Ben Quilty; After Afghanistan

Within the walls of Darlinghurst Gaol, next to a familiar ceramics studio, was the show of Ben Quilty's intimate experience of Afghanistan and the Australian troops which were occupying. The excitement is as the audience initially reads the expressive swipes of paint, but soon reads more than just liquid emotions. Globby paintings of impressionist people lying in pain, mourning towards the sky, or waiting for something worse to happen.  The portraits immortalise the 'beautiful' in the subjects agony, the good intentions that they suffer. It was a really meaningful show that allows the families of now to understand the drama and trauma suppressed by their brave. 
I cant help but find everything Quilty does as magic.
The thickness of the paint curling to the ground, the bare canvas that has been primed to bright white glowing in the lights, such a dynamic surface terrain would do crazy things with mingling glazes over the landscape. I forget the image often and get lost in the surface, zooming in to the junctions of colours and the shadows of ridges the brush left behind.

It has inspired me to develop slips that will act like oil paint in viscosity and gloss and to also have bare clay surfaces. I will also have pooling and mingling glaze, but the texture is the key to being satisfied, personally...

The picture is a close up of one of his paintings,  just one of the many places I can get lost in :)

How I'm keeping texture within clay

Its a fine thing, to see all the forms of dirt, in all its textures within clay... but preservation is key when you enjoy natural phenomena.
So I like raw clay...
And I have a sponge, 
Ill use em to preserve!

So ... taking baby steps here,  I made a surface I liked and found interesting with potential places of pool and dry of future glazes,
Then let it dry a bit (Vaguely,  a journata);
Then carved out the back to :
A; be lighter
B; not warp

And hopefully c; dry faster
But leaves open issue D; that it will dry, and shrink unevenly

Thanks sponge for absorbing the weight changes gently and keeping the immediate atmosphere stable for the precious clay to slowly cool :)
Next these will be painted on, but depending on size require weeks to dry :/