About Meg

BIOGRAPHICAL

I have been making pots for over thirty years. My studio is situated in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, deep in eucalypt forested highlands county. I like living in the country. It gives me the space and quiet to delve into my imagination and resolve, to explore and develop the ceramic expression I am searching for.

My ceramic training was taken under an apprenticeship system and took four years, working in several potteries in Australia, England and in France. I feel this practically based training filters my current practice. I use traditional techniques, but not as an end but rather as a springboard for my personal expression.  I have a large studio, with two electric kilns and one gas kiln.

I have always worked in earthenware. I love the expressive nature of the lower firing range, and the way it help capture the rawness of pot making and decoration. I use two traditional ceramic techniques, combining slipware and reduced lustre. I use slips, specific glazes and metallic pigments to create these effects.

I find the two techniques complement each other. The slipware is playful to work with, and I use it to explore shape and form. I make a range of tableware this way. Some of the pieces are then taken onto a third firing, for reduced lustre decoration.  This technique is much trickier to handle and suits more restrained pieces……but becomes magical when the alchemy of lustre works. The lustre also allows me to explore brushwork, revealing the energy and rawness of every stroke.

To sum up what I am hoping to express, I would say my work springs out my traditional training but moves beyond this to capture the tension between emptiness and line, restraint and movement using the expressive qualities of brushwork on slip and pigment on glaze

Meg Patey

2024

Curriculum Vitae

Born Urana, NSW, Australia

1966-70 Diploma in Art Education, Alexander Mackie Teachers College and National Art School

1971-74 Teacher of Art Kempsey High School & Danebank High School, Sydney

1976–81 Apprentice potter at Cuppacumbalong,Tharwa, ACT, France and England

1981-1998 Established pottery at Colo Vale, NSW, making earthenware sold throughout Australia

1981-1998 Part-time TAFE teacher & guest lecturer

1998 Appointed Director, Sturt Craft Centre, Mittagong

1998 - 2009 Director of Sturt Craft Centre for eleven years. Instigated Summer & Winter Schools and Artist in Residence Program. Manager of Sturt Gallery and Retail Shop. Significant events initiated during this time were Fifty Years at Sturt Pottery, Exhibition and Forum (2003), Twenty-One Years Sturt School for Wood (2006), and Sturt Woodfire, Conference and Exhibition 2008.

2010 - present Resumed ceramic practice

2021. Zoom Demonstration for The Dacorum and Chiltern Potters Guild UK (https://dcpg.org.uk/events/)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1985-88 Christmas Exhibition, Crafts Council Gallery, The Rocks, Sydney

1986 Spring Exhibition, Crafts Council Gallery, The Rocks, Sydney

1986-87 Teapot Show, Old Bakery Gallery, Sydney

1988 Tableware, Potters Gallery, Sydney

1990 Collectibles, Manly Art Gallery, Sydney

1990 Teapot Exhibition, with Sandy Lockwood, Bowral Art Gallery

1991 An Australian Willow Pattern, Jam Factory, Adelaide

1992 Exhibition accompanying Rembrandt to Renoir, NGA and National Gallery of Victoria

1993 Functional Ceramics, Blaxland Gallery, Sydney

1994 Interiors Today, Jakarta, Indonesia

1995Juggling the Elements, Manly Art Gallery, Manly Sydney

1995 Salt and Tin, Sturt Gallery, Mittagong. (With Sandy Lockwood)

1995-96 Clay Offerings, Fusions Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland

1996 Colour and Function, Mura Clay Gallery, Sydney

1999 Christmas Show, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney

1999 Group Show, Robin Gibson Gallery, with Lex Dickson

1999-2004 Exhibited with Sturt makers, at Sturt Gallery, Mittagong

2002 Sturt comes to Sydney. Ceramics Art and Perception Gallery, Paddington, Sydney

2018 Namwon International Ceramic Art Invited Exhibition Korea

2020 Take it out of the Garden.  Manningham Gallery, Doncaster Melbourne. Jane Annois, Helen Fuller,  John Higgins (UK) , Holly Macdonald, Megan Patey, Richard Phethean (UK)  Jane Sawyer

2021 The Plate Show IV. Schaller Gallery, Baroda, Michigan 49101. August.

2022 Burning Curiosity. July 24 - September 11. Three Southern Highland potters draw on their wisdom and sense of place made stronger and more resilient through smoke and fire. Sandy Lockwood, Steve Harrison and Meg Patey.

2023 Terra Nova. Group Exhibition celebrating seventy years Sturt Pottery. May 28 - July 16. 2023

2023 Shared Perspectives - Celebrating Artistic Couples. SHAC Gallery Bowral June 23 - July 24. 2023

2024 Finalist Muswellbrook Ceramics Prize. Exhibition 2024 Muswellbrook Art Prize At Muswellbrook Regional Art Centre April 2024

2024 A Road Less Travelled. A Survey of Lustre Ceramics Curated by John Kuczwal. Opening Nov 30. Wollongong City Gallery

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1991 Megan Patey - Pots, Mura Clay Gallery, Newtown, Sydney

1996 Reduced Lustre, Sturt Gallery, Mittagong

1997 Reduced Lustre, Flinders Gallery, Townswille

1998 Reduced Lustre, Anita Ellis Gallery, Avalon, Sydney

2016 Shapes and Plates Solo Exhibition Sturt Gallery Mittagong

PRIZES

2018 Certificate of Merit, Lustre Bowl, Port Hacking Ceramic Prize, Sydney

PUBLICATION written by M Patey

Saltglaze in the Auvergne, Pottery in Australia, August 1986

Earthenware, Pottery in Australia, December 1988

Potters of the Southern Highlands, Pottery in Australia, September 1990

Gillian Broinowski, Pottery in Australia, Vol 30, No 3, 1991

The Passion of Eartheware, Pottery in Australia, Page 50, Vol 35, 1996

Why Choose Maiolica, Pottery in Australia Page 56, 57; Vol 36, No 4, 1997

The Residency Program at Sturt Craft Centre, Ceramics Art & Perception, 2006

Twenty Days at Sturt – A Photo Essay. Ceramics Arts and Perception No 37 2013

Publication written about M Patey

Salt and Tin. By John Edye

ARTIST STATEMENT

My studio is based in the Southern Highlands of NSW surrounded by tall eucalypt trees. This rural space provides a wonderful ambiance in which to work. The ancient Persian technology of reduced lustre which requires three separate firings is the focus of my practice. My work is made from terracotta clay, and I use slip to draw on and through to create lines and marks as a foundation for my decoration. I sometimes add brushwork, using cobalt and copper to gently react with the lustre firing. In the final stage of making lustre pigments are applied and fired. This firing relies on wood being introduced into the kiln to produce iridescent lustre on the surface of the work. I love the mystery and secret nature of reduced lustre –never knowing exactly what is going to be revealed. There is an intensity to the process which keeps me on edge. After the final firing, I wait to see what surprises the magic of flame and smoke have offered

Meg Patey   April 2022