The essence of her practice is the relationship of form, line, brushstroke and colour, evident in both her works in clay and on paper. My inspiration is internal, a conscious analytical series of responses to an ever expanding catalogue of understanding. Please call the gallery if you have any questions. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.
Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. So I chose to do wood, metal, ceramics and plastics as my first degree. I really enjoyed working across the different disciplines but quickly realised that clay was my thing!
Working with other materials and learning techniques relevant to each material gave me a breadth of vision but I chose to work in clay because I found it to be the most challenging — and therefore enjoyable - material to work with.
Before I do anything I draw. It is my thought process and through it, I express weight, line, volume and rhythm. I do not draw to represent the subject but use marks, areas of colour and gestures that capture the essence. When I am in the studio and the making starts, I clear sketchbooks and drawings away, apart from loose working sketches and get going.
My clay pieces are all hand-built in white earthenware with surfaces painted with abstracted imagery. Pieces are built or coiled slowly over time as the clay needs to firm up as the form grows.
When completed, I work on the surfaces - inscribing marks, incising and scarifying through layers of matt vitreous slips and burnished terra sigillata. I then paint the surfaces with slips, which for me are the nearest thing to using paint. Slips are liquid clay coloured with oxides and industrial stains.
I then burnish the surfaces creating a silky pebble-worn patina, before leaving the works to dry out thoroughly before firing. I like to pack the kiln tightly to get an even firing and once-fire in an electric kiln - the joy of a slip!
For Sentience, I will be presenting a completely new body of work. The title Sentience refers to the action of feeling and my physical and intuitive response to my chosen material. But I came back to the UK when I was three. My mother was Viennese but was brought-up in Indo-China, and my father worked in Hong Kong before Singapore so there was a Far-Eastern influence in my childhood.
I live in a village called Rottingdean, which has a somewhat colourful historical past due to many of its residents being involved in smuggling. Not so much. My main inspiration is colour, which I realise more and more is fundamental to my wellbeing: artistically and in life.
Colour is looking, and I am constantly experimenting and using external stimuli to inform the colour combinations that I use — be they my environment, or the work of painters such as Giotto, Rothko, and in fact, any artist who uses colour thoughtfully and with rigour.
What do you like most about being an artist? One of the things that I most like about being an artist is the fact that I am very self contained. I like the freedom that being creative gives one and that I always have a new challenge. The other important aspect is that I have been privileged to meet lots of different people from all walks of life.
Life is never boring. What is your artist tip for local children? Never compare your work to others. Just do what comes naturally and enjoy it! How have the images you have supplied for the website come about? These pieces are all based on the intimate landscape of my garden in the Weald. The colour of the flowers and plants and the play of light and shadow across plants inspires me, suggesting ever changing abstract and sculptural compositions.
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