Tag Archives: Knotless netting

Acknowledging What Was, Embracing What Is

My first 9-5 job was as a potter’s apprentice.
I went into it imagining my throwing skills would blossom, but in reality it was my biceps that grew, not my artistic chops. The potter who hired me, in addition to his pots, sold clay and glazes. So I spent the majority of my days that summer carrying 40-pound bags of clay to other potter’s cars and measuring chemicals for glaze mixtures.

Fragments of What Was

Fragments of What Was ©2025 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor & knotless netting on paper, 6 x 8 inches

Poof! went my romantic notions of spending my time at the wheel. I left that job mostly having learned that I was glad to be headed to college. And while I didn’t get very far in becoming a potter, I’ve never lost my attraction for things made of clay.

the Futility of Mending Space

The Futility of Mending Space ©2025 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor & knotless netting on paper, 6 x 8 inches

One of my favorite books from that era is M.C. Richards’ Centering. In it she relates the following parable which has stayed with me as a wonderful philosophical riddle:

There are many marvelous stories of potters in ancient China. In one of them a noble is riding through a town and he passes a potter at work. He admires the pots the man is making: their grace and a kind of rude strength in them. He dismounts from his horse and speaks with the potter. “How are you able to form these vessels so that they possess such convincing beauty?” “Oh,” answers the potter, ” you are looking at the mere outward shape. What I am forming lies within. I am interested only in what remains after the pot has been broken.”

I was recently reminded of this story when I dropped a beloved hand-painted clay vase that I picked up at a flea market years ago. What heartbreak! I couldn’t bring myself to toss it out so I ordered a kintsugi kit to put the pieces back together, hoping to give it a second life.

Reconstructing Silence

Reconstructing Silence ©2025 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor & knotless netting on paper, 8 x 6 inches

But in the meantime, I’ve been painting the vase’s shards with dramatic shadows, incorporating knotless netting to accentuate the resulting forms and to insert a suggestion of repair or mending. The outcome is that the memory of the original remains intact, acknowledging what was while simultaneously embracing what is.

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Speaking of memory…
I’m over the moon to share that these latest netted paintings will be among a varied selection of my work chosen to be part of Art at the Kent this fall in their group show that will investigate memory.

Holding Poster

Mark your calendar now to be sure to visit one of our state’s most beloved annual exhibitions, presented in a truly magical Vermont setting during one of the loveliest seasons of the year.

 

Nothing Lasts Forever

I received an email in May alerting me that Pocket, the free save-for-later app I’ve been using for years to store all sorts of reading content, is going away. This change is a bit like mandatory closet-cleaning, forcing me to make my way through the virtual piles I’ve amassed, deciding what to keep and what to toss before it all disappears into the ether.

It’s been a handy app to have but, if I’m honest, I’ve used it like a virtual attic, forgetting most of what I’ve stowed there once it was safely saved. Rediscovering what is still relevant and getting rid of the rest is long overdue.

Here are 5 links I’ve unearthed that are worth saving & sharing:

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On the more creative side of things, you may remember that in March I began experimenting with knotless netting as another way to add textural interest to my paintings. Those explorations have continued behind the scenes while I’ve been pulling “Full Bloom” together and getting it launched.

Here are a handful of the pieces I’ve been working on. I’ll have more to show next time.

Unraveling

Unraveling   ©2025 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor & knotless netting on paper, 6 x 8 inches When I last showed you this piece, it wasn’t quite finished. This is the final version.

Great Blue

Great Blue   © 2025 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor & knotless netting on paper, 6 x 8 inches.    The heron silhouette was painted with gold pigment watercolor that I bought from Daniel Smith when we lived near Seattle, decades ago. It’s a powdered pigment that comes to life once you add water – and the fact that it remains dry until you choose to use it is probably why it has lasted so well across the years. It’s lovely on paper but hard to capture in a photo.

Fleeting Recollections   ©2025 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor & knotless netting on paper, 6 x 8 inches  What is it with the birds? I’m not absolutely sure, but “memory” has remained in the back of my mind as I’ve worked on these pieces. Somehow birds feel like a suitable metaphor for carrying that idea forward.

Memory Vessel   ©2025 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor & knotless netting on paper, 6 x 8 inches  Moving on to objects… This pitcher is an old family item that doesn’t belong to me and probably isn’t worth much monetarily. Still, it holds within it a sense of place, and that in itself is priceless.