John Newdigate
John Newdigate is one of South Africa’s most celebrated ceramicists and artists. Living in the mountainous Overberg region of the Western Cape Newdigate strives to work in the present, recording contemporary issues in conjunction with the physical landscapes, plants and animals that he encounters in his everyday surroundings. He is an exuberant colourist and specializes in painting hand-built, porcelain vessels using an original technique inspired by precise and spontaneous mark-making. Newdigate’s signature process utilises colour to its full advantage; involving hand-painting multiple layers of underglaze pigment, reserving certain areas with a wax resist and then removing surrounding pigments. This process is repeated multiple times and complex, translucent and radiant imagery emerges from a mix of sharp and blurred lines which gives depth and perspective.
A variety of themes recur in his work, most notably plants and animals that are used to make wry commentary on human emotions and interactions. In recent works, Newdigate has ventured into crafting three-dimensional renditions of his painted imagery, employing a blend of fiber-reinforced polymer cement layered over a wooden and PU framework, then adorned with oil paints. Liberated from the confines of ceramic restrictions, this exploration has sparked a wave of fresh creativity and concepts.
“I am an artist who chooses to paint on ceramics. My large painted porcelain vessels embrace a love of colour and depict my immediate surroundings. Recent works are a collaboration with master hand-builder Ian Garrett, who creates forms with subtle and taut curves that are an ideal surface on which to express my ideas. Working on a three-dimensional surface, of which half is obscured at any one time, allows for the narrative to be revealed as the viewer circles the work. This introduces time as a fourth dimension, in which imagery unfolds as static animation”. - John Newdigate
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