Written by James Wildman
When you first set eyes on a ceramic work of art designed and created by forty eight year old Nicholas Lysaght, it conjures up thoughts of the fusion of “earth” and “art”. These ceramic pots are gems of the bizarre. If they were a Hollywood movie the log line would be “mushrooms meets minerals”.
Not only is the design clever with the fit of metal and ceramic but the touches of gold leaf and fungus fit like it grew together. Normally an artist creates an exhibition and then puts on a show. Nicholas who has developed his range of ceramic art has decided on the organic root, pardon the pun. Through friends and family he has developed his process of showing one item at a time. Like a master inventor you never quite know what he is going to come up with. Time consuming and not inexpensive to make, his art belongs in the window of a gallery in Chelsea or in a movie star’s home or on an Oligarch’s yacht with one spot light shining down on it. Like a movie star each pot has its own stage presence.
I caught up with Nicholas who is based in Bath, England at his workshop. I asked him who, what and why “Pots of Gold?”
I asked him what drives him to create these masterpieces of corroded steel meets ceramic pot with a dash of gold leaf?
He thinks for a minute and says “I was gripped from an early age by clay; I was fascinated by the local village potter." "As a young boy, it was not only the tactile nature of clay, but the mimicking of the clay into other entities that has made me play with clay all my life." Trying to mimic minerals and natural elements and get a geological finish to what he was creating led him down a number of different paths. He is fascinated by rust and the changes of its decay. He was never into glazes it was always the natural feel of the clay that inspired him. He was always trying to mimic rocks and trees until it occurred to him...Why mimic why not simply include them into the clay. Eureka! Nicholas started to incorporate minerals into the clay, which caused all sorts of problems, because clay is so full of water and shrinks so much, so that it wouldn’t fit together. He had to stop the clay shrinking. No easy task. So with the help of a ceramic technician friend they pushed the boundaries of what you can do with the clay by putting in secret additives. "So it matures" he says, "at a much lower temperature slowly reducing the additive like cooking. Now through time and money, experimentation has led to the building of pots that allow him to incorporate fossils and minerals into clay without cracking or exploding...
Talking with Nicholas you get the impression he is driven in his pursuit of perfection. I ask him what he gets out of being a creator of such enigmatic and unusual art. He looks up "the pleasure is actually the idea, the production and getting it produced." "Seeing your ideas come to fruition with decorative aesthetic objects at the end." "That's my passion."
So what’s next?
Now he begins to open up about his collector's instinct, "I have always collected boxes of rust, ships' hulls, water wheels, I mean old corroding water wheels, and old vehicles…I am very eclectic." "I'm like Howard Hughes I can't let go."
He sources minerals, and fossils from all over the world. How about a Mammoth Tusk dredged up from the North Sea? Or using Turquoise, it's naturally river smooth from China. How about veneering and inlaying into the clay with dentist tools? He illuminates over his cutting edge potter's brain. He says, "I have a friend who is a dentist and he gives me used teeth grinders and all sorts of weird and unusual machinist things. It's like a David Lynch movie or homage to Christian Bale in the film The Machinist using the control of nature and the earth.
It seems the natural progression, although the clay is integral now, it is more like a canvas to work on than inlay. It takes Nicholas, through conceptual drawings to finished pot, three weeks to a month. He has sketch books full of ideas. "I just returned from Cornwall in the UK with two boxes of sea washed bricks", he tells me.
My passion is driven to create! Says Nicholas knowing how lucky he is to be doing something he loves and to be paid for it. He is one of the few lucky ones.
I asked him what was the first pot he designed and was it a happy accident or did he plan out his vision?
The corroded steel or Pot number 1 was the first. It was thrown onto the wheel. Now he is more abstract more in tune with the materials he is using. It's been a natural progression. It's a natural organic thing...so much so that he is cooking with clay and can adjust each firing to each pot's requirements. Although it requires endless patience.
Perhaps Nicholas is driven to create... His talent is hereditary from his painter father. "People love the pots," he tells me and "people buy them because they have an impulse and it gives me the ability to go on producing them." He ponders the evolution of the pots and comes up with "the decay of something that was once alive is decaying, but still beautiful. It’s like a Bergman movie, with continual references to organic decay and nature.
The second pot he designed was "Bracket Fungus." This is one of my favorites too. Once it was alive and now it is dead and shiny. But there is beauty in texture and the form. His experiments regenerate life. This pot reminds me of a melon cut for eating but with a fungus embedded in its side. It is totally surreal almost Bunuel like in its form.
The third pot is called "Dulcote." It looks like a sliced potato. It is made from "potato stone" and cut on an oil cooled saw into thin slices. It's a geo that’s been sliced. I tell him it looks like it's from out of space. Azurite copper mineral goes green because of the water he tells me. It was constructed by Nicholas to look like it fell out of the sky and be natural looking. He makes it look easy.
I asked him how much the pots were to buy. Now there’s a buying signal if ever there was one. Like a Hollywood actor he referred me to his agent Victoria de Rin of Rogers de Rin fame, a world renowned antiques dealer in Chelsea, England. A quick call to her and she told me five thousand pounds for one pot and upwards. I thought they would be more but I’m used to the States where big things cost a lot of money. She has extended a whole gallery room of her London based business Rogers de Rin to sponsor Nicholas who she believes emphatically in. “When I first saw the pots”, she said “I was spellbound and knew I would be happy to be his agent and patron.”
It reminds me of the story of an unknown artist who was collected because the collector simply liked the art. Once his art got traction his collection was worth a fortune. "Speculative art" is all about the collector’s eye. Do you like it? Why do you like it? Will others like it? Based on my perusal these are cutting edge designs and in this age of environmentally friendly art meets capitalism here’s one artist who is literally scouring the forests and earth for the basis of his “art meets ceramic pot”.
