CPA Members Profiles – P
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Clay for me, as a medium, is creating at the most primal level and evokes feelings of the freedom of childhood creativity. Making has given me purpose, brought a peace back into my life, and helps to keep me calm and present.
All of my work is wheel-thrown and hand decorated. I use Earthstone Ming porcelain which I bisque to cone 06 and glaze fire to cone 10 in an electric kiln. My vases and pear pots are thrown in one piece, including the necks or ‘stalks’. The lids of the straight sided jars are also thrown in one piece and the ‘stalks’ of the lidded pear pots are attached, thrown and altered after the lids have been trimmed. I refine the surfaces with a sharp blade to achieve a smoothness that later allows me to draw on the patterns.
My work is figurative, expressive and narrative.
People are the main inspiration for me, I love watching their body language and facial expressions and I am on lookout for a special moments and situations accompanying every human activity.
Most of my work is thrown, using high temperature stoneware and porcelain clays. I fire with wood, often firing to well over 1300c for between three to four days.
I make a small amount of pots for use in the kitchen, although most of my work is more individual,
made in small batches, using soft clay and think slips.
Some pot are left unglazed, allowing the wood ash that enters the kiln during the long firings, to melt on the surface of the work forming a natural glaze. I also use wood ash glazes including Oak, Apple and Pine ash.
Growing up in communist Poland, my everyday life was underpinned and surrounded by stark, grey concrete structures – brutal, imposing, but unavoidable. This architecture was raw, substantial and woven into the history and fabric of the country and my upbringing. My work finds its foundations in that world, drawing from the same rawness but seeking beauty in the simplicity of form. It’s an aesthetic born of opposites, where darkness meets light, rough meets smooth and drabness conceals drama. The tension between surface and form, the ordered and the organic.
For many years my work has investigated abstract form through the vessel, taking inspiration from the traditional handbuilding, burnishing and smoke firing pottery techniques of Africa and India. This has developed into sculptural ideas which allude to the timeless vessel form as well as referencing contemporary urban structures such as buildings, walls and bridges. The sculptural work explores tension and balance where two forms are placed together as well as the ambiguity of weight through internal space (all work is double walled and hollow). The composite pieces are not static and invite interaction through repositioning their elements into new arrangements and compositions.
Smitten with pottery visiting the studio of Scott Marshall in Cornwall as a teenager, I trained at Camberwell and in the studios of my tutors Colin Pearson and Janice Tchalenko. I was drawn to the warmth of terra cotta, and early experiments with domestic slipware evolved into a life-long search for harmony between surface and form.
I produce a range of colourful wheel thrown tableware, as well as some larger one-off pieces. The pots are thrown on the wheel and individually decorated with free and abstract designs using multiple layers of colourful stoneware glazes.
Making in her hometown of Stoke-on-Trent, Laura draws from the creative heritage and ambition of the pioneering potters who made the city famous. Taking inspiration from 18th century ceramics, her contemporary forms echo the grandeur she has long admired. Thrown in porcelain, each piece is a sketch in clay, carefully turned and refined to reveal the form. Sculptural handles add a sense of drama and push the possibilities of the material. I set up my workshop after graduating in 1992 and have been a full time ceramic artist since then.
Drawn to the organic, natural forms of coastal forays in her home of North Devon, and the worn, dry spirals of weathered conch shells, gathered on warm Caribbean beaches, Mitch
communicates the sculptural qualities of these influences. Her ceramics are instinctively hand-formed in an emotionally intuitive and mindful process using methods such as coiling and pinching. Each piece, a vessel for her emotional journey. John Pollex began making traditional English Slipware in 1971 before moving on to his present style in the mid eighties. His spontaneous and mesmerising use of colour is reflected in the work he is known for today, John describes his process of applying underglaze and slip to the ‘blank canvas’ of each piece as ‘painting rather than decorating’.
Rachel Peters - CPA Selected Member
I make hand-built vessels and sculptures through coiling. The focus of my work is form and texture. Beautiful shapes that hold their own, without the need for decoration. Working with a variety of grogged stoneware clays to create a muted colour palette and interesting surfaces. I love the natural state of the clay, maintaining the connection to the material, and the appreciation of texture.
I am influenced by the simplicity, beauty, and craftsmanship of Danish design. Famous for its clean lines, natural materials, and muted colours. I enjoy the harmony of natural soft forms, biomorphic rounded shapes, and calm colour.
Birgit Pohl - CPA Selected Member
After the bisque firing, I decorate most of my pieces with a ceramic pencil and red underglaze. I work with a glossy transparent glaze and am currently developing a dusky blue glaze, similar to a Korean Celadon, to be fired in an electric kiln.
Jitka Palmer - Selected member
I like experimenting with forms and techniques, some of my pieces are sculptural, some in a form of hand built or thrown vessels. Their curved surfaces are my canvases and I paint them freely with coloured slips and oxides.
I use red earthenware and porcelain. I mix my own slips to achieve a varied palette of colours and tones. I savour the last energetic touch of drawing and scratching through the layers of slip to reveal the clay underneath (graffiti) This is very satisfying and enhances and completes the painted image. The effect of the graffiti, which can be exercised so liberally in ceramics, gives me immense, almost physical pleasure. It serves as a visual storage of energy.
