Move 'Heaven and Earth' to visit sculpture and pottery art show in Thurso gallery
The current show at the Thurso Gallery, Heaven and Earth, features a mix of sculpture and pottery by a well-established Caithness artist.
Jenny Mackenzie Ross runs a studio at Northshore Pottery in Forse (Latheron) and has been working with clay for the last 40 years.
"I graduated in Fine Art Sculpture in 1985 and subsequently worked in studio potteries on the Isle of Skye and Caithness before setting up my own studio in Latheron in 1993," she said.
Her studio is in a repurposed oatmeal mill, saved from dereliction, where she makes a mixture of sculpture and studio pottery. The activities counterpoint each other and yet they are "bound together by common materials and by the firing process". It therefore seemed appropriate for Jenny to exhibit both sculpture and pots in one room.
"My sculpture is concerned with process. They are about the relationship between geology and organic forms. I see the ceramic process as being parallel to geology, and as such I want them to express the process by which they are made.
"I have developed techniques which incorporate plants and minerals which I have gathered from the landscape. I often slice through the clay once it has been biscuit fired to reveal the structures created by the burnt-out plant material. They are about the interface between geology and the organic layer of the soils through to vegetation and are about the mysteries of deep time, where traces of life remain held in sedimentary layers of rock."
By contrast Jenny also says she enjoys the tradition and the functionality of studio pottery. For her, it is about taking a form that has been made for centuries and making it your own. "My forms are all thrown on the potter’s wheel."
Both sculpture and pottery are wood-fired, and soda-glazed – a process that is of the greatest importance to the finished object as it imparts a depth and variance of colour across the surface of the piece due to the fluxing effect of the flames. To see more of Jenny's work visit Northshore Pottery's website at https://northshorepottery.co.uk/
The Heaven and Earth exhibition is at Thurso Gallery based in the library on Davidson's Lane and runs until July 17.
For the varied opening times please visit the gallery's website at www.highlifehighland.com/thurso-art-gallery/