Rish Gordon

Rish Gordon (* as Patricia Susan Roddan in Carlisle , England in 1935 ) is a glass engraver who emigrated to Australia in 1979. She worked in Western Australia until 2005 and since then in New South Wales .

education

The daughter of a diplomat went to high school in Nairobi and, after the family returned to Great Britain, studied art history in Edinburgh from 1953 to 1957 . There it was under the direction of the glass engraver Helen Monro-Turner in the Baroque engraving technique with a copper - burin ( copper wheel engravure technique formed). She then received regular orders from the London glass manufacturer Whitefriars Glass. After completing her training in 1957, she moved to Norway with Alasdair Gordon , her fellow student from the art academy.

The first time in Europe

After a first year working together for the Norwegian glass manufacturer Hadelands , Alasdair Gordon and Rish Roddan, who married in December 1958, established their first glass studio in Bergen , which they expanded in the 1960s. They raised four children; two of them later also became glass artists. Although their studio was very successful and even received orders from the Norwegian royal family, they planned their return to Scotland.

From 1973 to 1979 the Gordons worked in Crieff / Perthshire for a glass factory. During this time, Rish also worked as a watercolor painter of plants and animals in the Norwegian countryside, and she developed the idea of ​​transferring such motifs onto glass even then. Her paintings first took part in exhibitions in Scotland in the mid-1970s.

In 1979 Alasdair Gordon received an invitation to the 150th anniversary of the state of Western Australia in Perth . He liked it there so much that he decided to emigrate with the family.

Glass art in Australia

In 1980, the Gordon couple opened the glass workshop The Gordon Studio in Fremantle . In 1994 Rish also opened her own gallery in Palmyra , a local government area within the metropolis of Perth. Alasdair and Rish Gordon claim to be the only glass artists in Western Australia who have mastered the historical engraving technique with the engraver. At first they completely rejected commercial engraving techniques with the sandblasting fan; Meanwhile, Rish Gordon uses this instrument for the prefabrication, but still finalizes her pieces manually with the engraver.

While Alasdair became known for a wide variety of floral decors, Rish Gordon's style mainly stands for lifelike animal figures engraved in colored vases and bowls. African wild animals reflect the habitat of their childhood, European domestic animals their environment in Norway and Scotland, wallabies and kangaroos their new Australian homeland. These works were represented in many exhibitions and are still widely available in galleries in major Australian cities. The Australian Ornithologists Association became aware of their realistic bird representations.

In recent years, however, Rish Gordon has also broken new ground with abstract decors.

Their children Kevin Gordon and Eileen Gordon developed their own style with abstract decors; Her son-in-law Grant Donaldson also works for the family's glass studio. In 2005 the Gordons built a new gallery on the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne , which has since sold all of the family's work.

Exhibitions

Before emigrating to Australia, Rish Gordon was represented in various European collective exhibitions with watercolors. Since emigrating to Australia, she has been making contributions from her glass art. From 2003 to 2007 she was also represented at glass exhibitions outside Australia.

• 1975 Glamis Castle , Scotland
• 1976 Scone Palace , Perthshire / Scotland
• 1979 Dunblane Art Galleries
• 1981 Foyer of the concert hall in Perth; various public buildings of Western Australia
• 1990 Entrance to St. Brigid's boarding school, Lesmurdie / Western Australia
• 1991 Arts & Crafts Fairs in Melbourne , Canberra and Sydney
• 1997 4 galleries in Victoria and New South Wales
• 2000 Guest Artists - 27th Annual Exhibition of the Wildlife Art Society of Australasia, Melbourne
• 2003–2007 5 × SOFA (Sculpture Objects & Functional Art), Chicago
• 2006 2 exhibitions (March and July) in the Glass Gallery Leerdam , "Best Artists 2006" and "Australian Visions in Glass"
• 2007 nominated for the Living Treasures List of the Australian National Trust
• 2008 Glass Artist's Gallery Glebe near Sydney : From Out of the West
• 2009 Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, as part of the exhibited private glass collection Joyce Kerfoot

Rish Gordon was involved several times in Western Australia's annual events such as the Fremantle Expo and the Kings Park Wildflower Festival in the 1990s.

In 1990, her works were recognized in York at the Art and Craft Awards of the York Society.

signature

Rish Gordon puts the titles of her works completely on the bottom of the objects, signed "Rish" and adds the year.

literature

• Tom Goodearl: Engraved Glass, International Contemporary Artists . 1999

• Helen Crompton: Gordon Studio Glass, in: Craft Arts International, Vol. 56, 2002/2003, pp. 45 ff.

Web links

• Gallery with works