When Madonna or David Beckham like something, others follow maybe it’s premature but I’m sure his “pots of gold” are sure to catch the eye of someone famous or very liquid with exquisite taste, who likes what they see and is prepared to pay for the privilege of being a pioneer collector not a follower…
I caught up with Nicholas who is based in Bath, England at his workshop. I asked him who, what and why “Pots of Gold?”
I asked him what drives him to create these masterpieces of corroded steel meets ceramic pot with a dash of gold leaf?
He thinks for a minute and says “I was gripped from an early age by clay; I was fascinated by the local village potter." "As a young boy, it was not only the tactile nature of clay, but the mimicking of the clay into other entities that has made me play with clay all my life." Trying to mimic minerals and natural elements and get a geological finish to what he was creating led him down a number of different paths. He is fascinated by rust and the changes of its decay. He was never into glazes it was always the natural feel of the clay that inspired him. He was always trying to mimic rocks and trees until it occurred to him...Why mimic why not simply include them into the clay. Eureka! Nicholas started to incorporate minerals into the clay, which caused all sorts of problems, because clay is so full of water and shrinks so much, so that it wouldn’t fit together. He had to stop the clay shrinking. No easy task. So with the help of a ceramic technician friend they pushed the boundaries of what you can do with the clay by putting in secret additives. "So it matures" he says, "at a much lower temperature slowly reducing the additive like cooking. Now through time and money, experimentation has led to the building of pots that allow him to incorporate fossils and minerals into clay without cracking or exploding...
Talking with Nicholas you get the impression he is driven in his pursuit of perfection. I ask him what he gets out of being a creator of such enigmatic and unusual art. He looks up "the pleasure is actually the idea, the production and getting it produced." "Seeing your ideas come to fruition with decorative aesthetic objects at the end." "That's my passion."
So what’s next?
Now he begins to open up about his collector's instinct, "I have always collected boxes of rust, ships' hulls, water wheels, I mean old corroding water wheels, and old vehicles…I am very eclectic." "I'm like Howard Hughes I can't let go."
He sources minerals, and fossils from all over the world. How about a Mammoth Tusk dredged up from the North Sea? Or using Turquoise, it's naturally river smooth from China. How about veneering and inlaying into the clay with dentist tools? He illuminates over his cutting edge potter's brain. He says, "I have a friend who is a dentist and he gives me used teeth grinders and all sorts of weird and unusual machinist things. It's like a David Lynch movie or homage to Christian Bale in the film The Machinist using the control of nature and the earth.
It seems the natural progression, although the clay is integral now, it is more like a canvas to work on than inlay. It takes Nicholas, through conceptual drawings to finished pot, three weeks to a month. He has sketch books full of ideas. "I just returned from Cornwall in the UK with two boxes of sea washed bricks", he tells me.
My passion is driven to create! Says Nicholas knowing how lucky he is to be doing something he loves and to be paid for it. He is one of the few lucky ones.
I asked him what was the first pot he designed and was it a happy accident or did he plan out his vision?
The corroded steel or Pot number 1 was the first. It was thrown onto the wheel. Now he is more abstract more in tune with the materials he is using. It's been a natural progression. It's a natural organic thing...so much so that he is cooking with clay and can adjust each firing to each pot's requirements. Although it requires endless patience.
Perhaps Nicholas is driven to create... His talent is hereditary from his painter father. "People love the pots," he tells me and "people buy them because they have an impulse and it gives me the ability to go on producing them." He ponders the evolution of the pots and comes up with "the decay of something that was once alive is decaying, but still beautiful. It’s like a Bergman movie, with continual references to organic decay and nature.
The second pot he designed was "Bracket Fungus." This is one of my favorites too. Once it was alive and now it is dead and shiny. But there is beauty in texture and the form. His experiments regenerate life. This pot reminds me of a melon cut for eating but with a fungus embedded in its side. It is totally surreal almost Bunuel like in its form.
The third pot is called "Dulcote." It looks like a sliced potato. It is made from "potato stone" and cut on an oil cooled saw into thin slices. It's a geo that’s been sliced. I tell him it looks like it's from out of space. Azurite copper mineral goes green because of the water he tells me. It was constructed by Nicholas to look like it fell out of the sky and be natural looking. He makes it look easy.
I asked him how much the pots were to buy. Now there’s a buying signal if ever there was one. Like a Hollywood actor he referred me to his agent Victoria de Rin of Rogers de Rin fame, a world renowned antiques dealer in Chelsea, England. A quick call to her and she told me five thousand pounds for one pot and upwards. I thought they would be more but I’m used to the States where big things cost a lot of money. She has extended a whole gallery room of her London based business Rogers de Rin to sponsor Nicholas who she believes emphatically in. “When I first saw the pots”, she said “I was spellbound and knew I would be happy to be his agent and patron.”
It reminds me of the story of an unknown artist who was collected because the collector simply liked the art. Once his art got traction his collection was worth a fortune. "Speculative art" is all about the collector’s eye. Do you like it? Why do you like it? Will others like it? Based on my perusal these are cutting edge designs and in this age of environmentally friendly art meets capitalism here’s one artist who is literally scouring the forests and earth for the basis of his “art meets ceramic pot”.
When Madonna or David Beckham like something, others follow maybe it’s premature but I’m sure his “pots of gold” are sure to catch the eye of someone famous or very liquid with exquisite taste, who likes what they see and is prepared to pay for the privilege of being a pioneer collector not a follower…
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