“Inspired by years of travel in the outback and coastal areas, my practice explores the forms of the Australian landscape. Through the use of handcrafting methods I am able to feel the tactility and natural rhythm within the clay. When the finished form is dry, porcelain slips coloured with oxides and stains are painted onto the surface. The firing and final glazing reveals the layers of colour and movement in the work, achieving a tactile combination of soft lines, natural curves and a sense of immediacy. Works from old to new are presented together as punctuated moments and 'memories of landscape.'"

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Jill Symes, Heart of Gold, 2018 (View#1). Image courtesy the artist

Jill Symes is a Melbourne-based ceramic artist producing a continuously developing body of distinctive ceramic works which demonstrate developed hand building skills and a mature understanding of the exciting possibilities of earthenware clays and glazing techniques.

Symes has an intensive national and international presence spanning the past 30 years. Exhibitions include but are not limited to Women in the Whitehorse Art Collection 2018, Victorian Craft Award 2015, Big Ceramics 2014 (Craft sponsored exhibition in Federation Square), Moments in Time 2014 (Kerrie Lowe Gallery, Sydney), Fragments of Landscape (Kazari Collector, Melbourne 2010), Impressed, Contemporary Australian Ceramics (2006, New Delhi Pottery, India). Her work is in numerous public and private collections, Australia- wide and world-wide, and recent commissions include limited edition sculptures for the NGV Design Store.