Saturday 10th Nov 2007 til Jan 20th 2008

The Christmas show includes work by over 100 selected makers - we cannot show them all here, but here is a taste. Don't forget to send your name by email for entry into our free prize draw for a £50 gift voucher

PAUL SMITH                                                   Back to Top

 Red Riding Hood, Ceramic

All Paul Smith’s ceramic sculptures are unique, hand-built one-offs. 

Using a system of rods developed by Ian Gregory he freely builds the figures, removing the supports once the clay can withstand it’s own weight.

He has adapted Ian’s technique by incorporating a solid “back-iron” support. These working methods allow for free and spontaneous variations on a particular theme, each piece being unique and subtly different from it’s predecessor. 

He sponge-decorates his work with oxides, stains and glazes.  Firing is to 1140 degrees or above, depending on the nature of the work.  All sculptures are individually signed and dated.

This information gratefully lifted from Pauls own site at www.paulsmithsculptures.co.uk where more photo's may be viewed

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Ben Arnup has been a self employed ceramicist for 20 years, initially in Berkshire, moving home to the York area in 1986.

Several gallery exhibitions are made each year, mostly in England, supplemented in the past by lecturing for York University, Hull University and at Cyprus College of Art.

Recent making has concentrated on geometric forms, especially from Venetian floor designs with an interest in multiple forms – this feels like a definitive stage for this type of design.

These objects are made from a variety of clays, although a grogged porcelain body is preferred, slab constructed, slip decorated and biscuited to 1000 deg C, then glazed and stoneware reduction fired to 1200-1290 deg C.

He has shown his slab built ceramics which feature a transformation of perspective in many exhibitions in London and abroad as well as at at least five previous exhibitions at Pyramid Gallery.

(The images below are recent works, but at time of publication (25 Oct) we are not sure exactly what will be in the show. We will know a week before the start on 10th November (keep fingers crossed that the kiln performs well between now and then - it's always a nail biter) and we will put images of the actual pieces here as soon as we can. At moments like this I just have to tell myself 'it's better than doing real work' and it is. Sort of.  - Webmaster)  By the way, these are just examples of Ben's past work. The new stuff isn't done yet - 29/10/07

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After leaving Camberwell School of Art in the late 60's I somehow got involved in the building and joinery industry, which as chance would have it, laid the foundations for a lifetime career in architectural, interior and furniture design.

The Creation Of Bronze Vessel Forms and the Alchemy of Patination

Vessels are solid and heavy: formed using the sand-casting process. The procedure requires a solid original pattern [of which the final casting is a replica] to form a hollow impression in sand into which molten bronze is poured.

The work does not exist as any meaningful entity before it appears in bronze. Until then it is simply a casting pattern, a tool to be used in imagining the idea into a 3-dimensional reality.

The sand casting process is relentless and unforgiving – the patterns must withstand considerable abuse – the sand foundry is no place for a delicate original. It is also restrictive and, denying complexity of form, imposes a simplicity that is both disciplinary and at the same time, enriching.

Each casting roughly replicates the original pattern but requires considerable work to refine and finish the surface and form. Sometimes the casting is cut, pierced or individually shaped to create a unique version and although born from a common original, a truly one-off piece.

The rim is critical; it is the interface between the container and that which is contained - it is most usually bright polished and not only reveals the beauty, colour and solidity of the material but crucially exemplifies any asymmetry or dichotomy between the outer surface of the piece as a whole, the “container”, and the space or void that is contained.

Patination presents challenging, unpredictable and seemingly endless possibilities. Although based on sound chemical principles it nevertheless involves a degree of uncontrollable mystery, chance, accident and risk: no two pieces are, or ever will be, quite the same.

The colouring is not a coating, it is the surface itself: it is a transformation of the material, by the material, and is an outward manifestation and celebration of the bronze.

Elegant objects result that do not rely solely upon their intrinsic beauty: they possess an essential presence and resonance.

