Banff National Park Gallery of Fine Art and Photography

Home NEW !!! Historical Contemporary ExhibitsWorkshop Categories Contact Us Newsletter To OrderAbout UsBibliographyBanff

Up
Next

 

 

Barbara Tipton Exhibition and Artist Statement

 

Cup/Image

 

Barbara Tipton is an expressive and innovative ceramic artist, who explores the aesthetic as well as technical elements of clay.  Her Cup/Image body of work offers up pieces that will amuse, inspire, and educate.

Barb reveals that most of her “sculptural objects center around the idea of the cup and saucer. These works originated as wheel-thrown forms, altered and assembled, but this evolved into drawing on the surface of paper clay slabs and forming them intuitively into three-dimensional shapes. Many of the works retain their visual identity as cup and saucer; others retain those origins only marginally as various implied narratives take over. Whatever the outcome, my aim is not to be too specific, and I’m pleased when a certain amount of ambiguity creeps in.”

 

  Barbara Tipton - Blue Swell
  Blue Swell, 2009
  ceramic scultpure
  3 1/2 x 3 1/2" (9x9cm)
 

$250.00 CDN

 

  Barbara Tipton - Red and Green
  Red and Green Fold, 2009
  ceramic sculpture
  3 1/2 x 3 1/2" (9x9cm)
 

$250.00 CDN

 

  Barbara Tipton - Three Blues
  Three Blues, 2009
  ceramic sculpture
  3 1/2 x 4 1/8" (9x10.5cm)
 

$250.00 CDN

 

  Barbara Tipton - Gone to Ground
  Gone to Ground, 2009
  ceramic wall piece
  11 1/2 x 10 1/4" (29x26cm)
 

$850.00 CDN

 

  Barbara Tipton - Leap 2 click here for a larger image
  Leap 2, 2009
  ceramic wall piece
  10 5/8 x 7 7/8" (27x20cm)
  Note: invitation piece, page 1
 

$750.00 CDN

 

  Barbara Tipton
  Cup with Two Reds, 2009
  ceramic sculpture
  5 1/2 x 8" (14x20cm)
 

$550.00 CDN SOLD

 

  Barbara Tipton - Delft Extract
  Delft Extract, 2009
  ceramic sculpture
  4 3/4 x 7 1/2" (12x19cm)
 

SOLD

 

  Barbara Tipton - Flamingo Dip
  Flamingo Dip, 2009
  ceramic sculpture
  4 1/2 x 8 1/8" (11.5x20.5 cm)
 

SOLD

 

 

Statement

 

For most of my artistic life, I’ve made objects for daily use as well as objects intended primarily for the eye and mind. Both serve fulfilling aspects for my role as an artist, and again, the process of making each type of work rein­forces and informs the making of the other. Pots thrown on the wheel generally approach a country aesthetic, being simply constructed, sometimes drawn on, soda glazed and/or wood fired.

Most of my sculptural objects center around the idea of the cup and saucer. These works originated as wheel-thrown forms, altered and assembled, but this evolved into drawing on the surface of paper clay slabs and forming them intuitively into three-dimensional shapes. Many of the works retain their visual identity as cup and saucer; others retain those origins only marginally as various implied narratives take over. Whatever the outcome, my aim is not to be too specific, and I’m pleased when a certain amount of ambiguity creeps in.

Over the years I’ve discovered there’s quite a lot of freedom in working around a single theme. With a central image in mind I can press thick slabs by hand, employ marking tools, bisque press molds, or form thick shapes and join them. As the clay changes, I attempt to catch it at the right moment; I’m constantly on the lookout for something that seems to ring true as an expression, a sidelong glance, a dim remembrance.

—Barbara Tipton, Calgary 2009

 

  Barbara Tipton
  Small Cup with Red Black Diagonal
  handbuilt, multifired
  3.5 x 3.5"
 

$150.00 CDN

 

  Barbara Tipton
  Clouds and Waves, 2007
  handbuilt paperclay, fired and refired to cone 04-05
  10x7.5" (25.5 x 19 cm)
 

$450.00 CDN

 

  Barbara Tipton
  Kat's China Vines, Cup and Saucer Wall Piece, 2008
  handbuilt, fired with slips and glazes to cone 04, transfers
  8x6x2.5"
 

$425.00 CDN

 

  Barbara Tipton
  Blue Cup with Faint Transfer, 2008
  wheel-thrown, handbuilt, multifired
  4x8x7.5"
 

$325.00 CDN

 

  Barbara Tipton
  Little Blue on Blue, 2008
  handbuilt cup and saucer, multiple slips and glazes
  3.5 x 4"
 

$150.00 CDN

 

 

Barbara's practice includes an interest in ceramic history, which is evident throughout her work.  For her, one approach is to develop or bring forward an idea or technique embedded in history.  She leaves whispers of historical content for us to decipher.  We are challenged, as the viewer, since we see these works through the filter of her unique, contemporary vocabulary.

 

©Willock and Sax Ltd. Gallery 1999-2008. All rights reserved
This page was last edited  June 20, 2010
The Willock and Sax Gallery website was designed and is maintained by Susan Sax Willock