Discover the unique and captivating world of Alasdair Neil and Sally MacDonell in their upcoming ceramic exhibition at Contemporary Ceramics.
Alasdair Neil’s work, inspired by decaying industrial architecture and desolate landscapes, features patterns, textures, and forms derived from his vast collection of found objects. His recent pieces showcase the tones of residual paint often found on source objects, while others feature a dry stoneware glaze over metal oxides.
“Why heads? The head is the seat of dreams and imagination” – Alasdair Neil MacDonell
On the other hand, Sally’s spontaneously modelled pieces express familiar, transient moments through pinching and squeezing slabs to form the female body, with visible joins adding to the process and serving as elements of colour in glazing. Experience the connection between the artist and the viewer, prompting a feeling of common humanity in this unique exhibition.
Lara Scobie is an Edinburgh based ceramic artist specialising in individual slip-cast vessels and bowls made in porcelain and parian clay. Focusing on the dynamic between form and pattern her work explores the cohesive integration of drawing, surface, mark making and volume. The off-center ellipses of the individual forms echo line drawings and decoration applied to the painted surfaces.
“The theme of balance is a constant, significantly underlining my current work in which ideas of dynamic interplay between form and surface develop.” – Lara Scobie
Sue’s work draws on the quiet resilience of trees and bones—forms shaped by time, marked by fragility and carrying memories of growth and decay. Through slow, receptive hand-building, each piece develops as if guided by an internal rhythm. Textured surfaces hold lines like weathered stories, while a soft matte glaze evokes a sense of calmness.
‘My hurt, my joy, my scars, my healing, all shape the work I create in clay.’ – Sue Mundy