Owen Rye & Susie McMeekin

METAMORPHOSIS

… an exhibition celebrating a long and supportive friendship between two Artists with a mutual beginning. Ivan McMeekin, an inspirational teacher to Owen Rye, father and teacher to Susie McMeekin, was key to their distinctive and divergent paths as their artwork developed and evolved.

September/October 2024

Skepsi Gallery

OWEN RYE

SUSIE McMEEKIN

Susie McMeekin - Notes on Glazes and Pigments

Glazes

Susie makes up her glazes from rocks she has collected around NSW. The Chun and Tea Dust Glaze are derived from a rock sourced from Mount Gibraltar between Mittagong and Bowral in the southern highlands of NSW.  The white matt glaze comes from a porcelain clay previously found at Ulan near Mudgee. The Hartley Celadon from a granite at the base of Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains and the Tingha celadon from a granite found on the outskirts of Tingha near Inverell in northern NSW. These rocks are crushed and then ground to a fine powder before being milled with clays and fluxes to create these glazes. It is a long process, some of the rocks taking 7-8 hours milling to reduce them to the particle size needed to give the right results. The Copper Red glaze is the only one that is not sourced from collected rock although the clay in the recipe is a collected clay.

Artist made Pigments

The decorative pigments were designed and made by Ivan McMeekin for the Aboriginal Pottery on Bathurst Island. They were test decorative pigments, made to be used in the decoration of pots made by the Aboriginal people working in the pottery. They were not bright enough to satisfy their artistic use at the time, but were used by Ivan in the last years of his life and are now being used by Susie. They are made from ochres collected on Bathurst Island and so are a finite product.

IN CONVERSATION WITH OWEN RYE & SUSIE McMEEKIN

Owen Rye & Susie McMeekin

METAMORPHOSIS

September/October 2024

Skepsi Gallery