Pottery/Art

Functional

Gaia

Raku

Garden

Paintings

Exhibit

I was so pleased to be the solo featured artist for the month of May 2014 at Artists on Elgin .
It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase  the full scope of my creative work , functional pottery alongside more artistic raku pieces , and my painting style , acrylic on canvas and mixed media on paper .
The show was truly a success , and I hope to have many more in the future .

Purchasing information available at:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PaulaWalshPottery

 I have been potting for over 15 years.  I love working with clay, on the wheel, hand building, sculptural work; it’s so versatile. It can be functional or purely decorative, though my aim in making functional pieces is to make each a work of art. 

  I decided a while ago that production pottery was not for me. I would rather make 100 different mugs than one mug 100 times. 

  Clay is the material I use to express my creative ideas. I love experimenting with form and texture in clay, using a variety of glazes as well as slips and underglazes for surface decoration.  

  As you can tell, my work is always evolving and changing, which keeps it interesting and fresh both for me and the customer.

Functional:

   I use a lovely blue matte glaze with green accents. My second most popular glaze is a shiny red/ brown, with lovely tones where it breaks on edges. I also use a white matte for drawing and painting images on the pieces, eg: Fish platters, leaves, and floral designs. All glazes are food and dishwasher safe.

 The glazes for the Gaia pots are slip/ash based with a very dry  earthy feel, I wanted them to feel as though they just sprouted from the ground.

   My garden art is motivated by my intense love of gardening. The birdhouses are new this year! They are finished with an oxide stain rather than a glaze, and blend nicely in a natural setting. The birdfeeders have the same finish as the houses.  The clay bells are very musical, each one having a different, unique tone, a beautiful addition to a serene garden.

  My Goddesses look at home in a flower bed or in an entrance way. They stand 18-20”tall and each one is unique.

I'm always trying new techniques whether it's in altering form , new glazes or firing techniques .
I love keeping my work fresh and new , allowing me to develop and evolve as an artist.

Paintings:

I recently began painting, another outlet for creative expression. It’s a very empowering, freeing experience to take a blank canvas and create something that communicates beyond words. To paraphrase Georgia O’Keefe, “Art is for all the emotions we have no words to describe.”

   My approach to painting is mostly intuitive, applying layers of   acrylic paints, blending colors, picking out imagery as it emerges through the process, allowing the painting to evolve.

More pictures coming soon.