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10 Year Anniversary

This has been a very eventful year for Sanbao. 2010 marked the tenth anniversary of Sanbao International Ceramic Art Institute and Working Village. The institute has seen a massive building program. New studios and galleries were completed.

The number of residency accommodations has been increased and many of the original rooms have been renovated. The restaurant has also grown in size with the additions of more dining rooms. The kitchen staff has continued to prepare high quality food continued to drew praise from visitors and residents.

September and October saw the coming together of artists from all points of the globe to participate in the 2010 China Sanbao International Art Festivals. They also came to help Li Jiangshan (Jackson Li) to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Sanbao. It was a very exciting time for everyone.

Although the majority of activities were planned to take place in October the actual celebration began during the NCECA conference in Philadelphia when the NCECA international residency awards saw Carol Gentithes and Fred Johnston sharing the Sanbao International Residency award. Both Carol and Fred are two dedicated ceramic artists who work out of their Johnston and Gentithes Art Pottery studio in Seagrove North Carolina, USA.

Other invited artists were Daphne Corregan and Gilles Suffren from and Jean Nicolas Gerard and Vivianne Hamon also from the south of France. This group of artists went right to work on projects.

The activities were not all work related. There were projects of all sorts. The west Virginia gang came by Sanbao and went about building a great pizza oven.

While the pizza oven was being constructed Saskia Pfaeltzer, from the Netherlands was seriously building a body of work. Working in clay was a brand new experience for her. Saskia is a bronze sculptor who gained new insite to creating with the new medium porcelain.

Two artists from New Zeland, who work with silica and clay Peter Lange and Duncun Shearer set about experimenting to find a new use for the famous Chinese condiment MSG. They built a small gas fired test kiln that they filled with pots. They brought the temperature up and filled the ports with about 10 Kilos of the condiment. The results made everyone Oh! And Aw!

Ohhhhh What do we have here?

Through out the entire time a young lady from Australia, Lucille Nobleza, was busy running around with cameras hanging all over her body while documenting the entrire celebration. She managed to keep everyone in here camera sites so there will be a great story coming from her in the future.

 

The Japanese ceramist Shini Koyama a well known free lance illustrator and printmaker and ceramic artist and his partner Dr. Cory Jane Taylor , a guest lecturer from Queensland were a pleasure to talk with they kept us all Interested with great conversational intercourse. Shinichi displayed his free style brush work using the famous blue and white porcelain of Jingdezhen.. Shin was always so busy working it was difficult to catch him on camera.

Visiting the big pot factory Cory on left in the yellow sweater is studying the work of a visiting artist to the factory. Shin was keep a low profile just in side the door of the factory.

It seemed that everyone was working a great speed in order ot complete projects. A young well known artist from the Netherlands going by the name Pipijn van den Nieuwendijk came to Sanbao in order to prepare the porcelain tiles that would be used in the Delft Display Booth at the Jingdezhen International Ceramic Fair. His booth set up was a great success. His optimism was his trademark.

 

There were many other artists that stopped by for a visit to Sanbao some stayed a couple of weeks and others a few days.

There was Amanda Harris from Australia who dropped in after travelling the far west of China, Tara Wilson from the UK,Efstathia Milaraki from Greece and Vipo Srivilasa from Bankoil Thailand.

(Vipo and his blue and white work.)

It was also good to see Jim Leedy back at Sanbao working on a very large painting project. He was accompanied by Molly Forman. It was always a joy to stop by his studio and spend a while talking about the art that was inspired by the landscape visable just out side his studio window.

(Jim Leedy and Molly Forman at the Mayor’s Dinner)

The activities at Sanbao were numerous. There were demonstartions of Caligraphy, blue and white painting on porcelain, slide show presentation by the visiting artists, there was the pizza party during Delft Day Celebrations and the grand dumpling party held on the studio balcony.

In addition to the sanbao activities there were visits to the local factories, notably the big jar factory and the bottle factory. There was the Jingdezhen International Ceramic Fair where everyone was hosted by the city at a four star hotel. The trip to Yaoli and to the Wi Mountains topped of the celebrations. There were so many activities I am sure I have not listed all of them.

(Big Jar Factory)

(Visit to Yaoli)

(Visit to the bottle factory.)

All in all it was a very busy time for Sanbao and the staff. We enjoyed everyone’s company and we look forward to seeing them again in the near future.

Sanabo International Ceramic Art Institute and Working Village

We wish you all a very happy New Year for 2011.

Jingdezhen International Ceramics Exposition
October  8-22, 2010

6th annual expo in Jingdezhen featuring workshop, studio and artist works, master artist workshops, conference, exhibitions, dragon kiln firing, performances and banquets.