A continuing series of hand-painted interpretations on fired porcelain of found photographs. A note on process and technique below.

The process is long involving preparation of flat plates from fresh porcelain. Once dry, they are fired in a kiln at approx. 900ºc. I then handpaint directly onto the ‘biscuit’ porcelain using a mixture of powdered oxide and several other ingredients, including powdered porcelain and glue. Once I’m satisfied with the painting, I create a white frame/border and fire it a second and final time at approx. 1280ºc.

What fascinates me is how during the firing process, chance and fire take control – the work is no longer under my grasp once the kiln lid closes. As with developping photographs, a process takes the author’s work somewhere else, not necessarily a dramatic turn but somewhere possibly not foreseen. As an artist, I value this lack of control and I look forward (just as I used to when waiting for developping photos) to seeing what the intense heat and this ancient, fragile, noble and tough material have done with my work.