{"id":245643,"date":"2025-05-18T08:24:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T08:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/art\/neil-macdonell-finding-a-stark-beauty-in-decaying-industrial-landscapes\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T08:24:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T08:24:56","slug":"neil-macdonell-finding-a-stark-beauty-in-decaying-industrial-landscapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=245643","title":{"rendered":"Neil MacDonell | Finding a stark beauty in decaying industrial landscapes…"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Neil MacDonell<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

“I remember becoming aware of the creative effects of fire when a neighbours wooden garage containing an ancient ash framed van caught fire. When extinguished there stood a fascinating labyrinth of standing charcoal. When I first started working with clay at college it was the transformation of materials during firing that held me in thrall – it still does.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Neil MacDonell writes about how the transformation of materials continues to enthral him; a process that is at the heart of working with clay as materials alters from one state to the next… raw materials to working clay, wet to dry, dry to fired… It can be argued that this transformation continues even when works are fully fired, as they move and respond to environmental changes.<\/p>\n

Transformation is also found within his subject matter, seen in the decaying industrial landscapes. In this weeks post, Neil talks about the themes within his ceramic practise and his journey with clay.<\/p>\n

Neil MacDonell<\/b><\/p>\n

Finding a stark beauty in decaying industrial landscapes I am drawn to\u00a0places of solitude and desolation. As nature reclaims these places I imagine the\u00a0past lives and passions crystallised as crumbling wood and rusting steel.<\/p>\n

The textures that appear in my work are derived from the fragments of\u00a0detritus that I have found in such places and the forms are vehicles for these
patterns.<\/p>\n

Over the 45 years or so that I have been working with clay I have built up a\u00a0collection of hundreds of \u2018bits\u2019, mostly made of wood, steel or plastic but\u00a0now existing in the form of flat clay moulds. Many are little larger than\u00a0postcards but there are also plaster moulds of larger objects such as the\u00a0surface of a car radiator and decomposing cardboard box. A particular\u00a0favourite is a piece of architectural moulding made of zinc picked out of a\u00a0dumpster on Broadway, NY. There is also a can with a battered surface devastated by time spent rolling with the tide along the shingle of the south coast.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\nMuch of my work is wall hanging, assembled using small slabs of clay\u00a0patterned by pressing onto a selection of my moulds. Work in the round is\u00a0built in a similar way using the patterned face as a base and building\u00a0upwards and outwards with more small slabs. The small flask, tube and\u00a0other industrial forms that appear in some pieces are also hand-built but\u00a0sometimes modelled to appear mass-produced. The making process can be\u00a0rather slow but each piece is unique and my production obviously limited in\u00a0quantity.<\/p>\n

Some recent work features underglaze colours, reflecting the tones of\u00a0residual paint found on some of the source material. Most pieces, however, are washed with suspensions of copper, iron or cobalt oxide before dipping\u00a0in a dry ivory glaze and firing to 1280\u2019.<\/p>\n

Following a successful degree show, I had profit enough to buy my first kiln\u00a0and continued making. Full-time secondary school teaching remained a
vocation. As my career progressed promotion served to increase my\u00a0workload but I continued to produce and exhibit my own ceramics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

\nIn 1990 I took leave of absence and drove 10,00 miles around USA visiting\u00a0artists, galleries and teaching centres. Following my return to school, I was\u00a0awarded a British Council Fellowship to teach in America but decided that I\u00a0would rather return there as a professional maker. Thus in 1992, after 22\u00a0years of teaching, 17 of them specialising in ceramics, I left the profession and\u00a0sold my house and moved from Lincoln to Bath to join Sally. Home became\u00a0the garden basement of a shared house with a studio next door. Being able\u00a0to focus full time on my own work was a great joy and more than\u00a0compensated for the reduced financial security. Working contacts enabled\u00a0us to travel to America and Australia and it was an invitation to show at a
market in France that introduced us to European ceramics and artists. We\u00a0had also discovered \u2018Potfest\u2019; the northern ceramics market founded and run\u00a0by visionary potters Geoff and Chris Cox. Meeting Dutch potters at this\u00a0event led to invitations to attend markets in the Netherlands and Germany.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

\nWe are now happy to be part of a group of travelling European makers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neil MacDonell “I remember becoming aware of the creative effects of fire when a neighbours wooden garage containing an ancient ash framed van caught fire. When extinguished there stood a fascinating labyrinth of standing charcoal. 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