News — contemporary ceramics
Interwoven Forms Exhibition: Lesley Farrell Ceramicist
Interwoven Forms: The Art of Clay and Lace
1 February - 28 March 2025
Lesley Farrell creates beautiful sculptural forms in ceramic.
Her hand-built vessels employ traditional coiling and pinch construction methods.
Many of the pieces are double walled, creating the illusion of density, with delicate surface patterns sourced from vintage lace.
She is interested in exploring how traces of the past can be held and recalled through hand-made objects. The transfer of the surface pattern relies on the touch of the original lace enfolding the ceramic form. The work alludes to the former life of the lace and the absence of the persons who owned and made it.
Having obtained a degree in Ceramics from Loughborough College of Art & Design, Lesley now pursues a career in the gallery sector and is an established curator alongside her studio practice. She also has an MA in Photography and a PGCE Art and Design.
Menagerie: Animal Magic with Sculptor Elaine Peto
Elaine Peto has spent a lifetime being inspired by the natural world. From her studio in Hampshire she studies animal behaviour, their forms and characteristics. Elaine's current portfolio includes ceramic sculptures of farm and wild animals and even sea creatures. She specialises in creating one-off pieces using textured stoneware and porcelain clay.
“My aim is to capture the essence of the beast”
At Exeter College of Art & Design, Elaine studied animals through research visits to livestock markets and abattoirs, using the media of photography and drawing to record the structure of the carcass. After graduating in 1985, she continued her studies of agricultural animals, setting up her own studio in 1986.
There is a softness about Elaine's sculptures, that despite the hard ceramic form, she manages to create a flesh/skin like quality with the employment of various scratching techniques and impressing textured textiles into the soft clay. This creates a highly tactile surface that demands to be touched. Her use of multiple glazes adds a further dimension that enhances and attracts.
Elaine makes each animal as an individual, determined to suggest character with her enigmatic styling processes. Each creature is made by building the form using clay slabs: rolling out a sheet of clay and forming the body, then gradually adding slab by slab to form the whole animal. The details are then remodelled until the animal is complete. The animal is biscuit fired, glazed and re-fired to stoneware.
We are delighted to showcase the work of this accomplished sculptor at Utopia.
