Alexandra Copeland
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Alexandra Copeland is based in Melbourne. “I have always drawn and painted. People with their human foibles make good subject matter. Flowers, insects, birds and marine life move me to record their strange shapes and unlikely colour combinations. Occasionally there is a sublime moment when the hand seems to obey the eye observing the object. That moment is what spurs me on.

A show of Picasso's pots which came to Melbourne when I was a child opened my eyes to glaze decoration. Spontaneous brushwork- descriptive, humorous, whimsical, poetic, satirical - could be fixed forever in glowing colours. I didn't realise then how difficult painting with glazes could be.

I grew up in a community of artists and potters, and their bookshelves introduced me to Eastern and Islamic art. I've picked up shards of pottery from the dust of ancient cities in Central Asia, Anatolia, Greece, Italy and China. Years of travel have enabled me to see major museums and collections. The stroke of an artist's brush on a 700 year old shard is as fresh as the moment it was painted. Manganese and other metallic oxides can be melted into colours which will never change.

To achieve a satisfactory balance of surface and colour in ceramics one must work on the borders of technology and art. With enormous help from Leigh Copeland I have spent years experimenting - always with a mental picture of the hoped-for result.

All my work is functional. My subject matter is personal - things close at hand - a sort of diary. I am not interested in following fashion - after all, these pots, or their shards, will last for thousands of years. I am touched by the work of potters throughout history and it is the same indefinable quality that I aim for in my work.

For me, art is still about quality and aesthetics.

From catalogue for the Colin and Cecily Rigg Award, National Gallery of Victoria