Bas Relief Tiles
My tile pieces are a very important part of my work. Before I got hands in the clay, I studied painting and printmaking and was on my way to becoming a full time printmaker. Well there just wasn’t enough of me to spread between two media, so I pursued pottery. After a few years, however, I really began to miss my landscapes. My love of landscapes was what drew me into art in the first place. I decided that I had to find a way to incorporate my landscapes into my clay work and the bas relief tiles were the result.
Below is a gallery of some recent tiles.
I sculpt the tiles out of pure white porcelain and then color them with slips (colored liquid clays). The tiles are then fired in the kiln alongside the pots, they just don’t have a glaze applied so they retain the natural surface of the clay.
My tiles are usually not of any particular location, but rather my impression of various areas here in the Smoky Mountains.
The tile below is of a barn that used to stand across the cove from our house. It was in a working orchard and was only visible to us in the winter when the leaves were off the trees. Alas, now the orchard is planted in houses and the barn is no more. This is my reminder of an earlier time.
Handbuilt, bas relief landscape tile with barn.