Vases are more than just pretty vessels that you use to decorate the living room, whether brimming with flowers or not, vases are full of magic.
While travelling in Asian in a museum in Taiwan, Ward was enchanted by an exhibition of Chinese vases from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). He was powerfully moved by their beauty, symmetry and naturalness.
Ward started painting vases himself – and still paints them to this day. Gigantic vases, on canvases over two meters high. He paints them using oils that he applies directly, with hands and fingers. To do this, he reaches deep into the paint and, like a potter, designs the vessels on the canvas, his entire body moves in rhythm, as if the vases take shape from a dance. This technique creates structures that give the painted vessels an impressive plasticity and spatial presence. They are expansive in the truest sense of the word, and yet at the same time they create mysterious spaces, making you wonder, what could be inside them?
Alice Henkes
While travelling in Asian in a museum in Taiwan, Ward was enchanted by an exhibition of Chinese vases from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). He was powerfully moved by their beauty, symmetry and naturalness.
Ward started painting vases himself – and still paints them to this day. Gigantic vases, on canvases over two meters high. He paints them using oils that he applies directly, with hands and fingers. To do this, he reaches deep into the paint and, like a potter, designs the vessels on the canvas, his entire body moves in rhythm, as if the vases take shape from a dance. This technique creates structures that give the painted vessels an impressive plasticity and spatial presence. They are expansive in the truest sense of the word, and yet at the same time they create mysterious spaces, making you wonder, what could be inside them?
Alice Henkes