Presently, Here

East Gippsland Art Gallery
31 Oct – 6 Dec, 2025

OPENING Fri 31 Oct at 5:30pm | FREE ENTRY
ARTISTS’ TALKS SAT 15 NOV at 11am

Presently, Here…

Clay brought us together, but it’s everything around it that kept us here—the conversations, the laughter, the quiet understanding. Late nights in the studio, long-table gatherings, the rhythm of making and remaking.

Failures turned into breakthroughs, lessons into stories. No competition, just support. No expectations, just exploration. We shape clay, and in turn, it shapes us.

Our work embodies earth, air, water, and fire—elements that forge both art and friendship.

Artists

Andrea Hall

Andrea Hall is a ceramic artist based on the lands of the Brayakaulung people, GunaiKurnai, Gippsland. Her practice explores the interplay between the environment, our emotions and the world around us.

Andrea’s work is most often functional and wearable pieces, reflecting her appreciation for handmade and items created with care. Inspired by her local environment, Andrea experiments with colour, patterns and movement.

Andrea is conscious of the environmental footprint of pottery and makes every effort to conserve and recycle all throughout the making process.

Smiling woman standing, holding a painting

Elizabeth McCarthy

Liz Millear

Wendy Reeve

Bradden Taylor

Cindy Tong

Cindy Tong is a ceramic artist creating on GunaiKurnai Land in Sale, Gippsland. Inspired by the intricate patterns and textures of the natural world, her work explores details found in foliage, flora, and geological forms. Moving between abstract compositions and interpretive renderings of Australian flora, her ceramics reflect both curiosity and care.

Her process is grounded in craft and refinement—whether wheel-thrown, hand-built, carved, or decorated. Working with clay’s natural ability to be shaped and transformed, she creates forms that balance function, contemplation, and aesthetic beauty.

An early-career ceramicist, Cindy has received recognition through the 2025 Siliceous Award for Ceramic Excellence. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions locally and nationally, and is available through select galleries and collectives across Gippsland. Alongside her gallery collections, she also creates small-batch functional ware for everyday use, carrying the same thoughtful approach into objects designed to be held, used, and enjoyed.

Elisabeth Wearne

Art has always been a quiet rhythm alongside my work in healthcare. My ceramics journey began between lockdowns in 2021 learning wheel throwing from Wen Reeve and Liz McCarthy, whose teaching and generosity welcomed me into a new family of precious friends. To be exhibiting together feels deeply special.

I continue to learn with the inimitable Malcolm Boyd, exploring the slower freedoms of hand building, the meditative repetition of mark-making, and the alchemy of wood firing.

My work often begins in conversation with the natural world. My daily walks leave me carrying back fragments to the studio – questions, imaginings, fleeting impressions – that I try to catch in clay. It anchors me simultaneously to early memories and future possibilities.

Artists’ Statements

My work aims to express a sense of harmony and ease, both within ourselves and in relation to the world around us. It seeks tranquility and equanimity, tapping into our inner strength, and for me embodies the concept of being Presently, Here.

This body of work draws inspiration from my observations of my environment, as well as my personal quest for solace amid the turmoil in our world. Through windswept moments spent gazing at the distant mountains and feeling grounded by the earth while clouds float above, I explore our capacity to weather life’s storms with calmness and authenticity.

Through my use of soft tones, the absence of external glaze, and the movement created by carvings, folds and layering of slip, each piece, along with the titles of my series, is designed to evoke serenity and introspection. Compiling this work has presented several challenges, from conveying feelings into the clay, working with thin slabs and cultivating patience in crafting folds. I have purposely left incidental marks and scratches on my pieces in an attempt to reflect the imperfectness of ourselves, our world and all that which we create.

The beautiful friendships formed through clay have been a constant inspiration and encouragement to me, helping me to discover my own unique style and form of expression. My work, Equanimity, Tranquil Folds, and The River of Mountains hopes to invite a meditative, reflective state, nurturing our inner strength. I hope, that you as the viewer, can experience a sense of peace and discover something that resonates with you.

Equanimity: the state of being calm and in control of your emotions, esp. in a difficult situation. (dictionary.cambridge.org)

Andrea HallAhh Clay

Clay brought us together, but chronic illness and other factors took me apart, to follow another direction. After 25 years studying and practising ceramic art, my health necessitated a less energetic creative pursuit so I concentrated on drawing and painting.

I have been lucky to have the support and tutelage of two local artists Jan Long and Rhonda Gray from whom I’d been learning for five or so years. I am also very grateful for the support of my pottery friends and for their organisation of this exhibition.

Whilst I miss pottery and sculpture, I am thoroughly enjoying painting and finding out what the various mediums can do. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, life is too short to learn it all, but any learning is a gift.

My aim in my painting is to attempt to bring out the beauty of what I see, enhance the colours, magnify the details and enrich the surroundings. In nature even the ugly has something beautiful in it (except for huntsman spiders), and nature as always, is perfect. We must do all we can to preserve it.

On my recent trip to Narooma, I noticed the detritus that had been washed up on the beach. When sunlight revealed the colours hidden in some of the subjects, this inspired me to create the Flotsam and Jetsom series.

Recent experiments with watercolour opened my eyes to some of the things this medium can do, showing pale pastel softness to bright bold saturated colour.

I look forward to continuing to pursue all of the possibilities in art.

Elizabeth McCarthyPainter

Looking forward, you can’t see where things will go, but, looking back, you realise there were signposts. You just didn’t see them.

