I work intuitively, I have ideas and I play with clay. The results of this interaction are sometimes exciting and unexpected, leading me to develop new forms. The challenge then is to overcome the technical and aesthetic considerations in order to resolve each piece.
Exploring the nature of clay in forms both figurative and vessel based preoccupy me. I enjoy making both strands of work because references of vessel/figure/landscape are, to me, interchangeable.
The metamorphic (landscape/figure) forms evolved initially from my response to the natural environment and our relationship with it; other influences seem to have crept in from my subconscious – pre-historic memory, genetic information, modern social and political situations, and personal thoughts. The figure as metaphor for vessel evokes other areas of investigation on a spiritual or mystical level. Vessel forms, whether landscape or anthropomorphically inspired might be loosely conceptual, or actually useful! My work is not an intellectual comment, but an emotional response to these issues. I attempt to distil a sense of all this into forms which (hopefully) communicate and resonate with the onlooker in whatever way the work is “read”.
The pieces are hand built using various techniques, incorporating the tactile, textural qualities inherent in clay (which will be further enhanced by oxides slips and glazes.) The forms, surface and method of making are all integrated but the process of making always offers other choices and options and with the glaze firings adding their own dynamics it becomes a journey into the unknown.
At present work is constructed in stoneware, (sometimes incorporating paper-clay, terracotta and porcelain) and fired to about 1240° C.
Adela Powell August 2006
EDUCATION
1976 - 1978 |
Plymouth College of Art and Design |
EXHIBITIONS
2001
2001
2001
2002
2003
2004
2004
2005
2005
2006
2006
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Invited Exhibition “Elements of Contemporary Craft” Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro
Invited Exhibition “New Ceramics-The Feminine Touch”, Trelowarren Gallery, Helston, Cornwall
Battersea “Affordable Arts Fair”, exhibited courtesy of Badcocks Gallery, Newlyn
Open Studio by Invitation, “Ceramica - An International Festival of Clay”, St. Ives International
Cornwall Crafts Association, “Art in the Garden”, National Trust Gardens, Trellissick House, Truro, Cornwall
Exhibitor at the “Contemporary Craft Fair”, Bovey Tracy, Devon
Exhibited with Plymouth Society of Artists, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
Joint Exhibition with Jenny Martin, Artmill Gallery, Plymouth
Battersea “Affordable Arts Fair”, courtesy of Badcocks Gallery, Newlyn
Joint Exhibition with Hannah Davies (Painter), Badcocks Gallery, Newlyn
Vitreous Contemporary Art, Truro, Cornwall
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