FEATURED ARTIST
Video, photography and article produced by David Griffen.
Jacquie Garcia is the Newcastle-based artist behind Leiluca Ceramics, creating functional and sculptural stoneware from her studio at The Creator Incubator in Hamilton North.
Shaped by a lifelong love of making and formal study at Sydney’s National Art School, her practice draws on the colours and textures of the local landscape, beach, lake, and foliage, translated through carefully tested glazes and a calm, precise approach on the wheel.
Jacquie Garcia is the Newcastle-based artist behind Leiluca Ceramics, creating functional and sculptural stoneware from her studio at The Creator Incubator in Hamilton North.
Shaped by a lifelong love of making and formal study at Sydney’s National Art School, her practice draws on the colours and textures of the local landscape, beach, lake, and foliage, translated through carefully tested glazes and a calm, precise approach on the wheel.
The women who have supported me to get to where I am, and the mentors that I’ve had over the years, they’re probably the most aspirational people for me.
The women who have supported me to get to where I am, and the mentors that I’ve had over the years, they’re probably the most aspirational people for me.
Jacquie Garcia
After studying at National Art School in Sydney, Jacquie moved back to Newcastle, and for a time lived with her parents while getting back on their feet. She bought her mum a voucher for ceramics classes as a thank you, planning to go along too. Her mum was not that interested, but her dad was.
“I bought my mum classes to do ceramics… and I said, I’ll come and do it with you. My mum ended up not being that interested, but my dad was really interested. So I ended up going with my dad.”
Then her nan offered a very specific commission.
“My nan said to me, I need someone to make a present for everyone in our family. We have a huge family… heaps of uncles, aunties, lots of cousins.”
She made the work, got paid, and used that small push to try the markets. The response surprised her.
“She paid me to make something for everyone… and that gave me a little bit of money and I was like, maybe I’ll just give it a go. I went to the markets and it was received really well. So I thought, oh, keep going.”
Painting, pauses, and returning again
Jacquie’s painting degree led to an early exhibition when Leila was a baby, at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, but caring for a young child meant time became the limiting factor.
“I had an exhibition when Leila was a baby… and I realised I’d done so much painting, and I was also looking after a baby. I didn’t have a lot of time. I thought I’d just go back and give ceramics a go.”
Mentors, support, and the value of being believed in
When she talks about influence, Jacquie does not focus on a single artist or style. She looks outward, widely, and returns again and again to the role of mentors, especially women who backed her early.
“The women who have supported me to get to where I am, and the mentors that I’ve had over the years, they’re probably the most aspirational people for me.”
She describes being supported from a very young age, including weekly lessons with Suzanne Reed before she was five.
“I was really lucky to be very highly supported since I was a kid… before I was five, I think I went to weekly lessons with Suzanne Reed, who was one of the best mentors I could have asked for.”
And she is clear about how much it matters to have someone say: keep going.
“That belief that you have people that tell you you can do it… keep doing it because you can do it and you’re good at it, or keep doing it because you love it. It’s really important.”
Making time, wearing many hats
The biggest barrier is not ideas, it is bandwidth. Jacquie speaks plainly about the competing roles she holds day to day.
“I’m a mother, I’m a wife, I’m a carer. I’m all of the things. So I’m balancing.”
She describes the gap between wanting to create in the moment and needing to keep life running.
“A lot of people have the privilege that whenever inspiration strikes, they can just go straight to the canvas or straight to the pottery wheel… whereas I’ve got two kids and a hectic life, so it’s trying to find that balance… while knowing you’ve packed your lunches and you’ve got everything else in order.”
“It’s that lady wearing many hats.”
Art chooses you
For Jacquie, making work is not optional, and it is not primarily about income. It is something internal that demands a place in her life.
“You don’t become an artist to make money. You become an artist because you are an artist. It’s inside you. It’s not a vocation you choose. Art chooses you.”
“You can’t just ignore that need to create when you’re an artist because it would drive you nuts.”
She has ambitions to go bigger, in scale and in risk, and time is the constraint she keeps circling back to.
“I’d love to go big. I would like to make big works. And the only thing really stopping me is time… and the fact that I take on probably way more than I should.”
What’s next
This year is about change and experimentation across both her work and her business, with an October exhibition on the horizon.
“This year, I’m wanting to try a whole bunch of new things… I’m going to try pivoting a little bit, changing things up with both Luca and my artistic practice.”
“I have an exhibition in October with Alessia Sakoff, so I’ll be working on some landscape paintings, and definitely some bigger sculptural work.”
She ends on the reality of it: wanting more hours, and accepting the slow process of trying, failing, and finding the next step.
“I wish we had 48 hours in a day… there’s so many things I want to do. But I guess it’s just going to take a little bit of time and exploration.”
“Once you get going… you can make the mistakes, work out what works best, then you eventually get there.”
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