(Pottery by Eleanor Murphey)
After almost a half century as a professional potter, Eleanor Murphey’s style is still evolving. She stays true to her American Craftsman and Art Nouveau roots but now the designs her bowls and vases with more fluid movement and harmonic design. “I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for 49 years,” she says. “I still love every aspect of this craft. When I’m working in my studio, I shut out everything from the rest of the world. It’s my peace place.” Murphey’s pottery is showcased at Red Chair Gallery in September.
“I call my style contemporary Craftsman,” Murphey says. She has always loved to work with natural motifs such as flowers, vegetables, and sea life. “I like the organic feel of natural items,” she says. Even though she may use the same theme, such as sunflowers, again and again, it is always unique. “Everything I do is one of a kind,” she explains.
As the years have passed, she believes that her artistry has improved. Her shapes get better, the drawing of designs is more accurate and her compositions become bolder. The octopus on a baquette tray reaches its legs to the edge of the plate, the trout dive into waves of water on a bowl and the cactus on a vase looks more prickly.
Murphey started out in 1976 as a potter in La Jolla ,California, joining Sunstone Gallery and Pottery Studio and becoming the owner years later. It was there that she began selling her pots to many people who still collect her work and have given it as gifts to friends and family. Eventually, she decided she didn’t want to operate a retail business and looked for a more affordable place to live than Southern California. She moved to Bend in 2003 and set up her studio in her home, keeping Sunstone Pottery as her business name.
After throwing her stoneware clay into shapes on a wheel, Murphey bisque fires them in an electric kiln. Then she decorates the surface with a wax resist technique. At that point, the pot is “just a canvas I can paint on,” Murphey notes. Based on the shape of the pot, she decides on the design, which may be tropical flowers and cacti or leaping fish in a river. She uses a brush to apply wax to create the surface design. Finally, the pieces are fired again in a gas kiln at 2380 degrees. Her gas kiln is her pride and joy. It is called a car kiln because it rolls into her studio on tracks for loading and then can be rolled out again for firing.
Next year, when Murphey celebrates her 50th year as a potter, her style will have evolved a little more and always for the better.