Sarah Jenkins works from her house and studio surrounded by farmland in North Essex. Patricia Shone has been living and working on the Isle of Skye for the past 25 years. These established artists may be based at opposite ends of the UK but the inspiration they gather from their starkly different surroundings has led them toward surprisingly comparable paths.
Sarah’s pieces stem from her appreciation of the sky, earth, land and fields around her South England home, while Patricia’s work is informed by the powerful landscape the Scottish island is known for. Each artist favours hand building as a making process, allowing them flexibility in their texturing and carving of surfaces. Patricia’s works go on to achieve soft earthenware blacks and greys through raku, wood or charcoal saggar firing processes while Sarah fires her work to around 1200ºC, often multiple times, to achieve her signature matt effect.
“It seems that there is an inherent inspiration in a person’s fundamental being and an artist’s work can be the search to find expression for this, consciously or unconsciously. This is the deep essence in a piece which can connect one human being to another. The form beneath the surface.” –Patricia Shone
“I’m on a search for the sacred – truth and beauty and the resonating frequency of the land. I tend away from the utilitarian and towards the abstract, but break my own rules, making light-pieces out of bone china in stark contrast to the more sculptural works.” –Sarah Jenkins
Bringing together the joy of colour with bold and creative shapes, this exhibition celebrates the versatility of clay as seen in expressive statement ceramics. The show features recent work by three high-profile makers.
Ruthanne Tudball and Jeremy Steward each have long standing careers in ceramics creating work that feels organic and holds an earthy authenticity. Jeremy wood fires and salt-glazes his work while Ruthanne is renowned for her soda glaze firing, the results for both are delightfully soft textures and finishes.
Anna Lambert, a nationally recognised full-time maker, makes hand-built earthenware ceramics using various techniques including slab-building, modelling and painted slips.
Ashraf Hanna’s award-winning hand-built pieces are formed both as individual works and related groups of vessels, each object informing the next.
Highly regarded as one of Britain's finest studio potters, Clive Bowen is internationally known and respected for his powerful yet intimate pieces. He produces slip-decorated earthenware pots in a country style, with sparse but fluid and vigorous trailing of slip in free-flowing abstract or stylised patterns.