Soda & Ice was shown at Kerrie Lowe Gallery in Newton, Sydney between the 7th and 25th May 2010. Soda-firer Maryke Henderson was the 'Soda' part of the exhibition while my Cool Ice porcelain works provided the 'Ice' component.

Still life paintings typically feature commonplace objects of varying size, shape and texture. They might be vessels, vases, flowers, food or other natural objects, even books. Still life artists have great scope in the way that they can arrange the elements of their compositions. For Soda & Ice I decided to take inspiration from still life paintings and explore groupings of different ceramic forms.

click on images for a larger view		more images...

With a few exceptions, ceramic groupings that I’d previously exhibited had consisted of pieces with the same shape and finish. In borrowing from the still life concept I wanted to explore how my different forms could work together to create a whole. As interesting as this was, it was still  important to me that each component within a group be strong enough to work as an individual piece and not depend for its existence on its juxtaposition with other components of the group.

When all's said and done, the exhibits displayed were the kind of functional ceramic wares that I enjoy making – simple forms with a simple colour palette.