Warrick Palmateer is a Western Australian potter with over 35 years of experience working with clay. Growing up on the southwest coastline guaranteed that he would be an avid beach comber and surfer from a young age. This love has given him a deep insight into the littoral zone – where land meets ocean.
Audio Visual Series for the Confluence Exhibition: Meridian Art Series, 2018. Video credit to Matthew Bettinaglio
Palmateer shared the stage with Pippin Drysdale in their major survey exhibition, Confluence, at the John Curtin Gallery in 2018. His vessels in Confluence were gargantuan in scale, formed from brick clay mined in the Perth Hills and also referencing his coastal home north of Perth.
“I have always regarded myself as a wheel thrower, so my new work is based on wheel throwing with texture expressively applied and colour intuitively rendered to suggest the rugged and fragile beauty of the ocean and coast, the light, shade and movement of beach and water that has defined me from an early age. Clay is a simple, pure material, immediately responsive to the touch. It is transformative in its nature, changing from soft, malleable and plastic to hard durable and permanent once heat is applied. These magical properties have captivated me ever since being introduced to this form of alchemy when I was an art student at high school.”
In addition to his own art practice, Palmateer has worked collaboratively with Pippin Drysdale for thirty years, throwing her minimalist porcelain vessels and marbles.
