Fiona Booy 12

They also bump the throwing off kilter making for more interesting swirls and edges. The final part is assembly stage –where she stacks, cuts and even squiggle parts of thrown pieces together.

To progress her work Fiona is now experimenting with coloured clays & brighter glazes, and increasing the size of her creations.

Covid made for an unexpected past 12 months for Fiona. After her teaching workshops and exhibitions were all cancelled, she created the Make-at-Home Pottery Club – which comprises the YouTube channel, St Albans Pottery, and developed various clay packs (airdry clay & firing option) for adults and children. To date she has created over 30 video projects.

FionaBooyCeramics/ St Albans Pottery/ Make-at-Home Pottery Club

www.FionaBooyCeramics.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/fionabooycera mics https://www.facebook.com/FionaBooyCera mics

https://www.instagram.com/stalbanspottery https://www.youtube.com/c/stalbanspottery

Top: Hidden Depths

Right: Tattooine

Nichola Theakston

Established as one of the UK's foremost contemporary sculptors working in the animal genre, Nichola Theakston exhibits across the UK and Europe where she is collected internationally by those who appreciate her natural ability and skill, coupled with sensitivity and awareness of her subject.

The major influence in the work started with the opportunity to work with clay on monumental scale within a conceptual and sculptural fine art context during the first year of her degree course. Starting at Leeds Jacob Kramer-Foundation studies; then Exeter College of Art and Design-BA Hons Fine Art; and finally Cardiff School of Art and Design-MA Ceramics.

Early influences were Ewan Uglow, Marino Marini, and Elizabeth Frink.

Studying fine art at degree level and majoring in both painting and ceramics has been an overriding directional influence. She operates as a sculptor with clay as a medium, and is particularly focused on the sculptural language employed working in harmony with a painterly and expressive surface application. Influences other than the connection to, and observation of specific subjects tend toward the powerful influence of the Ancients and the Classics. She is interested in the representation of animals as deities, votives or companions throughout the course of early civilisations. Clay has a directly malleable, earthy and warm appeal and is the first choice of medium. She sells her work via galleries, at ceramic craft shows and via UK and European Art fairs with gallery representation. Online platforms such as Instagram being a more recent and direct point of contact and information sharing.

Today she works from a purpose built studio converted from an old piggery next to the farmhouse she has lived in for over two decades. Recent renovations have seen the studio become attached via a connecting gallery space to the house.

Below: ‘Sighthound 9’ . Unique Study in terracotta. 2021

One off ceramic pieces are made using various approaches; handbuilding, constructing, slab building , working both on and off an armature and direct modelling. Slips and stains are applied prior to firing. It is fired only once. The surface is worked whilst the clay is damp and the sculpture is often at risk during the process. Bronze casting requires a soft latex mould to be made of the original clay model, which is backed with a fibreglass shell. A wax positive is made from which another mould is taken, which can withstand the molten bronze pour.

Left: ‘Checking and working waxes before the investment process at the foundry.

Below: ‘Bastet Study 3’ Bronze edition of 12. Detail.

She has always tried to express the ‘within’ of a subject as well as the physicality. Earlier work was more concerned with form and representation, while the focus has been shifting towards an emphasis upon the notion of a shared consciousness, the connection between man and beast experiencing similar emotion /capacity for shared thought and understanding. What she calls ‘the cerebral connection’.

Although an understanding of form and observation is still important she values the expression of the former more highly. Her approach to finish has also evolved. For over a decade she has been revisiting and experimenting with an abstract expressive approach to surface figuration, a return to an approach first used after leaving art college and utilising the painterly side of her art education.

Top right: ‘Bastet 3’ during patination at the foundry. Left below: ‘Bastet’ Bronze edition of 12 Right: ‘Bastet Study 1’ Bronze edition of 12 (detail)

17