Sarah Guppy
“Each day I go into ‘Shed Light’ in my garden and cut a piece of clay. I have no concept of what this clay will be, until my hands begin to pat, press, roll, excavate, pull then I wait. It is what I have come to see as ‘calling the clay’.
”
Hand-built Ceramics
We Love…
We love how Sarah blends old & new, and somehow makes it relevant to today. Nostalgia meets cool & funky, with soft a colour palette and very clever forms. Add to that her beautiful collection of feathered friends, and you have a perfect Artform match. ARTFORM.
Currently in the gallery…
Feature
I use a grogged clay which is often used for sculpture with a strong clay body. I add to the clay tiny pieces of broken fired clay which adds another dimension to the finished work.
Once the work is leather hard (dry but still a little flexible) I trim and fettle the clay to a satisfaction, sometimes scoring the surface with a pattern or detail. Later I apply a coat of white slip which is a ground for the painting. Using fine brushes and coloured slips, I draw/paint a design or pattern towards the shape. The object is then twice fired.
Though I have never counted I am sure that with each piece I make I have touched and turned 1000 times. This tactile behaviour is for me a kind of mediation, a touching base, a growing process, an incomplete attempt at discovery that never ends. In this way each work is unique. My mother told me to never make a cake when you’re unhappy. This also applies to clay.”
Influence
“When I lived in London, I spent many days and hours at the British Museum favouring the early Roman and Etruscan ceramics. It was always the small works that intrigued me. The humble soup bowl with a fish painted faintly or an English jug with rabbits running. The ceramic’s which have been lovingly restored, held together with glues and missing pieces that I love. The thought that this object was once made by someone hundreds or thousands of years ago with just the intention of holding water or storing salt, and the joy that someone painted a landscape or a decorative pattern from crushed pigment to delight the user is a haunting contact with the history of a much-loved art form.”