Sarah O’Sullivan and and Jacqueline Spedding are two artists keeping a century old practice in Lithgow alive.
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The two ceramicists have taken up studio spaces in the heritage-listed Lithgow Pottery, where bricks and pipes were fired by the Lithgow Valley Colliery Co. for the first time in 1877.
Silcock Street is named after master potter James Silcock who broadened the site’s offerings to pots, vases and other household items in 1879, known by the ‘Lithgow’ emblem of a kangaroo.
144 years later, O’Sullivan and Spedding have dotted what remains of the heritage-listed site with their own dedication to Australian nature. Both artists’ work is influenced by native flora and fauna.
“I love ceramics, and I love the history of it. It’s so exciting to be in a place with another potter, someone who also loves the history of it,” Ms Spedding said.
“We’ve come up with so many thoughts, we are hoping to get the wood fire kiln going again, doing wood firings and maybe even developing a line of work that has the kangaroo on it, just our contribution to that history of the pottery.”
Sarah O’Sullivan said it was “amazing” to work in a space that had been used by so many potters.
“One of my lecturers at university found this and sort of revived it in the seventies. He’s popped in and said hello,” she said.
The pottery finally closed in 1907 but the pipeworks continued until 1940. Since its revival by potter Bob Cunningham in the ‘70s the pottery has been used by a line of artists, such as local sculptor Tim Johnman who first introduced O’Sullivan to the space.
“My husband is from Lithgow. He ran into an old friend who knew Tim and then we somehow got in contact to have a look at the place. We saw it and it was amazing,” Ms O’Sullivan said.
She participated in the Open Studio Trail in 2016 in Tim’s studio, while making her particular style of slip-cast porcelain out of a studio in Marrickville.
“It was then I kind of just realised how good the audience was and how everyone was really receptive to having a ceramicist here and how well received the artists were for the open studio trail. That was the thing that made me realise there was enough here to make me move here.”
Sarah took on the lease of the pottery site in February 2016.
“You would think that you’d have more access to a larger community in Marrickville but you don’t. Everyone is a bit more competitive there and, yeah, you have the networks and the contacts, but I find the artist community in Lithgow is far more warm and receiving,” she said.
“It is really good to have Gang Gang [Gallery] as well. I can’t praise Gang Gang enough for exhibiting local artists.”
Jacqueline Spedding who specialises in clay ceramics heard about Sarah’s studio from a mutual friend. When the lease on her Lawson studio expired, which she was sharing with photographer and street artist Mandy Schoene-Salter, both artists moved to the pottery site.
“It feels like such a privilege. I would love to be able to stay here a long time,” Ms Spedding said.
Both Spedding and O’Sullivan expect the pottery site will influence their work over time.
“I’ve always really loved industrial ceramics, tiles and bricks and pipes and I have actually used some of those in my work. I’m interested in kind of developing some of my ideas in industrial forms,” Ms Spedding said.