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Based in Bristol, Fiona's works from her studio in her garden where she makes and fires her work. Her ceramic work is hand-built without the use of a potters wheel and she tends to work in limited series. Each piece is unique. Recently she has been exploring the world of slips - liquid natural or coloured clay, which she is now layering-thinning, scratching and impressing with sand, grog and gravel. She draws into this surface and uses oxides to accentuate the mark making. Work is fired two or three times at earthenware temperatures.
She acknowledges the centrality of the vessel form in her work- not as a practical object but as a metaphor for the human condition- exterior and interior worlds and the landscapes in which we find ourselves.The vessel form invites tactile handling and for a narrative to unfold as it is held and turned. Walking daily she uses photographs to capture fleeting visual ideas. Sketching is vital to work out technical issues then moves quickly into sketching three dimensionally in clay.
She says of her work
“Often it’s only after making and firing the pots that I see what the work was really about. l enjoy sitting with them for a while, in different light, to see what they tell me. There is something undeniably satisfying, (sometimes surprising), about seeing the marks left by my hands and tools on an object which has moved through so many transformational and extreme processes to become what it is. The making is itself a story of repeatedly starting with the bare necessities- clay, hands, water, time- and hope. I lose myself trying to strike the balance between spontaneous gestural work and skilful construction so that all is not lost in the intensity of the firings. I continue to find that very exciting. I am currently curious about the interplay between the natural and human-made world. As a gardener I see how plants disrupt and soften machine produced components. I notice the juxtaposition between rigid, straight lines and solid repeated units which form patterns and the fluid unruly encroachment of plants which change constantly and move with the wind and seasons. This resonates deeply with my personal need for stability and some order- and the profound and disrupting changes that life can bring. Making pots grounds me.”
She has attended workshops at West Dean College, Forest Row School of Ceramics, The Raku Garden in Croatia and at Maze Studios Bristol where she worked as a volunteer assistant learning how to set up and run a studio and fire her own work.She is a long time member of two active artists groups where work can be shown, discussed and critiqued. She is a member of the the Craft Potters Association.
Group exhibitions include the Royal West of England Art Academy, Bristol Guild of Applied Art and Maze Studios. “Guest Potter” at Potters retail co-operative.
