Kath Bonson

Pottery may be one of the oldest forms of artistic expression, yet ceramic artists are still able to develop totally new approaches and entirely individual work. I enjoy being an innovator in the field and try to bring many years of life experience to my work.

Although I gained a love for potting during my school days, there was a lapse of many years, working in a family business, before I rekindled my interest in pottery, enrolling as a mature student at Bradford College of Art and coming out with a first-class degree in Fine Art.

For me ceramics is a wonderful medium, allowing me to push at the boundaries of what it can do, sometimes using techniques refined over centuries; sometimes starting a piece with a clear vision, other times just letting the clay speak and the work evolve.

The Pennine Yorkshire landscape provides much of my inspiration and I try to capture some of its elements and essence in my ceramics. Some of my work uses photographic images which are screen-printed onto the clay: Ruined Abbeys, old farm buildings, sheep, moorland birds and the people who live, work and visit the outdoors often feature amongst the stone walls and heather to create a 'sense of place' that is appreciated in Yorkshire and well beyond our region.

Each piece is hand-built from stoneware or porcelain-based clays. The use of my own paperclays allows additional freedom to develop extremely delicate forms and structures and I enjoy creating all of my own glazes from raw ingredients and each piece can use up to a dozen different glazes which are layered together. The interaction of clay and mineral pigments at extreme temperatures (they are fired to 1200°c) leads to reactions which generate complex visual and physical textures.

Email: Kath@Bon-Art.co.uk
Website: Kathbonsonceramics.co.uk
Facebook: @KathBonsonCeramics
Instagram: @kath.bonson