Clay. Always clay.

Very young Liz played with china cats, fashioned a clumsy little bowl from clay found at the water’s edge, coiled a lumpy vase.

Teenage Liz saw a potter’s wheel in action for the first time. What witchery is this? That spinning wheel – mesmerising.

20 years roll on without touching clay but an itch must be scratched and I learnt to throw pots. Just a year of throwing. And then… nothing… for another 20 years.

But clay was still calling, and I found Liz (McCarthy) and Wendy’s pottery classes. That spinning disc pulled me back in like a hypnotic drug. Round and round.

And slowly I realised that the vortex of spinning clay had whirled me into a friendship group.

A group that has gently supported me during this dreadful 2025 where breast cancer and chemotherapy meant I couldn’t immerse my hands in clay.

But thankfully, I am… still… Presently, here.

I could not have consciously chosen these colour combinations. The fabrics are random scraps from friends and my own sewing. Seemingly disparate colours.

But I have great faith in serendipity.

Just like a friendship group, throw together a mix of people, stitch them together with experiences in common and everything comes together sympathetically with its own harmony.

Liz MillearQuilter

The natural world is both my inspiration and my teacher. Living among forests and waterways, I am constantly reminded of resilience, transformation, and the cycles that connect all living things. I watch the seasons shift — seed pods forming, plants breaking down into compost, new shoots rising — and see how each stage carries the memory of what came before. These rhythms shape my creative process, where nothing is wasted: materials are reclaimed, reformed, and given new life.

Sustainability lies at the centre of my practice. I recycle clay, fire at mid-range temperatures to reduce energy use, and rely on tank water to minimise my footprint. By working with the resources at hand, I mirror nature’s own resourcefulness and seek to create pieces that reflect both its beauty and the responsibility of conservation.

The repetitive forms I create are a reflection of life’s cycles. I am fascinated by how the same patterns emerge again and again—microscopic and macroscopic, plant and human, seen and unseen — flowing through every stage of existence. My surfaces and shapes echo the traces of weathering, shifting light, and the remnants of what has passed, carrying the essence of renewal.

For me, clay is a conversation. Each touch of the material is a response, shaped by experience, which carries into the next interaction. This dialogue extends beyond the studio — to colleagues, the environment, and the life cycles that surround us. Every relationship leaves its trace, feeding the next stage of growth.

Through my work, I hope to foster a deeper awareness of our place in these cycles: that nothing is ever truly lost, but continually transformed, repurposed, and renewed

Wendy ReeveReeve Ceramics

I create my work from a small shed overlooking the rolling farmland of Boisdale in rural Gippsland. Each stoneware vessel is hand thrown on the wheel, shaped slowly and intuitively. I don’t seek precision or symmetry; instead, I embrace the subtle differences that make each piece unique.

Woodfiring has become central to my practice, valued not only for its visual depth but for the sense of discovery it brings. The flames leave flashes of colour and unexpected surface variations that surprise and intrigue me each time I open the kiln. I fire with locally sourced recycled timber, ensuring the process remains connected to my environment and as sustainable as possible.

I incorporate ash from my fireplace into my glazes, creating a tangible link between my home life and my creative process. Seashells gathered from the Gippsland coast add texture and tactile contrast, grounding my work in the landscape that inspires it. Looking ahead, I plan to explore saggar and pit firing, and to utilise locally sourced clay to further strengthen the connection between my practice and the environment that surrounds it.

Bradden TaylorThrown by BT

Various pots by Cindy Tong for Presently, Here Exhibition

This body of work brings together the influence of six artists who have guided and inspired my practice: Andrea Hall, Liz Millear, Elizabeth McCarthy, Liz Wearne, Bradden Taylor, and Wendy Reeve. Each connection has left an impression that can be traced in the pieces gathered here.

The decoration techniques reflect the way Andrea and I learn side by side – always curious, always seeking new knowledge. The porcelain vessels carry Elizabeth McCarthy’s persistence, her determination to move forward with passion no matter the challenge. The coloured vessels recall Liz Millear’s encouragement to take a leap and to experiment freely, without hesitation. The leaf capsules reveal a shared sensibility with Liz Wearne; and I trust that if a piece resonates with her, it’s because we are drawn to the same aesthetics. The tall wheel-thrown pots hold the growth I admire in Bradden Taylor, evolving from small forms into larger, more refined vessels. And the freer, more relaxed movement in this collection reflects the influence of Wendy Reeve, who reminds me to let go and allow the clay to speak for itself.

Their influence is embedded within each piece – forming not only the work before you, but also works that came before it. The support, guidance, and friendship of these artists have been part of my success, and they continue to carry me forward, presently, here.

Cindy TongCindy Tong Ceramics

To be here, I must know there.

I started out making a series of pots that were love letters to the Lakes – pieces that reminded me of the rocks and logs on the shore that receive new gifts with each high tide in their creases and recesses – stones, leaves, weed and twigs.

Many of these pots are made similarly indented to receive ephemera. I ruminated for months about what it means to be good at receiving the gifts life’s tides offer us.

That was there. Now we’re here.

These vessels are now about the conditions they’ve emerged from. My being a learner in a flow of conversation with many teachers, and a grateful friend of my fellow potters. I am now more interested in the ways we offer ourselves to others. These pots feel to me like the side effects of friendship and it’s in this spirit that I offer them to you.