Viva Brighton Issue #68 October 2018

BRIGHTON MAKER
....................................
Angela Evans
Gourmet glazing
I meet ceramicist Angela Evans in her garden
studio, at the back of the house she grew up in,
near Preston Park. “It was my mum and dad’s
house,” she says. “When they were getting
elderly, they needed somebody to be around
during the day, so I built the shed.” It feels a
little more magical than a shed; it’s a charming
space, filled with moulds and unglazed casts, and
quirky pieces of “flotsam and jetsam” that she’s
gathered over the years.
The studio faces out into the garden, where Angela’s
father used to tend a vegetable patch. “He
retired quite young, really,” she says. “He was 50
when he had me, and he retired at 60, so in my
early life he was around a lot and he was always
gardening. A lot of my childhood memories here
were shelling broad beans, watering, picking,
digging up potatoes – things like that – so I have
quite an affinity with vegetable growing.” It’s no
wonder, then, that her work now is so interlinked
with that very theme.
After doing an Art Foundation course at
Brighton, Angela moved up to London where
she took a “brilliant course at the City Lit,
called the Bridging Course in Art & Design. It
was run by proper practising artists, and I just
learnt so much: painting, photography, drawing.
I’ve always liked to do a bit of everything.”
When she moved back down to Brighton, she
applied to study 3D Design, a course which explored
woods, metals, plastics and ceramics. “By
the time I finished my degree, I was working
mainly in ceramics, collecting textures – that
was my thing.”
....74....