|
No.25
- Porcelain jar with granite clay, black slip, celadon and salt-glaze.
Height: 30.0cm (11.8”)
Price: SOLD
No.34 – Lidded salt-glazed stoneware jar.
Height: 26.7cm (10.5”)
Price: £160
|
No.26
- Stoneware squared bottle with crackle slip, wood-fired and salt-glazed.
Height: 20.0cm (7.9”)
Price: £170
No.31 – Porcelain facetted oval bottle.
Height: 15.25cm (6.0”)
Price: £100
|
|
Marcus O’Mahony when introducing himself
as a studio potter states that, “ he is fascinated by the interaction of salt
and wood-fire with the clay” but like Rachel he too tends to make largely
wheel thrown work, albeit largely functional. Despite his name and the fact
that he studied at Limerick College of Art, taught ceramics and art in Dublin
and since 1993 has run his own pottery in County Waterford, Marcus is a
Londoner by birth. It was in Limerick in the early 1970s that Marcus first
began his love affair with clay and states that he wanted to become a studio
potter from the outset. He wanted to make pots in a creative way and not be
bound by the demands of production pottery. I guess the twelve years teaching
helped in that it allowed him to be able to finance setting up his pottery alongside
the European Development funds that he was able to obtain. Marcus cites Phil
and Lynn Rogers as being very encouraging about his plans to become a full
time potter back then. He attended several of Phil’s workshops and was
encouraged to take the leap by “his teaching and the inspiration of his more
classically inclined forms”. In contrast, he was also mesmerised by seeing
the Japanese potter, Ryoji Koie, “perform” his throwing at an Aberystwyth
International Ceramics Festival stating, “Ryoji’s juggling bravura and
irreverent approach and playfulness excited me.”
Marcus will be including a few items of
porcelain in the exhibition but the bulk of it will be reduced stoneware.
These are decorated by drawing, combing, stamping and faceting into the wet
clay but he dislikes over-decoration, with any work that is contrived or
heavy handed dumped. His palette of colour is derived from his use of tan,
chestnut and orange slips combined during firing in his three-chambered
wood-fired kiln with glazes such as shino and celadon and the salt that he
adds.
|
