sabbia gallery

Ceramics, Glass + Fibre

Main Gallery   22 May - 22 June 2013

Giles Bettison – The New Studio

Sabbia Gallery is pleased to present ‘The New Studio’, the long awaited solo exhibition by Giles Bettison, one of Australia’s most inspiring and collectible glass artists.

This year I have begun working from a studio that Suzanne and I built in our back yard. It took a little longer that two years to get it to a stage where we could begin making glass in it though it is not totally finished, yet. Over that two year period I did not make any glass work aside from a small handful of pieces that I made at teaching and demonstrating commitments. I was interested to see if I continued to think and wonder about making glass, I did, and jotted down ideas and developments that came to me. The recurring themes that continued to ask for my attention during the studio construction period are expressed with pattern and colour.

I have always been interested in the way pattern recognition has been used in human societies. I imagine that from the earliest times it was a fundamental human survival tool. People have used patterns and abstraction to signify sensitivity, understanding and knowledge, some kind of grasp on life and its mysteries. I have been making work using textile references throughout my career as an artist. To celebrate our new studio and a return to making glass I am making further explorations with colour in the Chroma and Textile series and exploring increasingly complex pattern generation in the Lace series.

It is a joy to have a studio so close to home and to be making again. Moulding my practice to our family life and back yard has been exciting and at times challenging, mostly it has been a lot of fun. I am very happy to be able to share my work again and am looking forward to the future with The New Studio.

Giles Bettison, May 2013