Local artist CLeed will showcase her enamel art and jewellery at Trial & Fire, an exhibition to be held at Foundry in Bairnsdale from April 26 until June 28.
The artist behind CLeed, Callie Leed (nee Whelan), welcomes all to attend the opening of the exhibition on Friday, April 26, from 5-7pm. Trial & Fire is a celebration of CLeed’s dedication to observation and experimentation. It represents a combination of her two great loves: enamelling and succulents.
The exhibition tracks CLeeds progress as an enamel artist with more than a thousand enamel colour samples on display as well as test pieces and finished works.
One of these works, Echeveria Afterglow, is made up of 49 brooches that required more than 300 firings at 800 degrees celsius to build up the enamel layers. Some inspiration is drawn from Limoges enamelling techniques as well as botanic art, but the artist extends on these with innovative use of materials and invented techniques.
For example, she creates dimension in her most recent works by adding an impasto enamel relief. She combines this with digitally rendered photographs of her garden which are fired as decal then layered with enamel, overglaze paints and other enamel supplements.
With a simultaneous exhibition of two of her works at Alchemy7 in the United States, the 19 Biennial International Juried Enamel Exhibition sponsored by The Enamelist Society, CLeed will demonstrate her aesthetic and technical expertise internationally. As one of only 69 artists accepted to be selected, Alchemy7 highlights the best in contemporary enamels produced worldwide in the past two years.
CLeed is a collector: raw materials and rare enamel colours immortalise the personal themes and subjects she is driven to capture. Wherever possible, she also enjoys the challenge of recycling found and repurposed objects.
More recent artworks and jewellery use industrial offcuts from the manufacturing of vitreous enamel whiteboards. Upcycling this material increases her practice’s sustainability and reduces kiln firings. The resulting abundance of raw materials also encourages more artistic risk while she still strives to achieve realistic portrayals of her subject matter.
You can expect enamel works with the colours, forms and patterns of unusual succulent hybrids and cultivars grown in her xeriscape garden. The enamel colours are as true as possible to what she has photographed in her garden.
To the uninitiated in weird and wonderful succulent hybrids, the plants look otherworldly and fantastical.
Some of these rare and unusual succulents that inspired her work will be exhibited and available for sale in sgraffito pots by ceramic artist Cindy Tong.
CLeed’s dedication to her two passions, enamel and succulents, is evident in this collection. Trial & Fire: fearlessly working with enamel in new and creative ways.
Locally, the artist holds enamelling workshops in her home studio; to express interest or receive more information, contact her by email (details available at the Advertiser office).
