Last night I was at the PV for two NEW exhibitions at the
Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at
Kew Gardens:
- Expressions in Blue: Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff - reviewed below;
- Botanical Blues - a selection of botanical paintings from The Shirley Sherwood Collection in Gallery 6 - which will be reviewed shortly on my Botanical Art and Artist News Blog. This showcases works from botanical artists including Susannah Blaxhill, Jinyong Feng and Ursula Romero, depicting many remarkable plant species which can be found in Kew’s Living Collections.
About the Exhibition
This is the largest solo exhibition to date of monumental ceramics in made
by Felicity Aylieff.
I gather the exhibition - which opened at the weekend has attracted large
numbers very keen to see the monumental porcelain.
It's certainly an exhibition quite unlike any other exhibition I've ever seen
of ceramics.
Felicity Aylieff with her monumental Qing Hua porcelain pots |
I'm somewhat surprised to see it at
Kew Gardens - as
opposed to the shrine of ceramic treasures which can be found in the
Ceramics Collection
on the sixth floor and other main galleries at the
Victoria and Albert Museum.
I gather the reason it's at Kew is because
- the gardens allow some of the monumental pots to be located outside - and there are two huge ones right outside the museum (which I couldn't see last night in the dark) but you can see in my friend Laurence Hill's photosgraphs of the exhibits
- some of the pots have been decorated with patterns derived from plants and specifically paintings included in the Shirley Sherwood Collection of Botanical Art
I think overall I'd have preferred to see an emphasis by Kew in its
marketing on the particular aspects of the exhibition which relate to plants
- given that this is a Gallery of BOTANICAL Art - rather than being enticed
by the huge monumental blue and white pots
(see publicity image above) - nice as they are.
In other words, given the exhibition is at Kew and not the V&A,
what's special about the ceramics in relation to plants?
Monumental 'Qing Hua' pots
decorated with cobalt blue chloride The people at the Private View give an indication of the size of the pots |
It includes:
- a selection of new, specially created blue and white works, including incredible 5-metre-tall vases painted using a vibrant range of cobalt blue oxides in a technique known as Qing Hua, a signature of Aylieff’s work.
- a selection of colourful Fencai enamelled vessels, hand painted with designs inspired by the botanical illustrations from the Shirley Sherwood Collection.
Smaller Fencai enamelled vessels - based on plants |
This new suite of Fencai enamel vessels
(typically with a white background) are hand-painted with stylized designs
depicting an array of plants found in China and across the world.
Additional works in this series draw inspiration from botanical illustrations
in the Shirley Sherwood Collection, aligning Aylieff’s passion for plants and
gardening with her spectacular ceramics, including designs inspired by tulips,
lilies, peonies and hibiscus.
Two very large Fencai pots |
The exhibition also illustrates how the posts are made using different source
materials, tools, sketch books and works in progress to tell the story of
Aylieff’s work.
Acclaimed ceramic artist
Felicity Aylieff
is renowned for her longstanding collaborations with porcelain production
workshops and artisan craftspeople in Jingdezhen, China – known as the
Porcelain Capital of the world.
Her large-scale works are all hand-thrown and hand painted. Although the painting involves rather different tools and techniques to traditional painting.
The exhibition is on until 23 March 2025.
- Entry to the Gallery is free with admission to Kew Gardens.
- A £1 Universal Credit ticket and £9 young person's ticket are both available
About the Artist
Her large-scale works are all hand-thrown and hand painted. Although the painting involves rather different tools and techniques to traditional painting.
On her website, you can
- read about / view her processes
- how big fat pots are thrown
- how they are then trimmed - to fit together to make monumental pots
- how the monumental posts are painted in blue and white - using an assortment of amazing brushes
- how she sketches and develops designs for the Fencai pots
- how she creates stencils for the designs to fit on each pot
- how she tests enamel colours and different colour combinations
- how stamped outlines are created
- how the glazes are applied and then fired
- examples of work in past exhibitions
Through observing their skills and techniques, traditional to Jingdezhen, I have learnt how to decorate in detail with fencai coloured enamels, to paint abstract marks in cobalt pigment with huge Chinese calligraphy brushes, and to understand the skill of carving into porcelain.
An accompanying book about the exhibition and Felicity Aylieff has been published by Kew Publishing.
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