After bisque firing I lightly sand down the vessel and apply clear.
Glazed earthenware work is fired to 1030C and porcelain to 1230 C.
I was born in Prague, studied medicine and worked as an anatomist. In 1985 I moved to Britain. After completing the ceramic course at Croydon College of Art and Design I set up my studio in London with the help of a Crafts Council Setting Up Grant.
Now I live and work in Bristol.Stephen Parry - CPA Fellow
Ania Perkowska - Selected member
I have been drawn to ceramics because of its primary quality. It has accompanied humans for thousands of years. It has been an essential part of our civilisations right from the start.
There is a sense of magic in being part of that cycle, collective memory, passing through generations. And whilst everyday making happens in relative isolation, this strong anchor and connection is what drives my work.
I’m interested in exploring how restrictions and limitations can inspire creativity. Just as in so many other aspects of our lives. By having less choice, we’re encouraged to go deeper, explore what we do have.
Reducing the colours and materials to get rid of distractions and push creativity.
Simplicity, minimalism and tactility are the most important aspects of my aesthetics. From a distance, my work can appear quiet. It is only when one gets closer, when one touches and holds my piece that they get to see the detail, feel the texture, experience the surfaces.Jane Perryman - CPA Fellow
Pieces are handbuilt using slabbing, press moulding & coiling processes. The surface is burnished & bisque fired to 840centigrade, then sanded and re-fired to 1050centigrade. Clay is a mixture of Porcelain & Stoneware – sometimes mixed with organic material which fires out to give a pitted surface - to be later inlaid with a mixture of lime and oxide. This is followed by smoke firing in a saggar with various resists and combustibles. Richard Phethean - CPA Fellow
My vessels are thrown, often altered and assembled using slab elements, in a coarse-textured red earthenware with brushed slips and paper resist. Recent pots combine references to our rich pottery traditions, 20th century abstract painting, and the land and seascapes of SW Cornwall. Pots are biscuit fired, selectively stained and wax resisted before glazing and firing to 1120 centigrade in an electric kiln. My work is exhibited widely in the UK and Europe and can be found in collections internationally.
My making life has always been accompanied by pottery teaching with both adults and children, in schools, evening centres, colleges and universities. My own studio serves both as a base for my practice and a classroom specifically dedicated to the craft of the potters wheel.
My second book on throwing technique was published in August 2012.
Visitors to my studio are welcome any time by appointment.
Tresabenn,
Lower Kenneggy,
Rosudgeon,
Penzance, Cornwall
TR20 9APLea Phillips - Selected member
The pots are fired to high stoneware temperatures in an electric kiln. I enjoy working with oxidised stoneware as it enables me to combine the depth and texture of stoneware glazes with the decorative freedom most often associated with lower fired ceramics.
Researching glazes and developing new designs is a constantly evolving process which takes place alongside the regular production of tableware. The high firing temperature makes the pots very robust and suitable for every day use.
I trained at the Harrow Studio pottery course and worked for the slipware potter Mary Wondrausch and at Dartington pottery. In 2001 I started the workshop at Coombe Park near Totnes in Devon.
Visitors to the workshop can see the many stages of work in progress as well as a large selection of finished pots.Laura Plant - Selected member
Marie Prett - Selected member
My figurative sculptures depict characters from my imaginary Circus and mythological, otherworld creatures.
My aim is create an infusion of energy, colour and emotion in each piece that tells a story and inspires imagination.
I use Earthstone Handbuilding clay and Velvet underglazes and fire to 1160.
In 2010 I opened the Singing Soul Gallery in Cranbrook, Kent, this is a contemporary art and Craft gallery
showing work from many of the country's top makers and is also home to my workshop.
I run two week long courses and several weekend and one off courses each year, details can be found on my website.Mitch Pilkington - Selected member
Working in grogged stoneware clay, with a palate of coastal shades, and using various stains, slips and oxides, she enhances the natural stone-like quality of the clay.
For Mitch, hand-building is what drives her passion to create her sculptural ceramics. The rhythmic, meditative and mindful process of coiling, and the many hours scraping and
sculpting, provide her with the emotional salve to the stresses of life's everyday challenges. Each piece is an emotional response to the clay, hosting their calming solice.
Within her work, Mitch tries to create a haptic aesthetic that communicates a sense of calm, serenity and connection.John Pollex - CPA Fellow
Having given many international workshops, demonstrations and seminars over the years, including in Iceland, Holland, Switzerland, Ireland and the UK, John also undertook a lecture tour of New Zealand in 1981 with American ceramist Don Reitz. Touring New Zealand with Reitz had a great impact on John’s work.
Having first studied at Sir John Cass in Whitechapel from 1966-68, John went on to become Technician at Harrow College of Art during 1968-70. After Harrow he became assistant to studio potters Colin Pearson and Bryan Newman. Following this he taught ceramics regularly at Medway School of Art. He moved to Plymouth in 1971 where he now lives and works…