Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/heather-mcswain-1

Birth Place

Mildura, VIC, Australia

Biography

Potter Heather McSwain was born April 20, 1921 in Mildura, Victoria. She studied at a junior Technical School before enrolling at Swinburne Technical College for four years from 1938 to 1941 and undertaking part time studies at the National Gallery School in Melbourne. She undertook a Commercial Art course typical of the period that included commercial art, design, and fine art subjects such drawing, painting and ceramic modelling. During the War in the Pacific, from 1942-1945, she spent four years at the Planning Department, Department of Aircraft Production, Fishermen’s Bend Victoria. When peace was declared she worked as a freelance Display Artist in Victoria before moving in 1952 with her friend Marjorie Loats to Western Australia to work as a commercial artists for Art Photos process engravers. Commissions undertaken at the time included murals for the War Memorial Library of Adelaide Boys High School in 1958, an Empire and Commonwealth Games Poster in 1962 and a ceramic sculpture for the Therry Awards (National Catholic Schools’ Drama Awards) in 1963. Other commissions during her career included an altarpiece for a Mt Pleasant church and private textile and stained glass commissions. She had taken up potting as a hobby. Her kiln was built by a technician from Brisbane and Wunderlich. As was typical of the time in Western Australia she dug her clays herself and adapted them to suit her needs. Teaching at the University’s Summer School brought her to the notice of a number of people and she was persuaded to join the staff of the Fremantle Technical School, at this time the centre of artistic endeavour in the crafts. She was probably also enrolled for classes with art critic Charles Hamilton who refereed her for a teaching position in 1961 referring to her as a capable and progressive student. McSwain never married and lived with her designer partner Marjorie Loats in a house they designed and partially built at 25 River Parade Salter Point. The house was adorned with murals, stained glass and textiles by McSwain. Flying parrots, pomegranates, lilies, leaves and thistles in bright secondary colours were painted on the walls. In 1959 at the newly opened Skinner Galleries in Perth McSwain, Ida Ott Nielsen and Marie Miller shared an exhibition. Miller’s weaving, Ott Neilsen’s screen printing and McSwain’s ceramics were displayed in the new purpose-built gallery run by the enterprising Rose Skinner. Miller was the President of the Women’s Society of Fine Arts and Crafts who made a living as a weaver selling all round Australia, Ott-Nilsen had worked in Den Permanente- the Design Centre in Copenhagen before accompanying her husband the builder of the Narrows Bridge to Perth for a few years. The exhibition was impressive and attracted considerable attention. McSwain arranged the work as a series of landscaped tableaux incorporating foliage and other props. Photographs taken by Leif Ott Nilsen record a stylish exhibition. Reporter Jane Scott in an article on the show was at pains to indicate that whilst the women may have started their careers as leisure time hobbyists the three had thriving studio businesses. Ott Nilsen’s six designs for fabric lengths were each printed in two sample colour-ways. One, based on the native castor oil plant, was particularly striking. The wall hangings Spanish Bull and Siamese Cat were printed in runs of twelve. The eye-catching Spanish Bull, catalogue item 14, cost four guineas. McSwain’s graphic and striking pots were exhibited as well as her ceramic sculptures. The slab-built work had a distinctly Scandinavian look popular at the time. She worked basically in terra cotta, applying matt black and white and turquoise alkaline glazes. These she used on pieces such as the Diamond Check jar. Other pots were scored and decorated with strongly geometric black lines and dots. Her oeuvre included bowls, tea sets, jars of all sizes, coffee pots, vases, candlesticks and small table sculptures of figures and animals. Attenuated Siamese cats and elongated and geometrically stylised figures predominated in the sculptures. McSwain was aware of international trends and historic work but as an artist/designer-potter strove for individuality. Her interests lay with strong form and medieval heraldry. The devices emblazoned on the tents of nobles fascinated her. These medieval structures used to define person, place and possession were utilized in her work. The faces of her figures were transformed into shield-shaped masks, the mask dominating the body. Although consciously an artist-potter she did not just decorate the pots but conceived the shape and decoration as a whole entity. The coiled pot no. 110, Covered Jar with Head incorporated these principles. It is now in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia. In 1969 she was awarded her Teachers’ Training Certificate from the Technical Division of the West Australian Education Department and could be eligible for a permanent appointment. This enabled her to travel and she visited Japan and later Spain and South America. In the 1970s she attended workshops with the many international visitors the Craft Council movement brought to Australia. These included Englishmen Michael Cardew and Harry Davis and the American Paul Soldner. She also attended workshops with Australian Ivan McMeekin. At this stage she was exhibiting at the Waterways Studio. In the 1974 International Bendigo Pottery Award she exhibited two storage jars. One had figures on the lid. It was forty-eight centimetres high and was priced at $100. The other with a dark glazed lid was twenty-eight centimetres high and priced at $70. Her later work was inclined to be more bulbous and conventional without the graphic adornment except in the case of plump female figurines. McSwain continued to teach ceramics at the Fremantle Technical College until about 1988 and was a popular and well-respected teacher. On her retirement she spent time sailing in her yacht on the Swan River. A considerable number of her students set up as studio potters. One group banded together to market their work as the Kiln Shelf Potters. McSwain was also involved in the formation of the South of the River Potters Club. She died in April 1996 and the Art Gallery of Western Australia purchased a collection of work from her estate. RED SECTIONS Writers: Dr Dorothy Erickson Date written: 2010 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 20 April 1921

Summary

Heather McSwain was a potter. She was aware of international trends and historic work but as an artist/designer-potter strove for individuality.

Gender

Female

Died

Apr-96

Age at death

75