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Vail: ‘Like Monet paintings on porcelain’

Caramie Schnell
cschnell@vaildaily.com
Vail, CO Colorado
Special to the Vail DailyArtist Donna Causland, who is holding a trunk show in Vail Saturday, works on a pottery piece at her studio in Summit County.
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VAIL, Colorado – Considering Summit County resident Donna Causland sells a significant portion of her ceramic pieces in Vail, it seems fitting that her best-selling piece of art is called “Flowers of Vail.” The 22-inch bowl made from fine white earthenware is bright and colorful, featuring purple pansies, orange poppies and red geraniums, all on a bright-green background.

“I went around Vail and took pictures of those overflowing flower pots and baskets and gardens,” Causland said. “That’s a big inspiration for me.”

The background on Causland’s business card is a picture of one of her bowls sitting in a Vail flower bed, she said.



Causland is bringing a large portion of her work to the Betty Ford Alpine Treasures store in Vail today for a trunk show. The store normally stocks about a dozen of Causland’s porcelain and earthenware pieces.

Susan Swimm, the buyer for the store, discovered Causland and her work about two years ago at the Vail Farmer’s Market, which Causland has been attending each week as a vendor for the past four years.

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“I love the originality of her work,” Swimm said. “I love the way she captures her colors in porcelain – it is something I haven’t seen before, it’s absolutely stunning. They’re peices of art. Some of them look like Monet paintings on porcelain.”

Causland graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1977 with a fine arts degree in ceramics and she’s been working with the medium ever since.

Mostly Causland works with porcelain, which she says is “very durable, and difficult to work with, but fun, too.” Her larger 22-inch bowls, which she calls wall bowls since they have a ring on the back so you can display them on a wall, are made from white earthen ware.

“I can’t make porcelain pieces that large because when you fire it, it slumps,” Causland said. “The earthern ware is the only thing that will hold that size and shape.”

Along with finished pieces, Causland will bring pieces in various stages of completion to the store today so she can show people her process.

“Donna’s knowledge and creativity is a subject she loves discussing and chatting about,” Swimm said. “Her work is special and each piece is an heirloom in the making.”

High Life Editor Caramie Schnell can be reached at 970-748-2984 or cschnell@vaildaily.com.

What: Trunk show with ceramic artist Donna Causland

Where: Betty Ford Alpine Treasures, 183 Gore Creek Drive Ste. 7, Vail

When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today

Cost: Free

More information: Call 970-479-7365 or visit http://www.bettyfordalpinegardens.org


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