From Oak Creek to the Accotink
An exhibit of plein air landscapes by Clive Pates & ceramics by Virginia Rood Pates
Exhibit dates: October 2 – November 29, 2014
Opening reception: Thursday, October 2 from 5-7pm
Clive’s paintings are a plein air record of the couple’s recent travels from Arizona to Virginia, while Virginia’s ceramics are constructed of the materials that created these same landscapes.
Clive Pates describes himself as a gesturalist: representing his subject with brush and knife work, sculpturally describing the space created between the artist, the landscape and the picture surface. Adamantly unsentimental about the subjects for his paintings, he prefers to be described as an “abstract painter with an ongoing fling for realism.” His work has been awarded numerous commendations, including a British Fulbright Scholarship, three Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grants and two Andy Warhol Foundation Grants. He has taught at the Queens Road School of Art in Bristol, England, the Verrocchio Arts Centre in Casole d’Elsa, Tuscany, and the Sedona, Arizona, campus of Yavapai College.
Virginia Pates digs, invents and uses an ever-changing palette of clays to create her loose, thin and gesturally thrown forms, with an unusual range of glaze colors and surfaces. Her ceramic work is based on the relationship between material and process. The process of wheel-throwing, the creation of a pure cylinder, is a repeatable process which allows her to experiment with variations of material. Throwing with loose, gestural moves, she stretches and pushes the pots to the limits of stability. Inclusions of natural clay, sand, hair, glass or rock generate forms when displacing the clay, creating unexpected shifts of balance and texture. Cutting the pots from the wheel, often with twisted wires or springs, and dropping them onto open frames, the clay is free to move as it begins the drying process, allowing the materials within the clay body to shift and coagulate, refining the shape and center of gravity. The organic inclusions are vaporized in the kiln, leaving only fossil-like vacancies. However, the inorganic minerals mirror the cyclical nature of ceramics. Stone decays into clay, is formed and then fired, the magma-like temperatures of the kiln simulating the conditions of geologic transformation and vitrifying the material back into stone. With a BFA from Mississippi State University and an MFA from the Centre for Ceramic Studies at the University of Wales in Cardiff, UK, she has taught at the Queens Road School of Art in Bristol, England, at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (through Hurricane Katrina), at the Verde Valley Campus of Yavapai College in Arizona, and currently at the Annandale Campus of Northern Virginia Community College.
Cover work: (left to right) Crook Branch, Accotink Creek, Virginia, oil on linen by Clive Pates, White stoneware with dirt from Oak Creek Canyon and Mingus Mountain by Virginia Rood Pates, Crescent Moon Park, Sedona, Arizona, oil on linen by Clive Pates, White Stoneware with a band of Northern Virginia micaceous red clay by Virginia Rood Pates.
Digging and Creating with Orange Dirt
To accompany the gallery exhibit, ceramic artist Virginia Pates will offer a 2-day workshop in collecting and working with Orange County’s native Davidson Clay.
Dates: November 22 -23, 2014
Time: 1-4pm
Fee: $75
Anyone who has landscaped or laundered in Orange, Virginia knows that there is an abundance of clay our soil. If you have ever wondered about making art out of local clay, this workshop will give you the opportunity for a guided exploration to collect ceramic materials in the countryside around Orange, with discussions of the landscape’s geologic and artistic history, and studio lessons in techniques for creating and firing your work. For adult students of all levels (will consider younger students with accompanying adult) are welcome in this small group course.