Patterning of light – breakaway series II – bush tomato

Pippin Drysdale is an acclaimed ceramicist known for her experimentation with shape, linework and colour. Through her masterful command of the medium, Drysdale produces ceramic sculptures that represent the Australian landscape and often depict the geology of the remote Kimberley and Pilbara regions in Western Australia. Working from her Fremantle studio with collaborators, including thrower Warrick Palmateer, she forms pieces that are inlaid with smooth incised markings and polished to a matte finish. Forms never teeter, rather their thin weighted points keep them anchored and poised. Drysdale’s works include tapered vessels and what she calls ‘boulders’ – namely enclosed globular forms – that are as much about the volume contained within as the faceted shapes and linear marks scratched on their surfaces. The fine lines inscribed into the vibrant surface of Drysdale’s works are the artist’s own form of topographical mapping and for her recall spidery traces of grass and wind as they sweep across the land.

Since 2021 Drysdale’s focus has shifted from the vast to the nuanced, with recent works enlivening the minutiae of the Australian landscape. This can be seen in Patterning of light – breakaway series II – bush tomato, which references the bush tomato – a native plant commonly called the desert raisin but known by many different names in Aboriginal Australian languages. This small desert plant bears bronze leaves and fruit that ripens in the reddish hues of Drysdale’s forms. Rich in potassium and vitamin C, it is an important food source in Western Australia’s Kalgoorlie region.

This work is part of her ongoing Breakaway series, of the artist says:

As I have continued to explore my Breakaway series, I have become increasingly fascinated with the properties of light within the landscape and my focus has moved from the “vastness” of the images to the “smallness” of things – the way light bounces and bends with the breeze on the water; filtered light through gently moving vegetation; the iridescence of dragonfly wings; the fluttering of fish; the glisten of frogs; the dew on the leaves and rocks.