Age no barrier to Lorna's art dream

She is finally fulfilling her lifelong desire to become an artist, completing an Advanced Diploma in Ceramic Arts at the Northern Sydney Institute. “It’s challenging, but I’m really enjoying it,” Ms Ashfield-Mitchell said.
Despite being a couple of decades older than most of her classmates, Ms Ashfield-Mitchell said everyone got along like one, big “happy family”. “With ceramics, I’ve found it’s a more relaxed atmosphere ... we all gather around to see how things come out of (the) kiln and we’re interested in each other’s art,” she said.

 

When asked why she didn’t start her studies sooner, she said: “I never had the opportunity. I grew up in a time when women were expected to get married and when they got married, they had to stop working and stay at home.”

It was an expectation that Ms Ashfield-Mitchell said her late ex-husband enforced emphatically. “It wasn’t a good marriage ... we had arguments about my desire to study art. They lasted my whole married life,” she said.

However, it wasn’t only marriage that hindered her creativity.Growing up during the 1940s and ‘50s meant the talented vase maker had to leave school at 15, and go straight into the workforce, where she completed an apprenticeship at a bridal and eveningwear store before becoming a nurse.

 

Looking back though, art was always on the cards. “I was born with a congenital kidney condition and back then, there were no antibiotics, so, naturally, I spent a lot of time in bed sick,” Ms Ashfield-Mitchell said.

“While I was laying there convalescing, I used to make things out of plasticine and I’d always be drawing pictures and writing stories.” Ms Ashfield-Mitchell spends most days at her home studio rolling out slabs of clay, moulding vases and painting canvasses.

 

She said the majority of her pieces were inspired by her childhood, growing up on a poultry farm and orchard in Kellyville. Of the five artworks she entered in this year’s Royal Easter Show, two have sold and another two have been awarded prizes. “One of my vases won first prize in the ceramic pottery section, (but) I don’t think I’ll sell it because it’s half covered up in ribbons and certificates, and I’ll need it for exhibitions later in the year,” she said. The prize-winning vase will be among a number of Ms Ashfield-Mitchell’s ceramics that will go on display at the Forestville Community Centre from October 14, before featuring in another exhibition at the Manly Art Gallery and Museum from October 29.

 

Learn more about study Art & Design with the Northern Sydney Institute here.

 

Originally published: North Shore Times.