Carolyn Genders

Carolyn Genders creates bold, asymmetric sculptural vessels and forms in white earthenware with surfaces painted with abstracted imagery.

With a 40 year career in pottery, two books on ceramic practices published by A&C Black, and work held in collections across the world from the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Japan to the Varazdim Museum in Croatia, Carolyn is a prominent UK maker.

Born in Singapore and now living and working on the South coast of England, Carolyn derives the inspiration behind her hand crafted vessels from colours themselves. Citing the world around her alongside the work of artists who use colour as their form of expression, such as Rothko and Giotto, the striking, abstract, decoration of her pieces breathes life into any room.

“Pieces are built or coiled slowly over time as the clay needs to firm up as the form grows. Then there’s lots of scraping and refining of the forms. When completed, I work on the surfaces – inscribing marks, incising and scarifying through layers of matt vitreous slips and burnished terra sigillata. Once I start a group of pieces I work consistently on them as there’s a natural rhythm to the making and the clay must not dry out.” – Carolyn Genders