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Clay Now Retired Teacher's Passion
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Published: November 29, 2008
NEW PORT RICHEY - Mary Jane Pritchard has spent a lifetime educating others. A retired elementary school teacher, Pritchard now leads a classroom filled with peers who share her passion for clay modeling.
What started as a social gathering with co-workers, Pritchard stumbled upon her creativity when one of her colleagues, Susan Heath, started teaching methods of handling clay to the group.
The group met for 20 years and she learned how to manipulate clay by rolling it out and shaping it.
"You scratch a shape in it and cut it out" she stated in a confidant manner. Pritchard continued, "I create something I see. I think an artist picks things apart."
A resident of New Port Richey for the past 23 years, Pritchard, a Michigan native, has been a member of the West Pasco Art Guild for about 20 years.
She teaches ceramics twice a week at the guild, which is on Jefferson Street, in downtown New Port Richey.
One of six children, Pritchard encouraged her parents to work in ceramics' after her father had a heart attack.
He was a self-taught electrician, while her mother would market the fresh produce the family grew in their garden.
Pritchard considers herself a novice when it comes to the arts.
In the late 1960s she studied oil painting in a workshop that was held in a basement of a local artist. "She gave us the basics," Pritchard said.
Although her clay modeling is centered on Mother Nature, such as flowers and birds, her oil paintings are very abstract and different from her clay sculptures.
Even though Pritchard has since given up oil painting she works with clay on a daily basis in her sun porch, which doubles as a workshop.
Of late she has begun to work with pen and ink doing "crosshatching." Crosshatching uses layers of strokes placed at an angle.
Usually, the first layer is vertical, the next horizontal, and the next strokes are rotated 45-degrees, and so on.
This methodical approach can look a little mechanical, so artists often use variation in direction to add depth, interest and lighting.
Visit www.westpascoartguild.com for a list of upcoming classes that are offered by the West Pasco Art Guild.
Scott E. Smith can be reached at 727-815-1063 or ssmith@suncoastnews.com.
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