STORY BY MAHMOOD FAZAL, PHOTOS BY CHRIS TURNER

Clunes ceramicist Chandra Paul was raised in St Kilda with a passion for art and classical music. “There wasn’t much encouragement from home,” she says. “When I was younger I played the violin but I wasn’t great at it, then I enrolled in classical voice training.”

At Melbourne University, Chandra studied for an Arts degree before completing her honours in Psychology. In practice the work left its mark on her, “I went to work in welfare…domestic violence, outreach stuff. I wasn't prepared for it,” says Chandra. “I just had no emotional resources to be able to handle that stuff.”

Chandra was introduced to pottery while working in the outreach program, where she worked on a pottery mural with the patients. “I was going to Northcote Pottery, just to stay a few steps ahead of the class because I didn’t understand the process. I was starting to get quite unwell. I went to TAFE to study ceramics. And that was like the first time I'd ever really done something out of pure love.”

She was enchanted by the work of David Ray, “he does really opulent, Baroque pieces. I think what I loved about it was that it was gestural, free, imaginative and grotesque.” Stephen Benwell also caught her eye, “He does really loose forms, their functional forms. He's a painter, but he's using clay as a surface. I just liked his really instinctive unpremeditated little drawings that he was doing on his work.”

Chandra’s pieces draw the audience into the essence of craft, “It's so unpretentious and it's so deep. For me, it's simple and real. It’s why I love outsider art. I just love that idea that without any training, without any initiation into the art world, people make their work look so intricate and magical.”

The colour palettes of Chandra’s pieces reflect a mood that is raw and timeless. The grey tones she works with illuminate a ghostly spirit in her pots and vases, vessels that we use in everyday life.

“The thing that grabbed me most was the wheel…just throwing on the wheel. The momentum was mesmerising to me. It was like a form of hypnosis,” she says. “And it occupied my brain so that I wasn't thinking about other stuff. All I want to do was just spend eight hours a day on the wheel.”

When asked about how that led to her developing a style, Chandra adds, “[ceramics] are a very technical body of knowledge. It takes a lot of balance, rhythm and practice to actually form a style.” Chandra began her career with expressive, gestural pieces. “And then I moved on from that. And I did the opposite, like really fine sculptural work; organic forms made of like, paper-thin clay. Very intricate, and beautiful.”

Now working as a studio potter, she has strayed away from conceptual work. She says, “I just want to be myself. It’s traditional but very contemporary in that it’s minimal.” Her work is quiet, rough, and subdued. “I work really hard on my glazes to make the clay look like a rock that you pull out of the earth.”

The motif that runs beneath her work is about working with nature, “a theme that's coming through is indoor gardens because when I was having a tough time, the thing that pulled me through was nature, and just watching life grow.”

Chandra sits at the wheel to unwind the lost pieces of herself, before finding her strength in the process. 

“The lesson I've learned is that you can't rush,” says Chandra. “Things just take as long as they take. There are issues that you're going to have and they're going to take time to process. And at the end of it, you'll feel better but it's just not something you can rush.”

On her Instagram page, green leaves spring from her vases like miracles bred from stone. It’s a story of hope and resilience, a journey she knows all too well. 

Chandra Paul

@chandrapaulartist

chandipaul@gmail.com

0433 029 448 

40 Canterbury St, Clunes