Northshore Pottery is my studio, I welcome visitors, and have a small gallery alonside my workshop. Whatever is current in my work is also on display and for sale in the gallery.
Although I work soley with clay, my output has a broad base. I studied Fine Art (sculpture) at Newcastle University in the 80’s, and then worked with Studio Potters in the Highlands of Scotland, before setting up my own studio in ’93.
Consequently I feel I have roots in both Fine Art and Studio Pottery and correspondingly there are two distict threads in my work. They are seperate but are brought together by the firing in my Soda firing technique.
Ariel
The Sculpture is abstract, it is about nature of clay and geological origins and it is about our own relationship with the earth. I look at structures within the landscape, and at geology, geometry and physics. I also gather alot of material that I find locally and incorporate it into the work.
My studio pottery is about form. Although I am undoubtedly influenced by the landscape, I am honing forms over years, changing them subtly to get them just as I want them. I am also always working on new glazes, trying to achieve the virbrant and rich colours found in the Caithness landscape.
I want the completed pieces to contain marks that are left behind by the making process, but the marks must also be vital to the asthetics and form. I also want to pieces to reflect in some way their wet state as they are when they are first lifted from the wheel.
The studio itself is a converted Oat Meal Mill, which also is our family home. The ground floor is dedicated to clay the upper floors are the house.
It is located on the far Northeastern Coast of the Scottish mainland as the cliff sweep Northward at Latheron, in a great arc towards the Caithness County Town of Wick.
The studio is open 10-5 Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1st April to Mid December
Curriculum vitae
1985 Graduated in Fine Art from Newcastle University. (Sculpture)
1987 Apprentice at Edinbane Pottery, Isle of Skye
1989 Production Thrower at John O’Groats Pottery
1993 Set up Ceramics Studio and Gallery in Latheron, Caithness
Recent Exhibitions and projects
2018 ‘Earth Ripples’ Solo Foyer Exhibition, Inverness Museum and Art
2018 Rob Donn Commemorative Exhibition, Mackay Country, Durness. Commission ‘The Roots of Rob Donn’
2018 ‘Northbound’ Touring Group exhibition, An Talla Solais Ullapool, Thurso, Shetland, Norway
2018 ‘Metamophic Forms’ Group exhibition, Timespan Art Gallery, Helmsdale
2018 ‘Open’ Visual Arts Scotland annual exhibition, royal Academy Buildings, Edinburgh
2017 ’64 Moons’ Solo Exhibition, Kelvin College, Glasgow
2017 Visual Artists and Makers Award to build chambered sculpture kiln.
2016 ‘Fly’ Visual Art Scotland annual exhibition. Royal Academy Buildings, Edinburgh
