Australian Pottery at Bemboka will be open as usual over the 2018 Easter weekend – Friday 30 March to Monday 2 April. We have some lovely pieces on display this season in the main gallery and in the downstairs foyer. New acquisitions include this very large stoneware bowl by Col Levy as well as a number of new pieces by Peter Rushforth and Shigeo Shiga.
This year we will be closed on Monday 25 December but will resume our normal Friday to Monday hours for the rest of the holiday season. We are also happy to open the gallery outside these hours by appointment. For those visiting us this season we have a number of new acquisitions including this 39 cm high piece by Peter Travis:
Our new season opens this weekend, Friday 29 September. The exhibition features Australian studio pottery masters, including but not limited to Jane Barrow, Garry Bish, Les Blakebrough, Pippin Drysdale, John Gilbert, Andrew Halford, Peter Harris, Col Levy, Jenny Orchard, Peter Rushforth, Chris Sanders, Ted Secombe, Shigeo Shiga, Hiroe Swen and Amanda Warner. For the first time, we have no mystery potters in the main gallery but we still have a wide range of pots in the workroom – some by known artists and others still mysteries – for those who like to venture there. We will be open on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday during the season and by appointment at other times.
Wonderful news that Castlemaine Art museum is to stay open. It had been scheduled to close on 11 August but a significant financial donation has been made by anonymous benefactors to support the Museum’s operating costs and allow free admission.
Our Season 8 exhibition, held from Friday 30 September 2016 to Monday 3 July 2017, was entitled “Fifty Shades of Brown”. Many of the pieces exhibited were from the 1960s and 1970s but we also bought new pieces for the exhibition, including recent work by Robert Barron, Owen Rye and Julie Shepherd. On our north plinth we had a lovely display of work by Sylvia Halpern. It was a slower season this year with fewer visitors overall but we still enjoyed the people who came to see us and made good Internet sales .
Our pattern of buying changed during the year. Our drawers and storeroom shelves now contain so much stock that we decided to focus our new acquisitions on a smaller number of significant works by known artists. Now on our winter break, we will keep the current display in place for a while before starting to set up the new exhibition. Visitors are still welcome by appointment during the winter months and we will let you know more about what we are planning for Season 9 in a few week’s time.
Illustrated: Several pieces by Sylvia Halpern from the Season Eight exhibition.
We still have two weeks to go before our eighth season at Australian Pottery at Bemboka comes to an end at close of business on Monday 3 July. However, we will still be open by appointment over the winter months, and we will have a new exhibition ready to open on Friday 29 September.
The gallery will be open as usual this Friday and Saturday 10 & 11 February but will be closed on the Sunday and Monday. We will return to our usual hours the following week..
This year we will be closed on Friday 23 December for family reasons but will resume our normal Friday to Monday hours for the rest of the holiday season. We are also happy to open the gallery outside these hours by appointment.
Three recent Col Levy acquisitions on display in our downstairs foyer.
We were pleased to acquire this large handbuilt piece by Judy Lorraine this week. It is 32 cm high with a tiny nut-like opening and swelling assymetric shape. The surface has been worked all over with a modelling tool and burnished with oxide. Judy Lorraine has almost no auction record and, until now, we have only been able to find her thrown domestic work on the secondary market, so this piece has been a welcome addition to our collection.
