Viva Brighton Issue #69 November 2018

LOCAL MAKER
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Yolande Beer
Painterly pots
My decoration is quite
figurative and that comes
from my love of life drawing.
Most people just put their
drawings away, but I thought
‘I want to use this.’ My tutors
said, ‘you’re mad to put figures
on pots. The Greeks mastered
it.’ But I did it, and I’m still
doing it now, more than thirty
years later.
I studied three-dimensional
design at Brighton College
of Art, with a view to
becoming a jeweller. I loved to
draw, and all of my drawings
were huge, but my jewellery
was tiny. I’d spend three
months on one brooch and I
felt so confined, as opposed
to feeling liberated when I
did life drawing. So, in my
final year, against some of the
tutors’ advice, I switched to
working in ceramics so I could
work more freely.
At my degree show, I was
offered an exhibition at
a new gallery that was
opening in Chelsea. Then
I applied to South East Arts
for a grant, which enabled me
to set up a studio in Brighton
and it all took off from there.
After three years I got a
scholarship to travel to Japan.
Before that time my work
was mostly sgraffito [a type of
decoration made by scratching
through a surface glaze to
reveal a contrasting colour
beneath], because that was
one of the techniques taught
at the Brighton ceramics
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