My new blog

I have started a new blog at hot out of the kiln. I will be posting images of my ceramic art work as it comes out of the kiln.

I will maintain this blog for general news and observations about art, tiles and ceramics.

Starry, starry night on black

Starry, starry night on black
6" hand-painted ceramic tile, in 8" black wood frame

Click on image for larger view
(Photo and design copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Many Moons Ago - spacey ceramic tiles

Been feeling kinda spacey lately so planets, galaxies, moons and stars keep cropping up in my artwork. More to come, I hope.

Many Moons Ago tryptich
 Three 6-inch tiles - 20"x8" in alderwood frame

Click on image for larger view

(design and photo copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Moving through mutations of the Galactic Landscape

I was in a "sixties" kind of mood when I laid this design out on paper (well, actually in Adobe Illustrator).

Original Adobe Illustrator sketch

 

Galactic Landscape after firing with first layers of glaze

But I wasn't happy with the way it looked after the first firing... it was too blah.



Galactic Landscape after firing with third and fourth layers of glaze
(Three 6x6-inch tiles - 8 inches x 20 inches framed)

So I covered it with a reddish glaze, let it dry and then applied the top layer of Black Cobblestone. Now I am thinking I should have reversed that order.

But I'm not unhappy with it and don't want to mess with it again. I am done and on to other ideas.

(designs and photos copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Change of heart for ceramic tiles

I painted a set of four ceramic tiles but when they came out of the kiln I wasn't very happy with the outcome.

Once again, jumping into the unknown, I decided to take a chance on destroying hours of work to create something more satisfactory.

I covered the fired tiles with two coats of Mayco Royal Fantasy Jungle Gems glaze and hoped for the best.

So, was the experiment successful?

As I have noted before, it is just about impossible to show ceramic glazes on a computer monitor. The glazing on the tile is a lot more complex than can be shown this way.

But without me reaching through your computer screen, scaring the daylights out of you, and handing you the physical tile, this will have to suffice.

Below is the result.  

I am pretty happy with them. I call the series Ghost Hearts 1-4. The tiles have an eerie, ethereal quality. The more I look at them, the more I like them.

4.25 inch ceramic tiles, 6.25 inches framed.
(Designs and photos copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Hearts of Stone

Heart of Stone One
4.25" ceramic tile, 6.25" rosewood frame

I was painting these tiles while watching Dickens of London, a 13-part 1976 Masterpiece Theatre mini-series about the life of the author (played by Gene Foad as a young man, morphing into Roy Dotrice as he aged). Not only does it provide details about Charles Dickens that I didn't know before, but it is also an interesting reflection of life in the Victorian age. (Dickens was apparently obsessed with the young queen.)  

I was so absorbed in the drama that I did not pay enough attention to my painting. Halfway through the tiles I realized I had painted each one with the same colors in the same order, so after firing they would all look alike.

Heart of Stone Two
4.25" ceramic tile, 6".25 rosewood frame

Usually, before I start painting, I label each color on the tile like a paint-by-numbers canvas so I don't get confused. Many of the glazes look alike before they are fired, and of course, none of them look the same pre-firing.

Especially as some of the glazes move around in the kiln and some are stable, I need to be careful which glazes I put next to each other to get the effect I want.

Heart of Stone Three
4.25" ceramic tile, 6".25 rosewood frame

When I realized what I had done (oh horror!) I had to figure out a way to give each one a different look. Even though I had spent a considerable amount of time up to this point, I decided, what the heck, I will experiment by painting a layer of different colored glaze over the glazes already painted on each tile. They will either turn into a muddy mess or something interesting will happen.

Heart of Stone Four
4.25" ceramic tile, 6.25" rosewood frame

I finished laying down the first two coats of glaze, waited until they were somewhat dry and then covered the tiles with the extra layer of glaze.

So although each tile started out looking pretty much the same as the next one, they each took on a different personality after firing.

(Photos and designs copyright roslyn m wilkins)  

Channeling Kandinsky

I think it was my friend and fellow artist Susanne Heimbuch who commented on one of my previous pieces of ceramic artwork that I was under the influence of Wassily Kandinsky.

I happened to come across the above image of one of Kandinsky's paintings. WOW!

A circle within a square isn't exactly a new concept and I am sure other artists have and will continue to develop that theme.

Nevertheless, I like to think Kandinsky was looking down (or sidewise, as the case may be) and nodding in approval as I was painting my ceramic tiles entitled Eclipses of the Moons.

Maybe he actually likes the direction I am taking and is giving me a nudge!

Okay, I am getting a little carried away with myself. But on the other hand, I can't think of another artist I would rather be channeling!

Twinkle twinkle, black star, white star



Black Star One - 4/14" ceramic tile - 6-1/4" framed

Black Star Two - 4/14" ceramic tile - 6-1/4" framed

I am not sure if I am finished with this idea yet.

I painted two tiles entitled Black Star and two entitled White Star.

As I was painting them I thought they would go together as a four-tile set. But I think they are too different.

White Star One - 4/14" ceramic tile - 6-1/4" framed

White Star Two - 4/14" ceramic tile - 6-1/4" framed

The pencil drawings (which is how I start out on any of my tile paintings) were intended as one piece of artwork. And when I laid down the first two layers of glaze that was still my intention.

But the black overglaze on two and the white overglaze on the other two completely changed the story.

I am deciding if I should paint two more black and two more white tiles or leave these as two and two and create another "star" series from scratch.

In any case, I think before I paint anymore tiles I need to update my website.

(Designs and photos copyright roslyn m wilkins)

I'll take inspiration wherever I can find it

Eclipses of the Moons, 2012

Four 4-1/4" ceramic tiles. 10-1/2" framed.

For the past ten years I have woken up with these little jewelry chests staring back at me from the dresser across the room.

Do you think they might have been my inspiration for these tiles I took out of the kiln this morning?

(Photos and designs copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Painting one tile a day for 365 days

I was just rambling around the internet and came across this You Tube video. This Florida artist painted a tile a day for one year.

What is so cool is the amazing variety of the artwork. The blog for this is at

 

http://365tileaday.wordpress.com/

but I have not been able to discover the artist's name!

Maybe I didn't look closely enough.