A selection of studio works: Tarun Nagesh admires the organic ceramics of Jill Symes.

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THIS COLLECTION OF RECENT STUDIO WORKS by established Melbourne ceramic artist Jill Symes, is a testament to her mature hand-building skills and responsive mastery of earthenware decorating and glazing techniques. A comprehensive vision of her current style with reference to an ever-evolving long career in the production of ceramic vessels, sculptures and domestic wares evoke a sense of the organic with crafted earth materials. The earth, sea and human connection of these sensual forms are emphasised through a vital freshness of colour and boldly applied brushwork revealing a harmonic balance of form, texture and colour.

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Symes' experience and ability in handcrafting techniques of coiling, pinching and slabbing allow her to feel the natural rhythms of her media and in the past have created a range of transformations into functional artworks such as a diverse variety of vessels, plates and canoe-shaped platters which inform other sculptural and figurative pieces in her work. Throughout these works there is an organic tactility and her exhibition at Kazari Collector Gallery has elevated her craft to prized artworks and decorative forms.

From gestural brushworked tiles showing explorations in pattern and colour, to large earthenware sculptures, Jill Symes has refined her use of clay slips, oxides and sgraffito before glazing, a process that can be deliberate or spontaneous, frustrating or inspiring. This stage of production realises another level of expertise beyond the creation of shape and form. The glaze maintains the power to bring these artworks to life, exposing unforeseen background and foreground relationships. Brushwork, pattern and colour all add to the organic quality of the soft lines and natural curves, applying earthy oranges, whites and reds to terracotta, while exposing a glossy vibrancy in other materials where natural reds, greens and blacks are symbolic of life, water and mystery.

Jill Symes has been a productive professional ceramist for more than 25 years, from early exhibitions at the iconic Meat Market Craft Centre and the invitational Ceramics Expo at the Ballarat City Fine Art Gallery in the early '90s to numerous shows around Australia including the National Gallery of Victoria in 1992 and Parliament House Canberra in 2001, as well as various commissions such as Crown Towers comprising over 250 objets d'art. She has exhibited worldwide and extensively in Victoria and has numerous works in public and private collections across Australia and abroad. Continuous collaborations with Kazari for more than nine years has complemented yet not determined her work with a sharing of aesthetic ideologies such as the definitive concept of 'Kazari' in realising unexpected inherent beauties, and the principles of wabi, sabi and suki, finding aesthetic value in the simple, the natural and through the patina of age.

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Other apparent influences that have moulded Symes' unique style include traditional Korean Punch'ong pottery of the 11th to 16th centuries which showed an expressive freedom in the production of earthenwares, the indigenous pottery of New Mexico, South American Indians and New Guinea, and extensive travels Australia-wide, seeking an aesthetic in nature through earth materials. Experiments with other media such as lino-cuts, basketry, natural and found materials also contribute and inform the artist's ability with ceramics. The dynamic combination of form, material, colour and pattern intrigued visitors to Kazari Collector throughout June 2006 with Jill Symes' diverse collection of handbuilt ceramic artworks.

Tarun Nagesh is the gallery assistant at Kazari Collector.