THE ROTARY CLUB PLEIN AIR WAVEFORM PRIZE
A new award for 2022 gifted by Rotary Club of Troon to celebrate their 70th Anniversary (1952-2022)
• The competition will be judged in three plein air heats.
• The final trophy winner will be judged by Rotary Club of Troon from the heat winners.
• This annual trophy will be presented on our return to club nights in September
The award was sculpted by Art Club member Richie Cameron
Background (by Richie Cameron)
The original impetus for the work came about in 2020 which was designated ‘Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters’. This would be marked by art initiatives and exhibitions supported by public and private art institutions.
Living by the sea I was eager to create some works which were commensurate with the theme. At the time I was looking at the work of the legendary Japanese artist, Hokusai, as the year before I had seen an exhibition of a series of his drawings and paintings of Mount Fuji.
Another of his prestigious works is his stunningly dynamic wood block print ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’.
This was the inspiration I was looking for and I started to conceive of the idea of capturing and building a 3-D image of a wave form in clay. I proceeded to spend a lot of time observing the form of the waves at the shore (including Troon!), photographed them in various conditions and did some small sketches.
Constructing a work in clay with the curvature of a wave is fraught with difficulty as the clay has to support its own weight and is liable to crumble or break as it dries or when it is going through its initial firing up to 1000oC.
True to form the first piece broke into several parts in the kiln.
I then did what I should have done to begin with and made a small maquette to test out the shape, colourings and mounting method. It worked out brilliantly! It subsequently exhibited at The Barony, West Kilbride (and was delightfully purchased!).
When asked to consider working on the trophy I built several new pieces of slightly varying sizes. The colouring is a bit unpredictable too so they might not all have had the depth and richness I wanted.
From these I selected the best. I had a beautiful piece of wood, which had good weight, for the plinth and prepared it by finely sanding and oiling.
The Trophy is made of a finely grogged stoneware clay which has great strength and appearance. The main colour is from several washes of raw cobalt oxide powder suspended in water. Small amounts of underglaze are also applied to provide highlights. In the final firing the clay is taken to 1240oC.