About Kay
Kay with Basil + Bertie
I’ve lived in Havelock North since 1999 when I moved to Hawke’s Bay with my husband but sadly, he died shortly after our move. It was a difficult few years that lead me back to filling my life with creativity.
Today my work life is creating ceramic figures and writing articles for magazine publications both of which draw on my creativity.
Making sculptures in clay attracted me while studying Art and Design at the EIT Ideas School in Hawke’s Bay and ever since my attention has been directed to the human form.
From a potting shed to a studio
“Stable companions”, by Philip E. Stretton 1909
“Stable companions”, by Philip E. Stretton 1909, was handed down through my husband’s family and it was the sale of this painting that helped convert the old potting shed in my garden into my ceramics studio.
By working many, many hours here I became a ceramic artist.
I’m very grateful for this legacy.
Kay welcomes visitors to her studio by appointment & opens up her studio every year during Labour Weekend for the Hawke’s Bay Arts Trail
MY ART PRACTICE
FIGURES IN CLAY
My ceramic practice focuses on the human figure in motion and repose, in gesture and expression. The expressionist representations reflect a unique style of ceramic sculpture developed over eighteen years through experimentation of form, using different clays, mark-making and firing methods.
I sometimes allow the clay to speak for itself in textured terracotta, while in recent series I’m further developing the painterly effect on surfaces using clay slips, engobes, oxides and watercolour glazes that are fired between layers to build up depth in texture and colour.
Influences:
The human figure in traditional sculpture
- Auguste Rodin, Degas, Anthony Gormley, Alberto Giacometti, Terry Stringer
US Figurative ceramic artists
- Debra Fritts, Michelle Gregor.
“We look out on the avuncular Gordon from our living space. Our lives are busy but in happy contrast, he stands there in his old woollen jersey with a quiet sense of stillness. We think he’s a problem solver and in this setting, he seems to be thinking, Rodin like, ‘what are we going to do with this garden!”
Glenn Cunningham
Exhibition History
Solo Exhibitions
2018 (May-June) - Hastings City Art Gallery | ‘Waiting for life to begin’ | Installation of Twelve standing figures 50+cm tall, Hastings
Selected Group Exhibitions
Coming up - 2023 (January) - Wildflower Garden Party Ceramic Exhibition | Invited exhibitor.
2022 - UKU Clay Hawke’s Bay Awards | Hastings Community Arts Centre | ‘More than I know’ | a selected finalist for this national awards ceramics competition, Hastings.
2022 - Richard T. Nelson Awards for Sculpture | ‘Archeus’ and ‘Françoise’ | a selected finalist for this national sculpture competition, Wellington.
2021 - Hawke’s Bay Art Review | Creative Arts Napier | ‘Seeking Truth’ | a selected finalist, Napier.
2021 - ‘Pania, 70 years on’ | Creative Arts Napier | By invitation 10 artists created likenesses of Pania sculpture’s original model, Mei Whaitiri (now in her mid-80s), Napier
2021 - NZ Small Sculpture Prize | Waiheke Community Art Gallery | Finalist, Waiheke Island
2020 - ‘EAST 2020’ | ‘Novel Coronavirus Lifestyle’ installation, at Hastings City Art Gallery, a selected exhibition, Hastings
2020 - UKU Hawke’s Bay Ceramic Awards | Hastings Community Arts Centre | a selected exhibition, Hastings
2020 - Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition | ‘Earthling’ series (six 50cm tall ceramic figures). Selected artist, Hastings
2019 — 2020 - ‘Earth Wind and Fire’ | Muse Gallery, featured artist, Havelock North
2019 - ‘It’s a Long, Long Road’ | Arts Inc Heretaunga Gallery (installation of 11 figures), Hastings
2018 - UKU Hawke’s Bay Ceramic Awards | Hastings Community Arts Centre | a selected exhibition, Hastings
2018 - Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition | a selected artist, Hastings
2016 (February) - ‘The Fashionista Collection’, at Art + Enterprise Napier (now Tennyson Gallery) as featured artist, Napier
2016 - Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition | a selected artist, Hastings
2016 - Portage Ceramics Award | Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery | Finalist, Auckland
2015 - NZ Small Sculpture Prize | Waiheke Community Art Gallery | Finalist, Waiheke Island
2014 - Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition | a selected artist, Hastings
2014 - Waiclay National Ceramics Award | Finalist, Waikato
2014 - Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition | a selected artist, Hastings
Arts Education
Eastern Insitute of Technology
Kay Bazzard welcomes requests to exhibit
The Herbalist
“This was the first piece we purchased from Kay.
I fell in love with this sculpture and have called her, 'The Herbalist". I'm sure anyone who loves spending time in their garden or out in Nature lost in contemplation, will relate to her pose.
Thinking, dreaming, planning. Beautiful."
Claude
Georgina Langdale
"Claude saw me before I saw him. He was quietly watching me from his position in the corner of the studio.Once we made eye contact there followed a frank appraisal and mutual acknowledgement of presence. He is a strong, silent type, sharp and focussed. He is the strong man in the room. His presence demands attention and acknowledgement. Then he remains interested and engaged. I quite often find myself sharing my thoughts with him and he provides a quiet comfort just being there."
“I think he’s a good man”
Martin Fine