Horsing Around at Gallery West

This Friday the exhibition I am participating in, “ Equine Art: A Family Portrait” opens at Gallery West in Columbia, SC.  I had put some revised drawings in to this exhibition then worked on a series of small sculptures of horses and two large sculptures.  One of the large sculptures broke and a small figurine broke as well but the rest made it through the burnishing, glazing, firing and pit firing nicely.  I patterned the larger horse after models in ceramic of Chinese horse statues from the Han dynasty.  The oversize saddles, sturdy haunches and thick arching necks were very attractive to me.  The one I have pictured here was prepared with a terra sigillata glaze and then smoke fired.
The smaller horses were either simply burnished raw clay and earth colored or white terra sigillata.  The terra sigillata has been aging for four to five years now so it went on just like melted butter.  The raw clay comes from a tributary of the Edisto river.  The caramel color of the clay was attractive enough to preserve by simply burnishing the clay surface without adding any extras.  Nevertheless my favorite horse in this collection is the one in the grazing position that I put a white terra sigillata glaze on.  The coloring of the smoke created a pattern that was very much like the coloring on an American Painted Horse.  Quite satisfying to obtain results here that I was intending.
The exhibition opens this Friday Evening at Gallery West.   http://www.columbiacvb.com/listings/Gallery-West/18493/ I’ll be in good company with the works of some accomplished painters and sculptors.