Portrait of Tom Smith, Strathbutler 1992 (photo – James Wilson)
Tom Smith won the Strathbutler Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts by the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation in 1992. Smith’s exploration of form, structure and aesthetics in both pottery and painting have brought him international acclaim. Since 1982 his major concentration has been with Raku, a ceramic process developed in Japan in the 14th century using wood fired kilns.
Landscape #19, 1992; Tom Smith
Fat Vase Form, 1990; Tom Smith
Tea Bowl Form, 1986; Tom Smith
In the artist’s words
I am excited by the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate elements and the visual delight in the unexpected tear in the perfectly circular rim of wet clay.
It is form that is paramount in my work, and relationships between competing forms. It is the mark left by the broken stick into the pristine globe of a pot which re-defines its form rather than the colour left by the stroke of the paint brush on the surface.
What is ultimately important is the work itself and not the process which achieved it.