Lucy Burley

I make vessels on the wheel - vases, bottles, bowls and jugs - using white earthenware clay. My work explores the relationship between form and colour, and is inspired by the colours in the natural world: the landscape, flowers, fruit, birds’ eggs, the sky and seashore. I'm also inspired by the still-life paintings of Giorgio Morandi; I strive for the simplicity and quiet conveyed by his pictures of groups of bottles and other vessels. I want my pots to have the same sense of being in family groups, related but non-identical. I formulated a smooth, semi-matt earthenware glaze and I use this as a base to which I add oxides and stains to obtain a wide spectrum of colours, some muted and subtle and others bright and vivid. I started making ceramics in London in 1992, after an earlier career in television. I took a Foundation course at Wimbledon Art School and a BA Hons in Ceramics at Camberwell College of Arts, graduating in 1996. In 2000 I moved to Farnham and work from a garden studio at home. I taught Ceramics to children and adults for many years, delivering workshops and teaching classes in schools, adult education centres and museums across Surrey and Hampshire. My work is stocked in over 20 galleries throughout the UK, and I have work in many private collections around the world.