The exhibition of Greg Daly’s ceramics Days like this ... at Nancy Sever Gallery in Gorman House is the third in a series of the artist's recent exhibitions in Canberra. 40 Years in the Making: The Pots I Kept was a retrospective survey exhibition originating from the Cowra Regional Gallery which was shown at Belconnen Arts Centre in 2014. This was a particularly informative selection of the pots that the artist thought were important in his career. It demonstrated his ongoing interest in experimenting with a rich palette of coloured glazes and lustres. The exhibition that followed in 2015 was at the Nancy Sever Gallery in Kingston. Curated by Peter Haynes, it featured a new experiment in ceramic forms with a number of pots tilted on their axis to catch the light that shifted across their surfaces.

In the current Days like this ...  exhibition Daly has reverted to a more classic style in pots, although he has designed special plinths for the gallery that allow his works to be seen nearer to eye level. This makes sense, as Daly’s pots are about surface light and colour and are seen to best advantage nearer to eye level.

Since his early career Daly has been fascinated by glazes. His first book, Glazes and Glazing Techniques (1995), has been followed by many other publications on ceramics. Daly has always been a prolific artist (having had more than 70 solo exhibitions). Daly was head of the ANU School of Art Ceramic Workshop until recently and as a teacher and in his prominent role in ceramic organisations he has been generous with his knowledge, gleaned over many years of experimentation in his ceramic practice.

Daly’s studio is located near Cowra in rural New South Wales. The changing nature of the skies and the dramatic changes in atmospheric light are an inspiration for the iridescent colours and designs that are so distinctive of his latest work. The artist has achieved his magical effects through the use of special kinds of metallic glazes called lustre glazes. These glazes are usually used in ceramics over a pottery or porcelain body to produce an iridescent effect and to reproduce the gleam of precious metals like gold and silver. In the lustre glazes for this body of work, Daly has used variations of silver, copper, bismuth and cobalt.

Lustre glazes were first used for painting on glass in early Egypt and Mesopotamia. Later, in Persia, they were used widely for tiles as architectural ornamentation. In the mid-19th century in England and America lustre glazes were popular in domestic ware. Lustreware (especially decorative tiles and china) enjoyed a revival during the Art Nouveau period in Europe.

In a catalogue note (2014) the artist writes that, as well as glazes, he is also concerned with the ceramic form itself. For Daly, the form of the pot and its glaze are of equal importance. Indeed, he notes that the form of the vessel influences the way the light illuminates its surface. Daly’s platters, bowls and vases are skilfully made and at one with their decoration. These works shimmer with changing light; they are responsive to the changing moods of the day with different viewpoints revealing different facets of patterns and colour.

The platters are a two-dimensional surface so they lend themselves to more of a painterly intervention by the artist who uses the glazes in dribbles and splashes of colour as in the Sunset Grasses series, 2018 which suggests a more direct relationship to the features of the landscape. The intense blue of some pots (Blue Day, 2018 and Approaching Storm, 2018) are appealing to me as the rich iridescent blue/ green of peacock feathers evokes the decorative style of Art Nouveau.

In the majority of pots the glazes have a flowing, abstract effect. Allowed to find their own path on the surface of the pots, the free flow of the glazes is only controlled by Daly’s long years of knowledge and experience of glaze mixtures and firing. However, an interesting and unexpected group of works called the Paddock series has surface areas loosely divided into different patterns and colours. This segmentation of the surface displays a more Oriental aesthetic – a reminder perhaps of Daly’s interest in Asian ceramics.

Other outstanding works are the group of copper surfaced bowls and vessels (Copper Sky, 2018 and Sunset Haze, 2018). The light in the gallery lit up many of these copper-coloured surfaces, burnishing them and turning them into globes resplendent with golden light.

This exhibition is a tour de force production of drama and light produced by a skilled "theatre director" who, after a lifetime of experience, knows just how to achieve the effects he want.