With Clay

Big is beautiful for Alice Springs potter Ron Artman. For just a little over a year, Ron has been transforming clay into convex sided vessels averaging well over 40 cm in height and breadth. All of his pots are hand built from rough-textured raku clay, then heavily incised using lineal strokes which follow the form of the vessel. The ultimate impact of this combined scale and artistry is one of strength, power and, above all, beauty.

Ancient Spanish Tinajeros, large earthenware storage tars, have long fascinated Ron and he sees his own work resembling these vessels. He stresses however, that while the Spanish pots were purely functional, his works are purely sculptural pieces, and very contemporary. Potters like Jeff Mincham and Paul Soldner have greatly influenced Ron. He likes the powerful colours, shapes and textures that Mincham uses and the 'free form' in Soldner's work. These qualities are certainly reflected in Ron's own pieces.

One of the artist's first protects was the construction of a coil pot standing over 2.5 m high and weighing an estimated 250 kg. Ron's aim was to "make something a bit larger than everything else", so once he started building he "just let the pot grow of its own accord" until I told him to stop! A few problems arose during construction but were quickly overcome with the aid of a forklift and a lot of people. After building a kiln around it, the pot was successfully fired. The finished piece now stands in the sculpture garden at the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs.

Another reason why Ron aspired to the creation of larger pieces was that he found his glazes could be displayed to their utmost beauty on large pots rather than small pots. He doesn't think he'll build a pot as large as "That Big Pot" for quite a while, because of the time and money involved and the many technical problems encountered. However, Ron continues to enjoy freedom of expression and freedom of movement in creating bigger vessels.

So far 1990 has been a good year for Ron, displaying his work in various national exhibitions. His raku pottery featured in a joint exhibition with Julie Burdis, held at "The Residency" in Alice Springs from 22 April. Julie worked in pastels, so Ron thought the two mediums complemented and communicated with each other very well. He will also participate in another joint exhibition at the end of the year.

Ron seeks to create work that people can enjoy and identify with, "I see myself refining what I've done. In the beginning I was trying to do so many different things to find out what I liked, but now I've reached a stage where I'm starting to see 'me' emerge in my pots." Ron hopes to turn more towards sculptural pieces in the future. His enthusiasm and single minded perseverance have led him to produce a unique style of pot-making; his increasing confidence will draw him closer to achieving his goals as welt as giving pleasure to the viewing public.