Way back in the early nineties I came across a catalog of a show that was given to my friend Mark Shapiro. The catalog was in German and I had long forgotten any German I had learned as a three year old living in Germany. Yet the pictures were very inspiring and, little did I know, the images of Roman Scheidel painting in this little book had the single biggest influence on my approach to surface in my pottery ever since.
catalog cover
catalog cover
tiles painted with wax resist
By some miracle I found this catalog recently while packing my old studio. I thought I had lost it. So I took a few pictures to give you an idea of what I am talking about. I have wanted to post them at an appropriate time and since I am in the midst of some decoration work, now is the time. Also I found his web site and you can see better images here of Mr. Scheidel's work, and if you read German you're in luck.
After seeing this catalog I commenced to learn all about painting with wax resist and using plant imagery. I wasn't quite ready to do figurative work as Scheidel had in the work, but I loved the beautiful brushwork of leaf imagery.
Roman Scheidel is an Austrian artist who is mostly a painter, but is also interested in dance and ceramics. In this catalog it is clear that he is working with a potter, Felix Vogler, to make the ceramics.
