"Ceramic artist Alice R. Ballard works in a wide range of forms, from pinch pots to human-sized totemic structures, from intricate surfaces and bright colors to pure, burnished white. What unites her work is a deep attraction to plant forms: leaves, pods, stems, buds. In some of her pieces, these forms appear as surface images, but more often the forms themselves are inspired by plant life.

The aspect of Alice's work I immediately think of when I hear her name is what she refers to as "white work"-a group of pieces represented by her Penland auction donation. These are oversized, sensuous interpretations of plant forms in smooth white (occasionally accented with a bit of pale green). The work is made from white earthenware and white terra sigillata lightly burnished with soft brushes to create a surface that's almost impossible not to touch.

Alice Ballard's work in the 2012 Benefit Auction: Magnolia Petal, white earthenware with white terra sigillata, 5-1/2 x 11 x 16-1/2 in.

The piece in the auction is a large (16-1/2 inches long) representation of a single magnolia petal. Separated from the rest of the blossom and rendered at this size, the petal becomes an abstract, vessel-like form while remaining botanically accurate. Alice has also made sculptures based on other parts of the magnolia including the entire blossom and the magnificent seed pod. "When I think of my neighborhood in Greenville, South Carolina the magnolia is the grand tree, she says, "so they are tied to the story of my life and where I live."

The magnolia petal is part of an ongoing series titled A Walk Remembered, which is a group of white sculptures based on objects Alice has picked up on her neighborhood walks. Installations of the series have been presented at the Tryon Center in Charlotte, Blue Spiral Gallery in Asheville, the University of North Carolina Asheville, and several other venues.

Alice's beautiful work can be found in the collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in DC, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, The Resen Ceramic Collection in Macedonia, the IBM Corporation, and the state art collections of Tennessee and South Carolina. And, thanks to her generous support of Penland School, you can make her work part of your own collection while supporting creative education."

                                                                            - Robin Dreyer


You can see lots more of Alice's work here. 

A catalog of her two-person show (with her husband, Roger Dalrymple) at UNC-Asheville is available here. 

To reserve your auction tickets, click the link below: 

Reservations are required. The event often sells out quickly; indeed, Saturday is nearly sold out already. Early reservations are recommended. Reservations will be accepted until available spaces are filled. All ticket purchasers and absentee bidders receive an illustrated catalog in July.

Click here: a PDF of the auction catalog is now available for download on our website.