The Beauty of Porcelain
ART
There is something magnificent about the feel of a brush going across a piece of clean porcelain. That smooth stroke that doesn't necessarily cover or complete your image. Yet, that magical feeling you get when you manipulate the paint to form what is being seen in the mind is so delicious one can not help but to create a thousand pieces and still want more.
Porcelain art is unforgiving and has been an art form for thousands and thousands of years. Yet, in todays society where digital art has become so sought after, porcelain is hardly recognized.
I fail to understand this and I mean no disrespect but how anyone can look at digital art as "art" is amazing. When I study art, even from my peers, I can tell you who made what. Each piece has that signature without the name ever being given. Much like Picasso or Dali. You simply take one look and know who it belongs to. With digital art I can't tell the difference and pretty much it all looks the same. I fail to see how this is considered art at all. It's like coloring in a coloring book and each piece becomes "art" to be awed over. Nothing unique and nothing grand just a printed image with color in it.
With porcelain art there is a study of the creation and a manipulation, with the paint that becomes a dance that I can not resist. Each layer of paint that is fired on to the piece becomes a quest for something more. Each layer fired on becoming permanent and leaving each opening of the kiln to be as grand as opening a present you have longed for. Not knowing if it is what you believe it is going to be or if something else was put in it's place.
How can you understand what I'm saying when you haven't a clue about porcelain art? Being unforgiving leaves a mystery with each stroke. The colors look different after firing, the strokes look different and sometimes if you are not careful they form legs and will run across the porcelain while being fired.
The beautify of it all. The thrill of not knowing and hoping it will be all that you had desired, leaves porcelain painting as my all time favorite medium. Nothing compares to it, although there are other thrills out there.
Each piece is unique, well thought through and can be created to form tile murals, dishware, teapots, wall hangings, jewelry and everything else in between. It's a form of art that many do not appreciate or find value in because of a lack of understanding.
Each piece is made with a bit of the artists soul much like any other art form but instead of sitting before the canvas and applying the paint, the porcelain painter must go through this process 3-7 times per piece, before the end result.
The end result capturing or leaving each painter in joy or dismay. Each piece being intended to use not just merely to sit and stare. Each piece hoping to bring pleasure in serving and pleasure in using. So just like opening that kiln, the beauty of each piece will fill the heart and the soul with a little joy each time.
All images are my own and were hand painted by me. PorcelainByMichelle as found on Etsy.
