Madrugada A solo exhibition
Paul Jackson 16 - 24 SEPTEMBER 2017
MADRUGADA: NEW POTTERY COLLECTIONS WITH LIFE DRAWINGS Sarah O’Kane in conversation with Paul Jackson Why have you chosen Madrugada as the title of your solo exhibition? I chose a word I knew from a visit to Portugal, partly because it’s intriguing and partly because it means “dawn”. I wanted the meaning to come with my new making style where colours are layered and there are incidental tones and impressionistic brushwork. Can you summarize what we can expect to see in the show? The show will feature these Madrugada pieces largely and how it has spilled over into my Wood Fired collection. The wood-fired pots are a part of the geology and landscape of Cornwall, the clay being found locally as is the fuel. They have a very different feeling and I wanted to treat them accordingly. Although the results are so different, the techniques are not so. The base colour from slip is universal. Geometric patterns can be achieved in both styles. The exhibition will show my life drawings too, mostly on clay. There will be a few drawings on paper. You were studying law. What happened to make you switch to throwing pots? The chance to try pottery existed at the same college where I studied law; the tutor was the nationally famous Joanna Constantinidis. We became firm friends and she became my mentor.
This gave me the chance to keep in touch with my first love: creativity. Only as the days became eighteen months did the thought to do pottery full-time become a possibility. An application to Harrow Art School may not have been successful otherwise. How do you think your work has developed over time? Good question. Some edges of finesse. Recently the Madrugada series has allowed even freer painting. There are always new aspects to pottery to be investigated and tried. Migrating slowly from the birds and flowers (quasi art nouveau) of my first twenty years, abstraction and altered form pots have always sat in parallel. I need the binary forces interacting to balance art and craft. Pot and paint, large and small, subtle versus not. To see the work completed develops the thoughts for further work. This is your first solo exhibition. What do you think it will convey? I hope the show will show the energy and diversity of an enquiring mind. One that resists restraints of style, that still is exploring 2-d and 3-d, and a combination thereof.
NUDES ROCKING VASE
LANDSCAPE VASE
MADRUGADA BOTTLES
EXTRA LARGE MONOCHROME PLATE (top) BRIGHT MADRUGADA BOTTLE (detail)
MADRUGADA ROCKING JUG
FRAMED LIFE DRAWING PLAQUE 2 (above) EXTRA LARGE SALT GLAZE MADRUGADA BOTTLE
MADRUGADA PLATE (above) CRETAN JUG
HARBOUR VASE
PAUL JACKSON TRAINING Joanna Constantinidis, Chelmsford Technical College and School of Art Harrow School of Art SELECTED EXHIBITIONS Art in Action 2007-2016 Art in Clay, Wykeham Gallery, selected 2005-2017 Chelsea Arts Fair Affordable Art Fair PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP The Penwith Society - Associate Craft Potters Association - Fellow Cornwall Crafts Association - Chairman PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Truro Museum HRH Duke and Duchess of Cornwall Sigourney Weaver
LIFE DRAWING JUG
FRAMED LIFE DRAWING PLAQUE (detail) Front cover : EXTRA LARGE MADRUGADA JUG
ST ANNE’S GALLERIES REPRESENTING SUSSEX ARTISTS
111 HIGH STREET, LEWES, EAST SUSSEX BN7 1XY Mobile. 07777 691 050 sok@stannesgalleries.com www.stannesgalleries.com