SUSANNA LISLE
NEW PAINTINGS
and introducing ceramicists
JESSICA THORN
HANNAH TOUNSEND
4th - 30th October 2016
Lane House Arts Gallery, Bath
New paintings by Susanna Lisle and introducing new gallery contemporary ceramicists Jessica Thorn and Hannah Tounsend.
SUSANNA LISLE
Susanna considers two systems to be at play in her work : the organic world with its textures, forms and colour; and geometrical pattern and space.
Geometry and pattern are used as a metaphor for the experience of the natural world. They reflect and evoke the rhythm and mystery of the landscape; its tangibility and elusiveness recalled over and over again. Her current series of paintings draws upon the experience and visual richness of a familiar loved place with an aim to locate and reconstruct it in a subtle but more permanent reality - one held in the mind.
Susanna studied painting at Goldsmiths School of Art, University of London and taught in London for eight years. She also designed for Ehrman Tapestries and exhibited at the first BP Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. She gained her MFA in Fine Art at Bath Spa School of Art and Design.
She has exhibited widely and recent exhibitions include a solo show at Andelli Art in Wells, 2015, the BEEP Awards in Wales, August 2016 and the Gemini Art Prize in London, September 2016. She currently lives in West Wiltshire.
Read more about the artist here
Susanna considers two systems to be at play in her work : the organic world with its textures, forms and colour; and geometrical pattern and space.
Geometry and pattern are used as a metaphor for the experience of the natural world. They reflect and evoke the rhythm and mystery of the landscape; its tangibility and elusiveness recalled over and over again. Her current series of paintings draws upon the experience and visual richness of a familiar loved place with an aim to locate and reconstruct it in a subtle but more permanent reality - one held in the mind.
Susanna studied painting at Goldsmiths School of Art, University of London and taught in London for eight years. She also designed for Ehrman Tapestries and exhibited at the first BP Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. She gained her MFA in Fine Art at Bath Spa School of Art and Design.
She has exhibited widely and recent exhibitions include a solo show at Andelli Art in Wells, 2015, the BEEP Awards in Wales, August 2016 and the Gemini Art Prize in London, September 2016. She currently lives in West Wiltshire.
Read more about the artist here
JESSICA THORN
Jessica is a ceramic designer-maker of high end functional and decorative objects. She is charmed by the ability a handmade object has to allow an everyday ritual become more pleasurable.
With this in mind, she aims to design and make functional objects for others and herself by focusing on a simple aesthetic whilst showing off the pure quality of the ceramic. The aesthetic and design of manufactured metal tins has not changed for over two centuries. Fascinated by this, Jessica designs and makes functional hand-built porcelain vessels inspired by the characteristics and forms of the tins. These vessels primarily take form as cups, jugs, tea caddies and spoons. The collection is constantly developing and growing.
The process of her work is driven by a belief in the value and importance of celebrating craftsmanship within functional objects. She embraces this belief in her current collection through her elusive joining technique, which naturally leaves a trail of maker’s marks. These marks can both be seen and touched allowing the user to have a sensual awareness of her craftsmanship and the handmade. These maker’s marks are highlighted through the use of a select colour palette, derived by creating a simplified and contemporary notion to colours produced in rust and decay
Jessica gained a first class honours degree in Ceramics from Plymouth College of Art in 2013. In 2015, she was selected by the Crafts Council to take part in Hothouse 5, a programme providing makers with the tools ‘to grow a sustainable and successful craft practice and help nurture a strong peer network’. She currently lives and works in Bristol.
Jessica is a ceramic designer-maker of high end functional and decorative objects. She is charmed by the ability a handmade object has to allow an everyday ritual become more pleasurable.
With this in mind, she aims to design and make functional objects for others and herself by focusing on a simple aesthetic whilst showing off the pure quality of the ceramic. The aesthetic and design of manufactured metal tins has not changed for over two centuries. Fascinated by this, Jessica designs and makes functional hand-built porcelain vessels inspired by the characteristics and forms of the tins. These vessels primarily take form as cups, jugs, tea caddies and spoons. The collection is constantly developing and growing.
The process of her work is driven by a belief in the value and importance of celebrating craftsmanship within functional objects. She embraces this belief in her current collection through her elusive joining technique, which naturally leaves a trail of maker’s marks. These marks can both be seen and touched allowing the user to have a sensual awareness of her craftsmanship and the handmade. These maker’s marks are highlighted through the use of a select colour palette, derived by creating a simplified and contemporary notion to colours produced in rust and decay
Jessica gained a first class honours degree in Ceramics from Plymouth College of Art in 2013. In 2015, she was selected by the Crafts Council to take part in Hothouse 5, a programme providing makers with the tools ‘to grow a sustainable and successful craft practice and help nurture a strong peer network’. She currently lives and works in Bristol.
HANNAH TOUNSEND
Hannah Tounsend’s collections of contemplative vessels and monoprints explore the layered landscapes and sea-washed, weatherworn surfaces of the British coastline. Marks, lines and diffuse merging colours are built up, cut through and dissolved away. The repeatedly worked surfaces of clay and print are under constant revision, referencing the endless remaking of the shore.
She has developed an unusual, hybrid making technique to form her vessel pieces. Within an open plaster mould she builds layers of printed, poured and painted casting slips, overlaying colours on the porous surface. Using a throwing wheel, the top section is added to the still-moulded cast and fully thrown out.
The presence of the mould allows the formation of a flange of clay that accentuates the join and breaks away in pleasingly irregular fragments as the piece shrinks and pulls inwards. Inspired by the shore, Hannah’s ceramic vessels are heavy with the banding of a tiered landscape. The static cast portions of her pieces are representative of solid land; the flowing thrown porcelain a liquid tide with a disintegrating, uppermost edge akin to a smudged horizon. In this way the horizontal boundaries within the vessels echo and resonate with the elemental strata of the coast.
Amongst other awards, residencies and bursaries, she won the New Designers ‘One Year On’ Award in 2016.
Hannah Tounsend’s collections of contemplative vessels and monoprints explore the layered landscapes and sea-washed, weatherworn surfaces of the British coastline. Marks, lines and diffuse merging colours are built up, cut through and dissolved away. The repeatedly worked surfaces of clay and print are under constant revision, referencing the endless remaking of the shore.
She has developed an unusual, hybrid making technique to form her vessel pieces. Within an open plaster mould she builds layers of printed, poured and painted casting slips, overlaying colours on the porous surface. Using a throwing wheel, the top section is added to the still-moulded cast and fully thrown out.
The presence of the mould allows the formation of a flange of clay that accentuates the join and breaks away in pleasingly irregular fragments as the piece shrinks and pulls inwards. Inspired by the shore, Hannah’s ceramic vessels are heavy with the banding of a tiered landscape. The static cast portions of her pieces are representative of solid land; the flowing thrown porcelain a liquid tide with a disintegrating, uppermost edge akin to a smudged horizon. In this way the horizontal boundaries within the vessels echo and resonate with the elemental strata of the coast.
Amongst other awards, residencies and bursaries, she won the New Designers ‘One Year On’ Award in 2016.
