Feather and Pit-fired Pot

Oil on Canvas Board 8"x10"

This is a painting of a pit-fired pot that I made around 1972 when I was learning about pottery. I threw this pot on an old kick wheel. A group us, all students, planned a primitive firing of our pots. We dug a huge hole on the side of a hill out in the prairies west of Calgary. We filled the hole with our unfired pots and covered them with dead grass and dried cow patties that we collected from the nearby ranches. We covered all that with dirt leaving a bit of dried grass exposed to act as a fuse, then lit the deep layers on fire. We let the things burn and smolder for hours.

The next day after the pile cooled, we dug out the pots. The pot in this painting was my treasure. I loved the smoked look, the blue and black puffs, and the uncontrolled finish. I gave it away to someone dear who kept it for years. This spring the pot came back to me.

I picked up the feather while cycling near False Creek. There is a field near the water where the Canada geese gather and it is littered with feathers! I was in heaven and came home with a handful.So I put the pot full of memories together with a feather from a Canada goose and told myself to stop faffing and just paint.