Through The Porthole - 'A Coastal Journey in Ceramic'
‘Through The Porthole' is a series of ceramic snapshots depicting a journey along the picturesque Capricorn Coast.
I was involved as both project coordinator and artist, working in collaboration with Kim Warcon, Clare Botfield and local high school art students to create the art trail in Yeppoon's CBD as part of the Animating Spaces project in 2014.
The ceramic artworks and their design compositions were inspired by the pristine beauty of Keppel Bay and surrounds. The artworks portray the view, the flora and fauna in the area and the evocative memories of a journey along the coastline by boat.
The exhibition has been gifted to the local council for installation as a permanent art trail on the Capricorn Coast. However, for a limited time reproductions of all of these artworks can be ordered using the form below.
I was involved as both project coordinator and artist, working in collaboration with Kim Warcon, Clare Botfield and local high school art students to create the art trail in Yeppoon's CBD as part of the Animating Spaces project in 2014.
The ceramic artworks and their design compositions were inspired by the pristine beauty of Keppel Bay and surrounds. The artworks portray the view, the flora and fauna in the area and the evocative memories of a journey along the coastline by boat.
The exhibition has been gifted to the local council for installation as a permanent art trail on the Capricorn Coast. However, for a limited time reproductions of all of these artworks can be ordered using the form below.
Concept Development and ProcessMy dream for this project was to capture the unique beauty of the area through my eyes and through creative viewpoint of other members of the community. So the first step was for the artists involved to delve into their photo albums and venture out around the region to experience and get photos of their favourite places. Local photographers were also asked to submit their best images of the coast for the project. This resulted in an huge collection of incredible imagery of a much loved and photographed coastline. Kim and I were now faced with a great challenge - to translate the profound beauty and diversity of the Keppel Bay coastline into some kind of ceramic narrative...
The enormous collection of photographs were handed to Clare along with the challenge of how to turn them into an achievable number of ceramic artworks. Clare envisaged a journey along the coast by boat - the best way to see the area in my mind - and so she designed the porthole-style frames as a way of capturing snapshots of the area and keeping with the coastal theme. Clare went about carefully selecting imagery from the collection, putting together the circular compositions and manipulating them in ways to create designs that the ceramic artists and students could work from to produce their works in clay... Kim and I went to work in our studios interpreting the designs into ceramic works. We produced multiples of each design, trialing techniques and styles until we achieved pieces we felt truly captured the essence of the Capricorn Coast. We also took our designs, skills and techniques to a select group of art students who also produced their versions of the coastal snapshots during one day intensive workshops. The finished pieces were framed in mirror finish, marine grade stainless steel - just as the images captured in them would be framed as a glimpse through a porthole on a passing boat. This is the view Through The Porthole... |
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The original image of a breaching humpback whale at Barren Island in Keppel Bay. This image was taken by my sister Cedar Bishopric.
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The Whale image after editing by Clare into a composition more suitable for transferring onto clay.
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The final work framed for 'Through The Porthole' exhibition as part of Animating Spaces Yeppoon in July 2014.
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