Biography & CV

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Awards

ACE grant award, May 2004

May 2006 - Awarded a grant from Arts Council England, West Midlands, for "Grants for the Arts - Individuals". Project entitled "Enhancement of Marketing Strategy and Artistic Portfolio".

May 2004 - Awarded a grant from Arts Council England, West Midlands, for "Arts for Individuals" to permit a dedicated research and development period.

 

Publications

“Colour in Glazes” by Linda Bloomfield. Work featured. In press 2011.

“Advanced Pottery” by Linda Bloomfield. Work featured. Published October 2010 (ISBN 9780709087724) (Click here)

Ceramic Art and Perception: issue 65; pp88-90 (September 2006). Profile and review by Craig Ashley. (Click here)

Ceramic Review: issue 213; p56 (May/June 2005) - Spotlight exhibition review by Emma Crichton-Miller (Click here)

2010 Exhibitions

13th - 16th May - Selected to exhibit at the 2010 Dießen Ceramic Market, Dießen, Bavaria, Germany. (Click here)

5th – 27th June – Summer show at The Gallery at Bevere, Bevere, Worcester, UK. (Click here)

25th - 27th June - Earth & Fire, Rufford Country Park, Nottinghamshire,UK. (Click here)

9th September - 30th October - "Rain & Fire". Group show, at The SDC Gallery, Shoreditch, London, UK. (Click here)

30th – 31st October – Selected to exhibit at Craft Potters Association Show, Oxford, UK (Click here)

20th - 21st November - Selected to exhibit at the 14th Southern Pottery & Ceramics Show, The Maltings, Farnham, Surry, UK. (Click here)

 

Worked stocked on an ongoing basis at: The Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland UK. (Click here); The Gallery at Bevere, Worcester, UK. (Click here); Millyard Gallery, Millyard, Staveley, Nr Kendal, Cumbria, UK (Click here); Katherine House Gallery, Marlborough, UK.

 

Previous Exhibitions

Galleries:

Beaux Arts; The Gallery at Bevere; Wine Street Gallery; Gallery 23; Milyard Gallery; The Gallery Upstairs; Roundhouse Gallery; The Burrows Gallery; "Where I Fell In Love Gallery"; Art@IBM Warwick; Old Courthouse Gallery; Arts Creative; Red Barn Gallery; Art Gallery & Museum, Leamington Spa Royal Pump Rooms; Gallery H.; Stranraer Museum, Scotland, UK; SDC Gallery. London; Warwickshire Arts Week 2004; Roger Billcliffe Gallery

Ceramic Shows:

9th, 10th , 12th & 13th Southern Pottery & Ceramics Show; 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009 Dießen Ceramic Market, Dießen, Bavaria, Germany; 2009 Internationale Keramiktage, Oldenburg, Germany; “Earth and Fire 2009”, Rufford Country Park, UK; 11th – 14th Art in Clay Ceramics Show; 2006, 2008 & 2009 Craft Potters Association Show, Oxford; 2006 & 2007 Potfest In the Park; 2004 & 2006 Orton Cone Box Show;

 

 

Biographical Data

Andrew was born and brought up in the coastal Northwest of England but has now lived in Warwickshire for six years. It was during his scientific career, researching his PhD in mammalian genetics and chromosomal biology at Cambridge, that he discovered ceramics and began a long fascination with the art form, both making and collecting. In January 2004, he took a six month sabbatical to focus on his ceramics and to facilitate his move from amateur potter to a professional exhibiting artist. With financial support from the Arts Council England, and mentorship from the internationally renowned ceramicist Peter Beard, his technical skills at the potter’s wheel and with glaze chemistry developed rapidly, resulting in a strong exhibiting portfolio.

His work consists of volcanic glazes applied over thrown stoneware vessels fired under oxidising conditions. The degree of the surface reaction is closely controlled and used to accentuate both form and hue. Some vessels exhibit muted reactions which work with the subtle tones of the colouring oxides, whilst the bolder coloured pots often have exaggerated textures. Different vessels have different voices and he aims to represent each one accordingly.

 

"The Scottish sandstone, granites and slate are a beautiful and intriguing surface teeming with wildlife. With my development of the volcanic glaze textures being applied to both thrown vessels and hand-built landscape forms, the Cumbrian and Caithness coasts have now overtly manifested themselves in my work".

 

The need to work with texture and subtle colours originated early in Andrew’s youth with a fascination of all things biological; the yellow, sage and black lichens growing on the tidal glacial rock of South Lakeland, where he grew up, have always excited him, as do the silver white and sage mosses on dry stone walls which can enliven a static and “dead” man-made structure. As a consequence of paddling in rock pools and scrambling up cliffs, he has been drawn to the variety and feeling of the rocks themselves. Major influences have been the slanting slate beds of Caithness; the coloured soft sandstone of both Petra and the Jordanian deserts; the basalt hexagonal stones in the Giant’s Causeway to name but a few.

The clay medium serves two functions to Andrew; firstly to define and express visual form, and secondly to function as a canvas for decorative expression. Marrying both produces a successful piece of visual art. This is not to forget the inherent process however; the expanding skills and lessons from previous experience directly link internal thoughts and impressions towards the final completed works through the sheer practicality of making.

Since turning professional, Andrew's ceramics have evolved dramatically into mature and strong work and, significantly, uniquely distinctive. The intimate relationship between vessel surface texture, form and proportionality will continue to be developed as his career continues.