WALL PIECES
Winter Outcrop – small
wall piece depicting silver birch copse in snow and iceSpurn Point wide
wide wall piece with view of Spurn PointSerenity – wide
One of my favourite wall pieces – the Serenity image depicts a copse of silver birches loosely reflected in the River Derwent that grows close to my studio. The wide wall piece is a tritych which helps to portray the vastness and flatness of the landscape of the Lower Derwent Ings. Mounted on black with More Info »Ploughed Fields – medium
Birch trees with rich brown field in foregroundOn the Common
The common in question here is Skipwith Common, near to York, an area of oustanding natural beauty and scientific interest as it is a rare lowland heath area. The ponds are Line Pools where traders would have washed their jute in preparation for making sacking. Today there is sometimes a rather dark atmosphere on the More Info »Landscape Vase large
Simple tapering porcelain vase with carved silver birch design, waterproof , hand wash. size : medium 16 – 18 cm diamLandscape Oval dish
A different shape for the Landscape range. This shallow oval dish can be used to display fruit or flowers or just to sit prettily on it’s own. The decoration is my favourite silver birch copse on the riverbank. The piece co-ordinates with woodland wall pieces in particular the Serenity series. size – approx 33 cm More Info »Inlet – small
porcelain wall pieceIncoming Tide
One of the coastal views from the beach at Seaham near to Durham. Here the tide is rushing in, swirling around low lying rocks on the beach. size; small 32 x 43 cmFrosty Morning
This picture was inspired by a morning walk through the woods near to Byland Abbey in North Yorkshire. It was freezing cold – minus 5 degrees in pockets of the wood – I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the White Witch from Narnia coming around the corner in her sleigh! Carved and inlaid trees More Info »Flooded Ings – wide
textured porcelain wall piece with view deep in the woodEstuary – wide
wide wall piece with view of Humber estuaryCoastal Cliffs
I sketched these Permian limestone cliffs whilst on the Durham coast at Seaham. The formation of the sedimentary layer was intriguing – as were the darker cliffs behind. I try to replicate this formation by sweeping layers of porcelain in gestural marks over the tile, creating joints and crevasses as I work. size; small 32 More Info »Bright Reflections – medium
selected for exhibition at Art Liberating Lives, Mall Galleries, London
Serenity tryptich wall piece
Innovative textural porcelain wall pieces depict beautiful areas of woodland, water and coastal scenes.
I begin the wall pieces by sketching in the open, trying to analyse the landscape, concentrating on the patterns and textures I see. It might be the linear pattern of tree trunks in a woodland copse or the play of reflections on a flooded meadow. Back home in the studio I work in charcoal to refine the sketches and then work them onto the surface of leatherhard porcelain. Clay is a wonderful medium to use in this way as I can build up thick layers of applied slip, or drop copper oxide into a layer of glaze much as one would do with watercolours. Ofcourse, it’s rather like painting in the dark as the colours and textures only develop in the kiln during glaze firing.
Woodlands
One of my favourite places to paint is a copse of silver birches on the bank of the River Derwent close to my studio. No matter what the weather or season there is always something new and exciting to study – it’s an endless source of inspiration. The Serenity series, available in all sizes, features raised textural foliage and undergrowth deeply cut through with white silver birch tree trunks, loosely reflected in the river.
Skipwith Common, an area of lowland heath close to York, is a brooding landscape with unique Line Pools where traders once washed their jute for making into sacking. I have sketched there at dawn when the elusive wild ponies can be glimpsed and again on a winter evening when dusk was drawing in. Extremes of daylight hours often produce very atmospheric and inspiring conditions.
On the Common
coastal cliffs
Floral
Unashamedley romatic and flamboyant, the floral wall pieces feature some of my favourite flowers in full blowsy forms. Each year I work in gardens in conjunction with the National Gardens Scheme and East Riding Artists sketching and chatting to the public to raise awarenes of craft and the processes involved in ceramics. The resulting work is featured in an annual Art in the Garden exhibition along with other artists’ work produced in response to open gardens.
The White Roses collection was inspired by the old fashioned shrub rose, Charles de Mills – a quartered rose with hundreds of spiralling petals held within a flat cup. Although the rose is puce pink when I saw it I immediately thought it’s distinctive structure would be stunning recreated in wafer thin layers of porcelain. Each rose is painstakingly modelled and applied to a hand rolled porcelain tile, with twirling leaves.
The Red Roses collection is modern romantic in style, with full bright red roses loosely painted in fluid brushstrokes - lovely in conservatories and sunny garden rooms to bring a feel of the garden indoors. In the Jill Ford Homeware section is a collection of accompanying cups, sugar bowls and fruit bowls for a perfect afternoon tea setting.
White Roses wall piece
- red roses wall piece
