A L I S O N W E S T
C U R R E N T W O R K
K I R S T Y A D A M S
Kirsty Adam’s work is both functional and holds aesthetic meaning, retaining the spontaneity and delicacy intrinsic to making on the potters’ wheel. A Japanese comb tool is used to create and enhance the throwing lines. Her Icelandic collection is the culmination of a research trip to Iceland to express the ‘otherworldliness’ of the landscape.
Kirsty is an award-winning ceramicist currently working from her studio in Newcastle upon Tyne. She originally trained at Brighton Art College and then on the potters’ wheel in Japan. She has developed a personal approach to throwing on the wheel using porcelain clay, to produce unique pieces for the home.
Exhibitions and Events
Being Human
6th March - 19th April 2020
C U R R E N T W O R K
A D R I A N T A Y L O R
Process: These drawings were made from recent visits to Cornwall and are drawn directly from observation in sketchbooks. Drawings are removed from the sketchbooks, and then stitched together by machine and hand. They are then immersed into hot beeswax: rendering the paper semi-transparent, revealing layers of drawings of the same subject.
Heat transfer dyes (applied with a hot iron) provides additional subtle pigmentation prior to wax immersion. They become transformed from flat 2 dimensions into crafted material, and towards being containers of visual information.
Drawing: When we look at something, especially something as spatially expansive as a ‘landscape’, only a small part of it is ‘in focus’ at any given time. As the eye wanders and moves around the expanse of space, the previous (in focus) part is now a blur. The idea that it is all equally in focus, is the accumulation of memory: creating a coherent visual matrix. Photography, where a large depth of field is employed, contributes to this illusion. The fragmentary collaged nature of these drawings corresponds to the shifting visual attention.
Place: St Ives and West Penwith has been the environment in which Leach Pottery has existed for 101 years, enhanced by the cultural artistic milieu.
The region has also been a destination for myself (family holidays from aged four). It is my ‘touch-stone’ place to re-set. The precise location at Clodgy Point where most of the drawings are made has greater personal significance. (My ashes here please.)
Walk away from the crowds of St Ives, along the coast path, west towards the furthest visual point from Porthmeor Beach. ‘Turning a corner’, the land changes dramatically and elementally. A series of coves and peninsulas ‘guide one’s eyes’ on a clear day towards Zennor and beyond. Keep going, and you almost return to Marazion where the land seems ‘pinched’, and nearly an island, a vessel: not England.
The beeswax was provided by Laurence Eastwood (an ex-Leach potter), who keeps beehives of Cornish Black bees in and around St. Ives.
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Adrian Taylor studied at the Royal College of Art and has exhibited his work in London, across Europe and in New York.
He has taught art & design and life-drawing at institutions including the Tate Gallery, the V&A, RADA, The British Museum, Central St. Martin’s and Chelsea College of Art.
Adrian lives and works in London and is also available for private commissions (contact the gallery to find out more).