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28.75 x 25 cm. Donated by the Estate of Luke Lindoe to the Collection of the Esplanade Art Gallery. Luke made these during the 1970s using Plainsman H440 and H443. The white slip is the raw 3C clay and the red patches are a red leaded glaze third-fired on at cone 04. For these he also decorated using liquid bright gold lustres.
The mural is made from unglazed stained stoneware tiles, each cut to shape. The inscription reads: "THE DOCTOR OF TODAY TAKES HIS PLACE AT THE HEAD OF A VERY LONG LINE OF DISTINGUISHED PREDECESSORS; THE KNOWLEDGE AND TRADITION THAY MAKES THE MEDICAL PROFESSION WHAT IT IS TODAY GROWS FROM
THE GREAT DOCTORS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE, OF GREECE, OF EGYPT AND BEYOND - LOST IN THE PAST. THIS MOSAIC PAYS TRIBUTE TO THAT VAST HISTORY."
He was the founder of Plainsman Clays. My dad had just built the Plainsman Clays factory for him and I began working there in 1972 (this picture was taken at his house, which my father also built). He was a well-known artist potter and sculptor at the time, having come out of the pottery production industry in the area. He got me started along the fascinating road of understanding the physics of clays. He was a true "plains man", interested in the geology of the plains (notice the skulls, these inspired the Plainsman logo). He got me started doing physical testing of raw clays (that he was finding everywhere). I was blown away by the fact that I could assess a completely new material and judge its suitability for many types of ceramic products and processes by doing the simple physical tests he showed me. It got started writing software to log the data for that back in the 1980s, that eventually led to digitalfire.com and Insight-live.com.
Buy me a coffee and we can talk