Sandra McHarg

Artist Profile – Sandra McHarg

I grew up in Wodonga, Vic., spending a lot of my time on friends’ farms or out in the bushland and small towns around the area. I’ve always loved the feeling of being enclosed by the surrounding hills of the Upper Murray region.
Our current home in Clunes, central Vic. has a similar landscape of gently undulating hills- travelling into Ballarat we cross the tail end of the Great Dividing Range. I find the forms and colours of my surroundings being conveyed in my ceramics.
The “wide view” of hills and valleys, soft green in the cooler months and the oppressively beautiful straw dryness of summer, feeling so much like my country, my home, but carrying the silent threat of fire or drought.
The intimacy of my home garden, with the soft shapes of leaves and cup-like flowers. Digging over the garden and cutting through the strata of soil layers, similar but on a smaller scale to road cuttings that reveal the clay and rock hidden under the thin veneer of soil and vegetation.
Remembered landscape of beach holidays with my family, and the different undulations of sand and sea; beachcombing for treasures, and peering into rockpools and caves.
Ceramics has a history of gaining local character through the use of local materials, something we are in danger of losing in this modern world of ready to use packaged materials. I enjoy connecting my work to its place of origin by incorporating locally collected materials. This includes blending or marbling locally dug clays into packaged processed clays, adding vegetable matter to the clay to burn away in firing, using my firebox ash, local ochres and clays as glaze ingredients, and the use of found objects as impressing tools.

Curriculum Vitae

Name-Mrs. Sandra McHarg
Ph. (03) 5345 3408 mob. 0427 144 313

Education and Employment
1995-2001 -partner in small business with husband (bespoke handmade footwear)
2003-short course (one year p.t.) in handformed pottery at Clunes Neighbourhood House, Clunes, Vic.
2004-2008 -student at School of Mines, Ballarat (Ballarat T.A.F.E.) studying Certificate IV Visual
Arts (Ceramics)
2008-awarded R.J. Young Scholarship by University of Ballarat
2008 –N.E.I.S. Business Training, B.R.A.C.E. Ballarat

Exhibitions
SMB (Ballarat T.A.F.E.) Student Exhibitions 2004, 2005 and 2008
Clunes Local Artists Group (C.L.A.G.) exhibitions;
“A Picture Tells…”-2006 Words in Winter Festival
-“Artistic Harvest”-Booktown 2007
-“Speechless” 2007 Words in Winter Festival
collaborative exhibitions at Clunes Show Nov. 2007, 2008
¬ -“Affordable Art” Christmas Exhibition Dec. 2007
-“Code-X”-2008 Words in Winter Festival
-“Art in the Park” Feb. 2009
-“No Regrets” 2009 Words in Winter Festival
Pat Emery Award (Ceramics Victoria emerging artists exhibition) Sept.Oct. 2007, Oct. 2008, Jul. 2009.
“Festival of Spring”, The Studio @ Flinders (Flinders, Vic.) Sept.-Oct. 2008
“Art Unlimited” Exhibition, (Dunedoo, N.S.W.) Oct. 2008
Selected for extended “Art Unlimited” Exhibition, Fairview Artspace (Mudgee, N.S.W.) Oct.-Nov ‘08
“The Art of Sharing”, Bendigo Pottery (Bendigo Vic.) Oct.-Nov. 2008
“Botanical Bliss”, Bendigo Pottery (Bendigo, Vic.) Dec.2008
Ballarat University End of Year Exhibition (graduating students) Dec. 2008
Ergon Energy Central Queensland Art Award, Rockhampton Gallery (Rockhampton, Qld.), Dec.’08 Feb.’09
“Land and Water III ”, Ceramics Victoria Exhibition, The Gallery on Herring Island,
Yarra River, Melbourne, Feb.Mar. 2008
“The Collector’s Exhibition”, Contemporary Art Society of Victoria,
Steps Gallery (Carlton, Vic.) 4-17 May ‘09
Upcoming Exhibition Ceramics Victoria 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Manningham Gallery, 14-31 Oct.’09

Galleries, Association Memberships
Springmount Pottery and Gallery, 2000 Midland Hwy. Creswick, Vic. 3363 Ph. (03) 5345 2856
Online- Potters Online www.pottersonline.com.au/artists%20list.php search for Sandra McHarg
Australian Ceramics Directory www.australianceramics.com search for Sandra McHarg
ABC Artpost www.abc.net.au/tv/artpost/ search for ceramics or pottery.
Current member of Ceramics Victoria, The Australian Ceramics Association, Craft Victoria and Clunes Local
Artists Group

Other Interests
My interest in various crafts and artforms including textile crafts, photography, painting and origami complement and inspire some of my ceramic work. I am an avid reader and a musician (violin/viola and singing). I’m an enthusiastic gardener with an interest in natural systems and interactions. I am a Christian, and have a deep respect for life and appreciation of the beauty of creation around me.