Alan GillottJill Moger, an award winning prodigiously talented wildlife ceramic artist who lives and crafts in York, will be at the Blake Gallery in Blake Street on the 1st September with a lump of clay to meet and talk to anyone who is interested in ceramics, wildlife, or who would love to own one of the beautifully realistic animals she produces from her kiln
The term award winning is an understatement. Jill is a Council Member of the Society of Wildlife Artists, won the President’s and Vice President’s awards of the Society of Women Artists, received the Anthony J Lester Art Critic Award in 2006, elected a Vice President of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers, won the Bidder and Borne Sculpters and Gravers award and an honourable mention for the Gold Memorial Bowl. These awards are not lightly given and you only have to visit the Blake Gallery to see why she has garnered so much praise. Her work is to be found all over the world and is especially loved by anyone with an interest in nature.
Jill is best known for the incredible portraits of amphibians and reptiles, who she displays basking on rocks or logs, in an incredibly life like attitude. Her reptiles positively glisten with health and you can imagine them about to leap after a passing insect or nibble on one’s inquisitive fingers.
The variety of finishes needed for the animal itself and the environment she set it in, requires finely controlled kiln work, each finish needing a separate firing: one of Jill’s sculptures can involve four to six visits to the kiln. Bearing in mind that any subsequent firing has the potential to destroy the existing work, considerable care and control is needed to ensure a piece is completed undamaged.
Not all of her creations are necessarily four legged and a recent ant installation required her to create over 1000 tiny miniatures to populate the nest.
Jill’s interest in natural history is rooted in her childhood where her passion was sated by books and films on naturalists and wild life, visits to zoos and looking after her own real life reptiles. This long acquaintance with a genera of animal about which may of us can be quite nervous, means that Jill has a life time of practical knowledge and observation that is utilised to perfect each and every piece. This intimate knowledge and her ability realise the essence of organisms as living sculptures has let to commissions from leading television, opera and ballet companies.
Jill moved to York in 1981 and gave her first solo exhibition at York University in the same year. Jill is yet another of those incredibly talented artists who are known throughout the world for their talents yet are virtually unknown in Town.
Jill Moger will be at the Blake Gallery on Saturday the 1st September from around 11am until 4pm with a table, some clay, and her knowledge. A number of her pieces are on display and the gallery is open 10am until 5pm. Closed Tuesday and Sunday.
Jill Moger: Meet the Artist, The Blake Gallery, Blake Street, York, 1St September 2102 from 11am ‘till 4pm.