Lunar Rollerbowl, bronze, patinated, polished rim

Apostrophe, bronze

'Upright Comma' bronze

Susan Dennis

b. 1942

Art Education

1958-63: Leeds College of Art

1963-64: University of Newcastle

1998-2000: University of Sheffield

Solo Exhibitions

1970: John Makepeace workshop, Farnborough

1970: Whately Hall, Banbury

1973: Martin Sylvester, Oxford

1999: York Arts Centre

2003: York Open Studios

2004: York Open Studios

2006: York Open Studios

2007: York Open Studios

Group Shows

1963: Leeds City Art Gallery

1965: Banbury School of Art

1968: Cambridge Festival

1980: Manchester Mount Street

1982: Stockport Art Gallery

1989: AD Gallery, York

1990: AD Gallery, York

1991: AD Gallery, York

1995: Langwith College, University of York

2000: Adze Gallery York

2002: Kings Manor, York

2005: Zillah Bell, Thirsk

2006: Zillah Bell, Thirsk

2007: Zillah Bell, Thirsk

Other

Since leaving art education in 1964, Susan has worked as an art teacher and art therapist. These aren't her paintings!!!! I'm waiting for images.

have been working as a printmaker for the past 20 years, and have found that the process of printmaking itself, especially the endless possibilities in mark-making, in etching and the unique properties of print, a joy and inspiration. I have always wanted to express the form, structure, colour and textures of the world we live in, and have an abiding interest in the primeval, essential structure of the earth and its elements.

As a drawer I was first attracted to etching by the range of line possible with the technique, from the finest line to heavy, rough, deeply-etched marks. In particular I have developed and exploited the embossing characteristics of etching and collograph, which has suited my interests over the years. While my primary aim is developing abstract images in my studio, my work is rooted in the landscape, and I often find it necessary to return to the literal. This enables me to build up a vocabulary of forms which I can use in my more abstract pieces, while escaping from the illustrative and the constraints of faithfully rendering what one sees. Drawing from life, be it a nude model, New Zealand bush landscape, or gritty London images, are often deeply satisfying in themselves, but I then find it necessary to break away and use these forms more freely.

Alongside the printmaking, I also find a more direct painterly approach refreshing, and have recently rediscovered the clear colour and overlaying possibilities of watercolour in my abstract works which serve to extend the vocabulary I use. In addition the three dimensional has always interested me. My more sculptural embossed etchings and collographs have led to a breaking away from print on a single piece of paper to mixed media compilations - the "floating landscapes".

Brenda Hartill

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"From 2007 Piers’ focus is on LIGHT using oils and etchings, as in “Basking baking under sunlight…” (see under ETCHINGS FOR SALE). For 31 years he has successfully described especially Wensleydale’s form, with light married almost equally to form in importance. Painting pure seascapes considerably helps turn the subject/‘marriage’ focus to light being dominant often now. London panoramas from '07 have some interest and hopefully a large Oil of Canary Wharf (see PAINTINGS on this site) will show a new direction - skyscrapers at dusk/dawn! Glass after all is like water.

He is a colourist who paints because he loves pure, inspiring land and especially seascape the world over - mostly in Britain".

The colours of his homebase set in Pennine scenery stir him to action, but he travels for new colour combinations - which thus makes him more appreciate local scenery. He trained hard to draw and, making etchings , make acres of them! - of Wensleydale - and Scotland/Sicily/ Iceland/ Italy/ France/Cyprus * Greece/ Poland/Morocco etc. After Lake District work 'did' British trees for fifeteen years (oils/drawings etc) which made etchings for repro'ing in THE GLORIOUS TREES OF GREAT BRITAIN (do click on this titile on my Home page).


"If I etch I seek the truth in form from on the spot drawings, until I've memorised the scene completely; then I check the colours by painting the scene - often badly, for my won needs. It is still thebeauty of form allied with humming colours which I try to push to the limits ". When doing a studio oil, as usual with artists like me, I draw the scene on the spot and with quite a few small oil studies along the way re-emerse myself into the 'motif', often palette-knifing thick paint onto canvas KNOWING THE SITE, and HOLDING ON TO THE ORIGINAL 'point', the 'buzz' which first interested, till done
 

Born in North Devon in 1961. Originally graduated with a B.Sc.(Hons) in Environmental Science and an M.Sc. in Meat Science. In 1994 decided to return to full-time education in order to pursue a career in art and design. Graduated in 1998 from the University of Plymouth with a first class honours degree in Three Dimensional Design. Have been working as a self-employed designer/maker ever since.

I am a designer/maker working within the field of ceramics and my work is produced by slip-casting porcelain in plaster moulds. Slip-casting is traditionally associated with industrial production, but I have adapted the process to produce ceramics which have a hand-crafted aesthetic.

My ceramics are based on simple, organic forms combining their simplicity of shape with the fineness and purity of porcelain.

The driving force behind my work is the creation of surface texture and porcelain is magnificently able to display delicate surfaces through its ability to highlight every nuance and detail