He showed a photograph of his favourite Greek vase, decorated by a drawing of an octopus with tentacles encircling the pot.
Guest artist Richard Cotgrove and potter Stewart Fulljames were present at the opening.
Cotgrove, a landscape painter, lives in Marton. He tried brushes but found using a knife was more sculptural and suited the scenes he had chosen.
Ceramic artist Fulljames has a studio and gallery at his home, a former country store in Rewa, near Hunterville. He is also the art director for the films of Wanganui's Alan Clay.
Fulljames earned a two-year Diploma in Ceramics from Otago Polytechnic in 1985. He's now doing a third year of study there, by distance, to add to that.
He learned about traditional raku firing at polytech, and has adapted it to his own use. He said he drew his designs on pots made of leather-hard whitish clay, then gave them a bisque firing.
After that he painted glaze within the outlines, and heated the pots again to 1000C. Then they had to be quickly removed from the kiln and placed in a tin lined with newspaper, which immediately burst into flame.
He quickly put a lid on the tin to extinguish the flames, leaving dense smoke. The carbon from that smoke was then slowly sucked into the clay, turning the unglazed surfaces black.
Mr Fulljames gave a workshop on his raku technique for Wanganui potters this year. He also teaches ceramics at Feilding's Community Learning Centre.
As Mr Clay's art director, he said he was responsible for the backgrounds to scenes in movies such as Butterfly Crush - which was set partly in Sydney and partly in Wanganui.
He's now working on Clay's next film, True Believers.
His work can be seen online at www.stewartfulljames.co.nz.
