sarah jane therese

While I did not spend the early part of my life working as an artist, I always recalled the thrill of painting in colouring books and immersing my hands in finger paint as a child. I was heavily committed to my career in retail, fashion and marketing until I was 50. Looking back, I can see that my love of colour, design and aesthetic beauty was always there in the products that were created in the businesses I managed.

In 2012, I enrolled in a colour & design course, ostensibly to complement my interest in the colours I used in my cashmere business. The moment my brush dipped in paint, I was enthralled and my long dormant love for painting ignited again. I’ve not stopped painting and drawing since.

Those painting and drawing skills later transferred to clay surfaces. I began a ceramics course in 2016, revisiting my love of wheel throwing since a brief encounter with it as a teenager. Once I began wheel throwing again, I was hooked. I would find my hands moving in sync with my dreams at night as though creating a pot.  It gives me a thrill every time to see something beautiful and rounded come to life from those simple earthly materials.

As it turns out, it was at that course I met my second husband, Rowley Drysdale. He was the ceramics teacher, but our relationship did not commence until some years later. Now we create together most days in our studio at Quixotica Art Space, his beautiful property on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. You never know what might happen when you sign up for a pottery class! I’m conscious of how lucky I am in many ways, including the wonderful asset of having a ceramics expert alongside me in the studio, on hand to give advice when needed. Much of our life revolves around ceramics, whether it is chatting about it over the dinner table, traveling to see wonderful ceramic work and makers overseas or just catching up with friends who are also immersed in the world of ceramics. It greatly enhances my understanding of creative clay practices.

Nowadays my focus is on wheel throwing, usually with porcelain clay, and surface decoration, with underglaze, slip, paint brushes and engraving tools. I enjoy the multitude of processes involved, from throwing the pots, creating the designs, and then applying them, slowly and carefully, to my pots.

My designs are usually inspired by plant life, most often the flowers, leaves and wild grasses around our studio, and the small birds and insects that live amongst them.

Concurrent with my ceramic work, I continue to draw and paint with ink, watercolour and acrylic paints. I never travel without my art paper, pens and paints! Occasionally I add some texture with yarn and fabric, no doubt influenced by my former career in the fashion industry.

After years of practice, I feel I am finally hitting my stride and was delighted to become a finalist in Siliceous Ceramics Awards in 2021 and the North Qld Ceramics Award in 2022. I look forward to being up in the studio each day, and further refining my craft.

Thank you for taking an interest in my creations.