It’s May and Mother Nature is in full bloom!
Sea Anemone by LInda Kliewer
Each of our featured artists this month incorporates nature themes into their artwork. Gayle Kiser’s pastels of bighorn sheep, a waterscape, and even a blooming rose display the colors of nature. Linda Kliewer’s vessels allude to nature in some way, and Pei Pei Hsu’s pottery shows an Asian influence.
You can meet the artists and enjoy the company of friends and art lovers at our May First Thursday. The doors will be open to let in some cooling breezes, and we’ll be enjoying as much fresh air as we can get!
First Thursday – May 1, 5:30 – 7:30 pm, with music by John Henry
Featured Artists: Gayle Kiser (paintings), Linda Kliewer (pottery), Pei Pei Hsu (pottery)
About Gayle Kiser (paintings)
Gayle has been interested in art all her life, usually expressing ideas in two-dimensional media. She works in ceramics, painting and pastels. Here are some of her pastels.
Standing Bighorns
Running Bighorns
Clyde
Autumn Reflections
Apricot Rose II
Pelicans Against the Full Moon
Seven
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About Linda Kliewer (pottery)
I have a love of nature and gardens and this is represented in my work. All my vessels have flower or leaf carvings on their surface or allude to nature in some way. Each vessel is either hand build or thrown on the wheel and then carved. Following drying they are kiln fired in an electric kiln. Some pieces have glaze or underglaze and others simply have an oxide wash on the surface to highlight the carving. Each piece is an original.
It is my hope that these vessels will inspire you to appreciate the beauty of nature all around you.
See more of Linda’s artwork on her website at Clay Art Botanica.
About Peipei Hsu (pottery)
Since my first ceramics class, I fell in love with this versatile but unpredictable yet exciting medium, enough to change my major to Fine Art in Ceramics, enough to take trips to Archie Bray Ceramic Foundation for workshops and attend yearly ceramic conferences. It’s a never ending learning process.
At my final year at Washington State University, I discovered printmaking. That was another endless exploring and very process involved medium. Among all I have tried and done, screenprinting is one of my favorites. It allows me to combine images I photographed and altered on a computer with my brush drawings. It was satisfying, almost.
One day, a light bulb turned on. Why can’t I marry these two media? I started experimenting with prints on clay. Thus, the result has generated my BFA show, and I found a life-long (at least for a long time) project I can continue to explore and perfect after school.
Before my husband (who is also a ceramic artist) and I bought our house with a potential space for our studio, I had to be smart on utilizing my limited space. That’s when I found another way to print on clay using Xerox copies! It’s another labor intense process, but I love it! It has become a tool to document my daily life, like a diary. I research on subjects I like or things I like to do, then take photos, look for pictures suited the purpose, or do a few drawings. Then I go through the whole printmaking process to print on clay. For example, I did a workshop at LCC exhibiting this technique last year. I took some photos of the studio, converted into images I can utilize, print them through Xerox, and then apply on clay. It’s intense but therapeutic at the same time.
This is a nutshell of the background of my work. I hope it helps you understand my work and enjoy it.
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