Clay sculpture by Alan Bennett
Opened March 9, 2012
Clay and Paper Gallery of Art’s show of clay sculpture by Alan Bennett called “Fish, Freaks, and Friends opened Friday March 9, 2012 and continues through November, 2012. All work is for sale. Call or e-mail gallery for availability and prices.
Alan Bennett’s art is about the his love for sea creatures and the process to create them. When Alan was five, he caught a bluegill. He thought it was so beautiful that he kept it in his pocket where his mother found it several days later when she did the laundry.
Experiences in or around the water and growing up with Jacques Cousteau specials strongly influenced his work. The process starts with a series of sketches. He uses stoneware clay or porcelain to make the basic forms. These forms are manipulated, hollowed out and added to. The teeth and eyes are made out of porcelain. The pieces are bisque fired. Glazes are applied by dipping, spraying and by brush. The pieces are then glazed fired. The work is about form, expression, color, texture, and movement.
There are three basic ways he glazes his sculpture:
Fish Glaze: This magnesium carbonate glaze shrinks more clay body during the firing process. The finished glaze has a dry scaly texture with pastel color.
Raku: A technique from an ancient Japanese tradition. The pieces are pulled out of the kiln when they are red hot and smothered with sawdust. The end product has a variety of blacks and grays in the clay body and elegant crackle patterns in glossy glaze that tend to have rich, bright colors.
Crystal Glazes: Specially prepared glazes, high in zinc, are applied to porcelain pieces. They are fired to 2300 Degrees, Fahrenheit, and then “soaked” at a lower temperature for three hours or more. This creates an environment conducive to growing crystals in the glaze. The end result is amazing combination of crystal shapes, colors and sizes that never come out the same way twice as the crystals are always different.
Alan received an MFA in Ceramics from Ohio State University and a BFA in drawing and painting from Arizona State University.
2nd Friday of every month
Dunedin Wine/Art Walk
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Over 40 downtown shops participating. A great opportunity to shop Delightful Dunedin.
$10.00 wristband entitles you to store discounts and wine tastings at many shops downtown Dunedin including
Clay and Paper Gallery of Art. Wristbands may be purchased at the gallery.
New work is coming in all the time. Stop by to check it out.