Preview Parties are from 6.30-8.30pm on the Friday
before each show. All welcome.
The gallery is closed for
hanging on the Thursday and Friday before each exhibition
opens.
At Canterbury art college I studied industrial design with silversmithing as my speciality. At Hornsey college I continued with 3D work although I enjoyed the photography. Then, when I started teaching, I was given pottery as my specialism with O'level and A level students eager to get on. It was a tight learning curve but I got clay under my fingernails - and as some people say 'once that happens there is no known cure'..
Harvey Bradley's website can be found here.
My hand-built sculptures explore shape and balance. The sculptures capture human figures, seascapes, animals and birds in suspended movement. I am currently experimenting with raku glaze firing.
I am a ceramic artist working from my studio in Suffolk. I work on the wheel throwing white earthenware clay to make domestic ware that i decorate with bright colours and patterns. I also work in porcelain making fine thrown decorative wall disks and vessels with black and white decoration.
When my hands get tired from throwing I turn to handbuilding and create figures and animals that come straight out of my imagination and make me want to laugh as I make them. I work in earthstone clay and decorate them in various ways such as engobes, underglaze colours or different types of glazes and firings.
Much of my childhood was spent in East Africa and Kuwait and I have translated this experience in a personal, creative and contemporary statement in my work.
Cathy D'Arcy's website can be found here.
I am drawn to the textures, shapes and colours found in dry stone walls and natural rock formations. I am fascinated by the shapes and patterns formed by erosion in land and seascapes: the wild, uncontrollable and chaotic often resulting in a moment of meditation.
Inspired initially by Simon Carroll, my current work uses hand building, press moulding and throwing to create each piece. I work with four different clays, Black Chunky, Golden Harvest, P2 Porcelain and Toasted Stoneware , in order to create an effect that mirrors rock and stone surfaces that have been ravaged and stroked by weather, the environment and time. The contradiction of the smoothly eroded against rugged surfaces.
I like it that these contradictions combine for emotional effect for both me as maker and the observer. How the chaos of surfaces, colours, textures, shapes and form influence, dictate and enhance feelings. How a surface can affect an emotional response. Land and seascapes are constantly changing. Time is a moving concept. From conception to realisation, and at every point on the way, there are “moments” where that object, feeling, environment is captured. That “moment of stillness” is what I am aiming for. The decision as to the specific “moment in time” is based on any number of criteria thrown up by the journey from the beginning until………….
Lorry Cudmore's blog can be found here.
Mixing mud and water to produce pots, platters and ceramic pieces. Decorated with a variety of images using glazes and stains.
Since moving to Suffolk, Caroline has become more interested in landscape and the colours, forms and lines within it. She makes a range of thrown and moulded earthenware, building up layers using slips, oxides and glazes, producing a rich deep surface.
When Paddy moved to Suffolk it gave her the opportunity to have her ownwheel and kiln.
All Paddy’s pots and bowls are hand thrown and therefore individual.
“I fire my pots to stoneware temperatures and I find opening the kiln so exciting as glazing is unpredictable and so each piece is different.”
All my work is thrown on the potter's wheel and is focused for the most part on functional ware. The endless possibilities that exist within the vessel form are challenging and exciting and towards this end I want to make pottery that can be used and enjoyed in domestic life. I also hand build one off sculptural objects that are viewed as abstract but also provide functionality.
I work with different clay bodies but recently I have been using Limoges porcelain as despite its known quirks it is soft and sensual and a pleasure to touch and use. Clay is at its most sensitive when freshly thrown and I find it fascinating to transform and alter a thrown form and try to capture the movement and energy within the clay.
My inspiration comes from the Indian, African and Arabic cultural backgrounds that I am fortunate to have. Arabic calligraphy lends well to the altered shapes and I use it not only as an art form but also to provide the movement that I want to invoke in my work. These scripts all carry a universal message of tolerance, faith, peace and love. I decorate my work using various techniques including painting and printing with oxides and slips and ceramic digital transfers.
Ultimately I try to produce ceramics that not only work well for their intended function but are also visually stimulating and tactilely rewarding.
Miriam's website is here.
I currently live and work in Aldeburgh, Suffolk on the East Coast of England. I throw and hand build my ceramics using a range of clays. Surfaces are painted, drawn on, glazed and sometimes stenciled. Work includes domestic ware, and other pieces made in a spirit of exploration.
Ann Lee's website can be found here.
