News from clay

When I worked with the chainsaw before, it seemed to me to be the way I also work with the pencil: I draw and paint the motif in rough lines, reduced to the essentials. The chainsaw seemed to me to be just the right technique. But after seven years I got tired of the chainsaw and looked for something that would give me a new form of expression.

A clay-work course brought me the realisation that building up work with clay is quite different from taking away material and not being able to grow more. I reduced the wood in the saw work to work out the shapes. When I work sculpturally with clay, I build up and the figures and reliefs can grow.

Working with clay is also so interesting because I can be more playful with the material than with wood and chainsaw. With clay I can "try" more, the decision of which step to take next is no longer irretrievable. It is like sketching and erasing - and then adding again...