
gouache and acrylic on Arches paper, 25 x 40 cm
Shore’, 2023
gouache, acrylic and silver ink on Arches paper, 24.5 x 40 cm
acrylic and gouache on cradled board, 41 x 51 cm
‘Cold Strand’, 2023
‘Winter Sea Rhythm’, 2023
acrylic and gouache on cradled board, 41 x 51 cm
‘Towards’, 2022 (left)
acrylic, gouache and aluminium leaf on cradled board, 46 x 46 cm
‘Grey Morning’, 2022 (right)
acrylic, gouache and alumimium leaf on cradled board, 46 x 46 cm
‘Angle of Vision’, 2022
acrylic, gouache and aluminium leaf on cradled board, 41 x 51 cm
(opposite page) ‘Green Wave’ gesso, gouache and pigment ink on paper, 2020, 58 x 93 cm
Wheel thrown stoneware vessel, glased with grey (lines), turquoise glaze with six layers of sponged glaze; (#3) 17h x 12 cm, and (#10) 10h x 8 cm
Wheel thrown stoneware vessel, glased with grey (lines), turquoise glaze with six layers of sponged glaze; (#1) 16h x 15 cm, and (#14) 12h x 8 cm
‘Westerly’, 2022
gouache and pigment ink on Arches paper, 76 x 57 cm
