Ashley Howard is an award winning ceramic artist and dedicated teacher creating porcelain vessels informed by Far-Eastern and homespun pottery traditions. Ashley’s work draws from his interest in ritual vessels, the spaces they occupy and the ceremonies that surround them.
Primarily throwing his work on the wheel, while sometimes applying varying degrees of manipulation and altering, Ashley uses surface techniques he has developed over the years to decorate his work by drawing, brushing and printing with enamels. His unique approach to surface decoration is captured by Adrian Bland who writes ‘Howard himself has spoken of his early reticence with regard to decoration, his holding back from being a ‘potter that paints’ (Howard, 2018), and for some time his idiosyncratic mark making remained bound within the sketchbook. Such reticence was perhaps first confronted technically, with research into the right materials and processes, the right temperatures, to push the mark-making into the pot, so that the surface is not sitting on the form, but rather becomes integral to it, and the pot retains a ceramic integrity that somewhat refutes the notion of clay as canvas; ‘the glaze has pulled the marks right in’ (Howard, 2018)’
Initially studying at what is now known as the University for the Creative Arts, Rochester, Ashley has built a career combining teaching with making. Studying his Masters at the Royal College of Art in 2001, he has since published numerous articles on technical and aesthetic subjects.
“The motion, movement and rhythm of the potters wheel have always been an experiential influence on my making. This exhibition represents a stage in my continuing enquiring into the relationship between form and surface.” – Ashley Howard
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This exhibition profiles the works of seventeen esteemed makers, each of whom have recently been awarded Selected Member status by the Craft Potters Association.
An exhibition of works to coincide with the launch of Adam Buick's new book 'Raw Earth'. Adam uses a single pure jar form as a canvas to map his observations from an ongoing study of his surroundings. He incorporates stone and locally dug clay into his work to create a narrative, one that conveys a unique sense of place. The unpredictable nature of each jar comes from the inclusions and their metamorphosis during firing. This individuality and tension between materials speaks of the human condition and how the landscape shapes us as individuals.
‘I build up the surfaces of my pieces spontaneously, riffing on ideas of space, narrative and joy. I get to a point where I can push things a bit, hoping something exciting will happen – and sometimes it does.’
“The work has a strong tactile quality, as does the natural world. I don't wish to imitate nature but aspire to echo the process of nature.”
“Everything created, either functional or decorative, has equal importance,
and the integrity of this thought is the driving force behind my daily practice as
a potter.”
The driving force behind all of Paul Jackson’s
highly decorated work is a desire to express
his Cornish surroundings, with their strong
sense of colour and style. Paul uses white
earthenware to form energetic vessels
which are then decorated with colourful
and painterly abstract decorative motifs,
some influenced by Russian or Islamic art.
Richard Phethean makes ceramics
using coarse textured red and black
earthenware clays referencing
ancient pottery as well as European
slipware traditions. Richard utilises
brush and resist techniques to create
cubist‑inspired abstractions that adorn
both his domestic vessels and altered
and assembled forms.