Wealden Times | WT183 | May 2017 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

Jane Richardson
Ceramic artist
Have you always been an artist? I haven’t
always been an artist, from the age of three
I’d been to ballet lessons so wanted to be
a dancer. I’d even boarded for two years
at a dance school when I was 13. I was
dancing for four hours a night after school
and absolutely loved it. Sadly my diet was
so poor at the time of boarding my body
packed up and I had to stop – I’d come
from an organic farm where everything
was homegrown or homemade but at
dance school it was a tin of spaghetti! I
was mortified at giving up. I dropped back
a year at school and, being very dyslexic,
clay was another creative option. So, I
later travelled to Nottingham from Wales
with my sister in our old Ford Anglia. It
took all day in those days! The college
hadn’t opened yet, so I was allowed to go
to their sister college and study Beauty
Therapy. I didn’t transfer back and this
gave me a 10 year career in London
and Stroud. Everywhere I’ve ever lived
I’ve always joined recreational pottery
classes, so dance and massage became an
integral part of my work – the driving
force behind my figurative sculpture.
What do you create? I hand throw on
the pottery wheel making functional
pieces and I sculpt too. I love different
clays – they inspire my work. I’ll go from
smooth white porcelain clay, making tiny
perfect vases, to a black heavily-grogged
clay making large gnarly ‘grumpy’ crows,
then a ‘molochite’ for my figurative work..
What inspires you? I love work and love
pottery – I don’t switch off from that.
For some reason I often think of ideas in
the shower, one being a little handmade
robin on an old fork as a garden sculpture.
These fly out from my studio! On a
recent trip to Portugal I saw huge rugged
rocks, sculpted by the ocean. I couldn’t
wait to recreate them as ‘bottles’ – these
will be part of an installation in my next
art show at Lenham Barn in May.
How do you start your creative process?
I always procrastinate and do a hundred
other jobs! My studio has to be tidied (I’m
so messy!), then the kettle goes on, then
it is head down for days on end, whether
it’s a ‘body’ of work for an exhibition or
one piece for a commission. Then I start
all over again... more jobs. Kettle on....
How has your style evolved over your
career? My attitude has changed, I
want more from my clay, thinner, finer,
more expressive – the clay, glaze and
form to work as one. Commissions and
clients alter what you do, too, as you tap
in to their aspirations, extending your
own boundaries. I moved to Godinton
House last year so I’m surrounded by
these beautiful gardens, already it’s
influencing my work. My pieces have
become more garden orientated with
more birds, pods, pebbles and ‘quirky
moments’! I seem to have a fetish for wood
too now, marrying the two together.
Where do you sell your work? Galleries,
commissions and sculpture or art shows. I
plan shows a year ahead. Each show I do
gives me a chance to evolve like a new
chapter as I create new work and tailor it
for each show. May is the Pilgrims Way
Art Show. In June I participate in South
East Open Studios. In July I’m making
for the Royal Reggata and Henley music
festival. Also the Sculpture Show at
Godinton House and Gardens. I always
have work at a lovely gallery in Wales
called Golden Sheaf Gallery who’ve
supported me for years and West End
House Gallery in Smarden, Kent.
I’ve exhibited in the Ivy London,
Whitstable, France, Battle, Hatfield,
Canterbury – I’m gradually
getting closer to my dreams.
Jane is a member of Pilgrims Way
Artists (pilgrimswayartists.org.uk).
For more info. email janespottery@
gmail.com or call 07599 355601.
Keith Tyson
Turner Prize
winner
Have you always
been an artist?
No. After leaving school I’d been
working in a factory for four years
and so I was very earnest at art
college. It took me a while to realise
you could play with the rules, that
you could do whatever you wanted to
do. I think my whole artistic journey
really has been trying to create more
liberation in what I do, trying to be
freer, to express more of the wonder
of the world instead of the “meaning”
of it. The early work looked towards
mathematics and logic for solutions
to my artistic problems. I used a lot of
algorithms, made an art machine to
come up with ideas for me and other
conceptual strategies. Now the work
has become much more emotive. The
original titles used scientific terms
and although I’m still fascinated by
science those titles have evolved into
an element in which to create a poetic
tension between the text and image.
As you grow older your circumstances
change too – I’ve got three children
now, I’m in a very different place
than I was 20 years ago. I think the
work can’t help but reflect that.
What do you create? I paint and
draw. I write and I make sculptures.
What inspires you? Like every other
artist who has ever lived, my work is
simply a response to the world I live
in (and it seems to me at least that we
live in quite a complex one currently).
My studio wall drawings are like
a visual diary that I have been
keeping for over 20 years. I always
have thought that I would like
to show a great many of them
together at some point and
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