MARTIN McWILLIAM
What Martin is looking for in his work with clay and fire lies in their own essential beauty and the play between them – a beauty subjective , difficult to define, control or repeat – something to do with chance coincidence. His methods are as simple / direct as possible where chance has space to surprise. This leads him along a narrow ridge between his will and that of the material.
Amongst a wide range of work he makes coil/slab-built stoneware “trompe-l’œil” objects, coloured with kaolin slips all wood-fired in a 6 ku/m chamber kiln. They give the idea of simple bowls and jars, of a tradition that has given me a lifelong fascination, but take them into another space of the mind. His work is also influenced by archaeology and the relics of the past as seen in this work.
Martin is a long established ceramic artist who has lived and worked in Germany for many years.
