Artizan Sculpture Season - Autumn

Bev Knowlden

Why don't you do some sculpture for yourself?' It was this throw-away remark from my partner in 2013 that set me on my current exciting journey... With over 30 years’ experience working as an artist, mainly in puppet animation and model making, I now concentrate on sculpting portrait heads of humans and animals in clay. I just love the forgiving nature of clay and also its ability to hold very fine detail when necessary. I sculpt from both life and photographs. The finished models are moulded in silicone rubber and then cast in resin. I've developed a technique of combining jute fabric with the resin, which gives my work a porosity and sense of fragility. The resulting works can be unsettling, haunting, beautiful but always subtly peppered with personality. Drawing inspiration from my own life, darker themes occasionally embody my sculpture. Maybe it's a form of catharsis, although humour often emanates as well. I gravitate towards theatricality and experimentation, often provoking quirky bold compositions. I was delighted to take part in the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition 2019, with my sculpture 'Cheeky Chester'. In 2020, my sculpture of Ena Sharples (Coronation Street ITV) was selected by the Society of Portrait Sculptors for their show 'Face 2020'. I also appeared holding my Ena Sharples sculpt in a brief video, as part of Grayson Perry's 'Art Club' on Channel 4 in 2020.

Becca Brown

Working in porcelain and stoneware, I combine drawing and printmaking to build narrative on the surface of decorative hand-built ceramics. My drawings are inspired by mundane scenes and moments of connection, interspersed with imagery from half-remembered Scottish superstitions. Fingerprints, brush strokes and making marks are intentionally left exposed to accentuate the relationship between vessel and subject. I studied Textile and Surface Design at Gray’s School of Art in 2010, where I first began working with clay. After graduating I went on to study for a Masters in Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art in 2014 and stayed on as Artist in Residence. I’m now settled in Sheffield after moving down for the Ceramic Starter Studio at Yorkshire Artspace in 2017.

Alison West

Alison West’s wheel-thrown ceramics blend traditional techniques with a deep respect for the natural world and a joy in the unpredictability of flame and fire. Her long-standing practice of saggar firing—a method where pots are fired inside protective containers (saggars) with foraged organic materials like plants and seaweed—leaves delicate smoke marks and organic imprints. This process embraces the unknown, with each piece bearing distinctive, atmospheric marks shaped by the firing. Her forms are influenced by both classical Greek elegance and Japanese simplicity, shaped further by several years living in Japan where she absorbed an appreciation for natural materials, process, and imperfection. Central to her work is the use of terra sigillata, an ancient Greek and Roman technique that involves creating an ultra-fine clay slip by separating the smallest particles of clay. When burnished and fired, this slip produces a smooth, glossy surface without glaze. Alison refines Devon’s wild and Ball Clays to create these slips, using this historical method in a contemporary way to highlight the natural hues and textures of the local landscape. These slips are layered over Cornish clay forms, grounding each piece in place and tradition. By combining this heritage with contemporary experimentation, Alison celebrates the novel and unexpected outcomes that arise from working with fire, clay, and nature—capturing the essence of place in every piece

Le.Jack

An exploration of reaction versus response. I make sculptures and this series of work continues my exploration of how we are shaped by our circumstances, our innate nature and ethereal being. I use stoneware clay as my canvas. I manipulate it with a knowledge of the materials foibles, it like us has a memory. Bend it one way then try to make it flat, and it will bend back towards its original shape, in a way similar to the human condition. We have a tendency to revert to what we know, reacting in expected ways. So, clay is an ideal way of expressing where I am or how I perceive where society is. I then add textures and layers, be it different types of metal, or chain maille and possibly glass. These shine a mirror on how softness needs hardness and vice versa and, on some level, how our beliefs keep us hidden. I have spent a lot of my life assisting others in being more themselves. Offering opportunities to be more self-aware and compassionate to self and others. This forms a great bedrock for my sculptural work. Sculpting enables me to show myself fully, creativity is my natural language, it's my way of continuing to let go of expectations and allow myself to shine more brightly. It is my place of self-awareness and self-compassion. Paramountly, it gives the gift of taking a breath and being just in this moment.

Tracy Nicholls

I create sculptures using a variety of techniques within kiln formed glass to highlight the beauty found within the states of decay and erosion - exploring the deteriorations that occur around and within us, the once solid forms that disintegrate over time, becoming ever more delicate and fragile. I draw on the intriguing imagery of this journey and the intricate structures that remain. Working to manipulate and distort the material, to exploit the tension that exists between the planned and the unexpected that can occur within the making process, I constantly push the limits of the material in order to produce my unique sculptures. I am still filled with apprehension and excitement on every kiln opening to see what magic or disaster has occurred. Rejecting the qualities typically associated with glass - the transparency, vibrancy and shine, I gravitate towards a simple monochrome palette and opaque glass, sandblasting to exchange the glossy shiny finish for a satin sheen. The interplay of light within the pieces adds extra dimension and depth as it creates shadows through apertures or glows as it bounces around interior curves.