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Judy forged pottery path across communities

ACCLAIMED Australian artist and creator of the kangaroo chairs in Tarnagulla and Wedderburn, Judy Lorraine, has died aged 95.
The Bendigo-born Judy was commissioned to create the chairs as a Centenary of Federation community project.
She had established Wedderburn’s Bakehouse Pottery with the help of Harold Hughan in 1972 and accepted numerous artist-in-residence roles.
The Wedderburn pottery was where she started making one-off musical instruments in stoneware, porcelain and blackware. 
In 1983, she began a decades-long involvement with the ceramic mural project at Benalla. Judy also worked with primary school students at Wedderburn in 1990 and later at Korong Vale Primary School.
The 2009-2010 Bendigo White Pages telephone directory cover featured Judy for her role in founding Loddon Arts Inc. in Wedderburn and for voluntarily teaching ceramics at the Wedderburn Community Centre.
According to a biographical entry, Judy worked as an architect for some years before turning to pottery. 
“Largely self-taught, and influenced by primitive pottery and the work of the sculptor Henry Moore, she specialised in asymmetrical hand-built pots burnished with oxides, as well as making a small range of functional stoneware with ash and feldspathic glazes. In 1969 she started conducting classes for the Council of Adult Education. Initially based at Toorak in Melbourne,” the entry said.
Judy’s work is represented in National Gallery of Victoria, Bendigo Art Gallery. Shepparton Art Gallery, Reserve Bank, Melbourne. Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Mayfair Ceramic Collection and Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory.
She returned to Melbourne in 2013 after more than 30 years in the Loddon Shire and her last solo exhibition was at Warragul Art Studio Gallery two years ago.
Judy had moved to Warragul in 2016.
 

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