Still Life with Pumpkin by Susan Nemeth 2024

(20 components)

Material: Porcelain, coloured slips, silver leaf, gold leaf

Technique: Hand coiled hollow forms, 15 layers of painted, coloured, transparent slips, 2 firings, highest 1290 degrees

Measurements: H 28 cm L 44 cm D 31 cm

This still life is about memory.

As children, my mother would sometimes take us to the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery. She liked to look at the old Dutch masters and Renaissance paintings. The big treat was to have a Coke in the café. In the café there was an impressive collection of Chinese, porcelain vases, all showcased and ordered into their dynasties. I remember the copper reds. At home, our mum painted still lives and portraits in oils. She bought us little pots of gouache and entered our creations in children’s art competitions. Our father was brought up on a farm in Hungary and he was very practical. In the heart of Birmingham, he had a huge garden where he grew all our fruit and vegetables. My parents made everything from wine to Pálinka, jam, honey, pickles, and sauerkraut, bottling, jarring, and preserving all. Peppers, staples of Hungarian cuisine, are synonymous with my childhood. My father grew all types of them in a huge polytunnel using seeds from his homeland. The sources for this piece include the distorted, decaying, bawdy fruits in the paintings of Luis Meléndez, the compositions of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, and the painterly qualities of Paul Gauguin.