‘Pottery and Pastel’ Ceramics by Chris Hughes
With so much uncertainty at present, it is hardly surprising that people are being drawn to seek out activities that will provide some structure to their day during the pandemic. TV programmes like ‘The Great Pottery Throw Down’ have certainly fired people’s curiosity during lockdown into attempting new skills and hobbies.
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or any creative artist, the stimulus of their media will always be the inspiration for their craft - painters using oils; weavers and their threads; sketchers working with charcoal. Likewise, there is an inherent tactile attraction to the potential of moulding a humble lump of wet clay into an accomplished work of art. This same appeal is well to the fore in the stoneware ceramics of avid potter, Chris Hughes, who has been perfecting his clay working skills well before the first lockdown hit, producing hand-built bowls, lampshades and clocks from his studio in Ainsdale.
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Chris confirms, “It is amazingly accessible. You can buy a bag of clay and make your pots – on the kitchen table or the garden bench – if they go wrong you dry them out and reconstitute the clay and start again.” Chris goes on to add, “I believe that most artists are drawn to the medium that suits them the best. I like clay. I like the feel of it the way it changes, you can model it, stick it together and build with it, carve into it, colour it and just leave it as the colour of the earth. By training I am a geographer, clay is all about earth, fire and water, pretty similar really.” A former primary school teacher, Chris began making his pots in the late 1970’s after attending courses at Edge Hill College in Ormskirk run by Brian Cook. As his interest in pottery took hold, Chris undertook nightschool classes at Southport College and gained a oneterm secondment at St Martin’s College in Lancaster to attend the course ‘Clay as a Teaching Medium’ ran by Barry Gregson of Caton Pottery. It supported teachers from both primary and secondary school to improve
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