It is important to me that each piece is not just looked at but can also be touched and therefore I make each unique piece, either hand built, press moulded or slip poured before adding slip for colour and natural elements such as sand, rice and seaweed etc to add pattern and texture.

Each piece starts with a painting...

I capture the moment with abstract paintings that are immature,  using marks and line to represent the view and the memory as a record to then apply to my ceramics in my studio.  I draw representable shapes from myphotographs, or I paint ‘en-plein air’ to create ideas to inform my ceramic practice. Colour is significant but not always true, I paint with acrylics and Brusho - an intense coloured powder paint; these then translate as coloured slips and oxides on my ceramic's forms. I take these abstract paintings and use them as a starting point to create a form, sometimes allowing memory of the inspiration run through to my hands and a haptic response to clay and create the piece that reflect my ideas and the rugged, often bleak moors and coast. Weathered rocks, expansive moorlands, heather, coastline all impact my work. I hope to bring the sense of the countryside to my ceramics, visually and tactually to encourage the viewer to touch my work, taking in each textured mark to enhance the haptic response and contextualise the piece to its origin.

BLURB

Sarah is an artist who creates sculptural ceramics, each piece is a reminder of the experience it has been sourced from. A story or narrative is an important part of her work. Sarah creates with a contextual understanding which evokes a special response to each piece and informs her designs. Sarah’s work centres around the outdoors, particularly geographical areas of beauty, The North York Moors rocks and cliff formations and the fascination of shape, form, line and space form the basis to her ideas.

It starts with a walk, a view, a photograph and an abstract painting that follows. Sarah continues this response into the clay, forming a structure through manipulation, allowing it to respond to touch, celebrating the unknown results. Ideas are communicated through texture, pattern and mark making, mostly without words or text. Figurative forms, including standing stones, gateposts, beach groins, rock and boulders are important features and lead to creating pieces that reflect her ideas and the rugged, often bleak moors and coast, weathered rocks, moorlands, heather and the coastline are all influences on her ceramics.

Sarah studied Contemporary Craft at York College University and recently an MA in Visual Practice / Ceramics at the University of Sunderland.