Jan Dagley

I am a multidisciplinary artist with an MA in Fine Art and an MA in Ceramics. I have exhibited widely across the UK and am currently exhibiting at the Heart of the Tribe gallery in Glastonbury. My work is either in response to poetry or smell, specifically perfume, in two and three dimensions. This is based on the concept of synaesthesia, where one sense stimulates another sense or senses. My large abstract paintings are a combination of acrylics and oils with raw pigment and other materials such as carborundum. I am naturally a painter who uses energetic, vibrant colours and I wanted to reflect my painting style in my ceramics. I finally resolved on the combined use of slips, underglazes and stains for my vessels as the colours before firing are pretty similar to those after. They also allowed me to paint with the free gestural marks I use in my paintings and achieve an overall synergy between the two dimensional and the three. They also have the matt finish I was striving for. Each vessel is topped by a ‘crest’ which unites the work, giving it a ‘family’ feel. The flat, graphic silhouettes of the crests provide an interesting juxtaposition with the rounded forms of the vessels. All my ceramics are fired to stoneware so can be placed inside or outside.