Statement
My first inspiration is the material I work with: clay. The second is the means by which it is transmuted: fire. The elemental nature of the material and the process is crucial to the feelings of awe and beauty that I am trying to convey.
I admire art that conveys emotion more than that which depicts a surface reality. Paul Klee once said ‘Art does not recreate the visible, rather it renders visible’. Although I do not dismiss figurative art, I respond more to art that attempts to convey a deeper truth.
As a child I grew up playing in the sandy soils of north Norfolk, England. I was amazed one day to discover clay in the roots of a large tree that had been blown down by the wind. Nearly seventy years later the wonder of that magical material which can be moulded, and shaped, and transformed by fire is still strong.
My work in Cyprus reflects the deep connection I feel with the natural world here, and the traces to be found of ancient civilizations on the island. By working with elemental materials and processes - water, earth, and fire - I try to convey the sense of wonder I feel at the mysterious universe in which we find ourselves.
Biography
I was born in Norfolk, England in 1944, and in 1959 left an undistinguished school career at the earliest opportunity to work in commerce. Returning to education ten years later, I fulfilled my dream of qualifying as a teacher of art specialising in ceramics.
In 1972, I moved with my young family to Cyprus, where I taught art and became known for my pen and ink drawings which were, and still are, reproduced and sold throughout the island.
In the 1980s, following a move to the village of Plataniskia, I was able to return to my first love: ceramics. I held a number of successful exhibitions before returning to the UK in 1988 to study for a Post Graduate Diploma in Ceramics at Goldsmiths College, London.
After settling in Suffolk and further study and development of my work, I was awarded an MA in Professional Artistic Practice and Context by the University of East Anglia in 1999.
In 2010, I returned to settle in the west of Cyprus and established a small ceramic workshop.
Technical stuff
My materials are various mixtures of the clays and sands of Cyprus, some of which I gather from local valleys and streams.
They are fired in a gas kiln to about 1000°C, and removed when red hot. Still glowing, they are then placed in a container with a mixture of sawdust, dried leaves and wood chippings, and starved of oxygen (the western Raku process).
Some tiles become almost black, others retain their terracotta colour, and others become all sorts of colours in between, depending on their composition, their proximity to the combustible material and the length of time they are starved of oxygen. With this palette of colours I create my 'Echoes' work.
My first inspiration is the material I work with: clay. The second is the means by which it is transmuted: fire. The elemental nature of the material and the process is crucial to the feelings of awe and beauty that I am trying to convey.
I admire art that conveys emotion more than that which depicts a surface reality. Paul Klee once said ‘Art does not recreate the visible, rather it renders visible’. Although I do not dismiss figurative art, I respond more to art that attempts to convey a deeper truth.
As a child I grew up playing in the sandy soils of north Norfolk, England. I was amazed one day to discover clay in the roots of a large tree that had been blown down by the wind. Nearly seventy years later the wonder of that magical material which can be moulded, and shaped, and transformed by fire is still strong.
My work in Cyprus reflects the deep connection I feel with the natural world here, and the traces to be found of ancient civilizations on the island. By working with elemental materials and processes - water, earth, and fire - I try to convey the sense of wonder I feel at the mysterious universe in which we find ourselves.
Biography
I was born in Norfolk, England in 1944, and in 1959 left an undistinguished school career at the earliest opportunity to work in commerce. Returning to education ten years later, I fulfilled my dream of qualifying as a teacher of art specialising in ceramics.
In 1972, I moved with my young family to Cyprus, where I taught art and became known for my pen and ink drawings which were, and still are, reproduced and sold throughout the island.
In the 1980s, following a move to the village of Plataniskia, I was able to return to my first love: ceramics. I held a number of successful exhibitions before returning to the UK in 1988 to study for a Post Graduate Diploma in Ceramics at Goldsmiths College, London.
After settling in Suffolk and further study and development of my work, I was awarded an MA in Professional Artistic Practice and Context by the University of East Anglia in 1999.
In 2010, I returned to settle in the west of Cyprus and established a small ceramic workshop.
Technical stuff
My materials are various mixtures of the clays and sands of Cyprus, some of which I gather from local valleys and streams.
They are fired in a gas kiln to about 1000°C, and removed when red hot. Still glowing, they are then placed in a container with a mixture of sawdust, dried leaves and wood chippings, and starved of oxygen (the western Raku process).
Some tiles become almost black, others retain their terracotta colour, and others become all sorts of colours in between, depending on their composition, their proximity to the combustible material and the length of time they are starved of oxygen. With this palette of colours I create my 'Echoes' work.