ceramics

Practice

I am essentially a clay enthusiast and enjoy exploring the possibilities of clay, from digging it straight out of the ground to working with both earthenware and stoneware clays and paper clay. I do not see myself as a 'potter' or a 'sculptor' but as a 'maker'. I make objects which are usually one-offs and my interests are with the processes of creating ceramics which inform the workshops I run or community artworks I facilitate. 

One-off Sculptural Abstract Vessels

Current work are a playful series of hand-built ‘abstract’ terracotta vessels focussing on the unexpected, the processes of making, and painterly use of coloured slips onto asymmetrical jugs.

They are inspired by natural forces in nature, abstracting the landscape painting and museum objects. 

More rently, following a workshop I ran on making Kurinuki style carved pots, I am experimenting with carving vessels rather than moulding which have a resonance of found rocks, architectural remains and objects, and weathered stones with hidden interiors. Work in progress.

I work from a home studio near Exeter Devon and also the organicARTS pottery workshop which I helped to set up in 2010.

Click on images below for galleries.

Raku CERAMICS

Birds Beasts and Boxes

One-off objects inspired by museum 'discovery' collections.

From an early age, I was fascinated by the dodo skeleton and the exotic stuffed animals and birds at the Natural History Museum and the pottery and clay sculptures of ancient civilisations at the British museum.

Animal and bird sculptures are a response to the possibilities of ‘extinction’, the white Rhino, mountain gorillas in Uganda, polar bears…….

My response to the tactile possibilities of clay is a playful one.  These objects are made for the domestic rather than the public arena. I like the idea of objects having a dual purpose: birds are whistles, weathered landscapes are clocks or containers etc.

The smoking and crazing lends itself to the themes of these discovered objects. So does the medium of clay transforming into ceramics through fire, and cooling.

Abstract pots, cylinder containers and organic sculptural pots have been vehicles for exploring ceramic surfaces and processes and reflect my interest in geology, landscape and natural processes. For myself I welcome the unexpected in these processes and feel my way of working chimes with the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi embracing the imperfect as part of the beauty of the objects I make.