Burnaby artist Bill Thomson is a very busy man. He is president of Burnaby Arts Council, so is always volunteering at their Deer Lake Art Gallery, as well as being actively involved in the drive to have a new larger Burnaby Art Gallery. But he is mainly known for his whimsical found-object sculptures. He also paints and fiddles with computer technology to alter images.

Recently I noticed a super twirled image he’d adopted as his Facebook profile picture and couldn’t resist saying that it would be a great image to put on a plate – involved with the painting of plates as I am… Immediately Bill responded ‘yes please, when and how big?’

So I made him a large round slab plate, using a found thrift store plate as a form, and told him that it is 13 1/2″ across. Last Friday, while I madly continued trying to get some 22 new jugbirds finished, he spent the day here. First we taped a piece of newsprint over his large printed copy of his circular image, on a window so that he could trace the design. He cut the shapes out and used them to draw onto the bone dry surface. I wish I had had some old-fashioned carbon copy paper here to transfer the outline.

Bill spent the afternoon painting the shapes with underglazes, finding that indeed, the process takes rather a long time! It’ll be exciting to see whether my colours match what he used for the original painting and whether the intensity and brightness are the same. Next day he sent me a copy of the original painting from which he’d generated the swirly design. Fun!

Now he has to learn a potter’s patience while I finish as many of my pieces as possible. That filling of the kiln will be helped by a small workshop I’m hosting here on Saturday for members of TriCity Potters. They’re keen to try out underglazes on cone 04 clay forms too. Some may use slips instead.

I will, as usual, post photos of Bill’s finished plate and all the TriCity Potters’ work, once they’re fired twice.

This is a website with some more information on Bill and his work.

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/bill-thomson.html

This Picasa album is merely what I could capture on a sunny Fall day here in BC’s Lower Mainland. I’m hoping others will find a way to credit the artists. All I could be sure of were the pieces made by Bill Thomson and me.

https://picasaweb.google.com/112208740085943894765/BirdArtInstallationDayBurnaby?locked=true&feat=email

It was fun to have been part of an event that included artists who used all sorts of media: clay, metal, plastic, fabric, dime-store finds. I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t have made a clay/found object bird unless I had this event to work towards although the dandelion digger metal part has had me thinking sometimes! So thank you Bill, and I’ll look forward to similar events in the future.