Lucy Burley

I started making Ceramics in London in 1992, after an earlier career in television. I took a Foundation course at Wimbledon Art School and went on to study at Camberwell College of Arts. After graduating I worked in shared studios in Battersea and was a member of London Potters. In 2000 I moved to Farnham. For two years I had a studio at Farnham Pottery, and then for fifteen years I worked from a rural studio in Kingsley, Hampshire. I now 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 a number of galleries throughout the UK, and I have work in many private collections .

ARTIST’S STATMENT
I make vessels on the wheel, using white earthenware clay. My work explores the relationship between form and colour, and is partly inspired by the still-life paintings of Giorgio Morandi; I strive for the simplicity and quiet conveyed by his compositions of bottles and other vessels. I want my pots to have the same sense of being in family groups, related but non-identical. Colour is a major factor in my work, and I thoroughly enjoy exploring the impact of different colour combinations. While I was studying at Camberwell I formulated a smooth, semi-matt earthenware glaze l and I use this as a base to which I add oxides and stains to obtain a spectrum of colours both subtle and vivid, the inspiration for which comes from nature: flowers, fruit, the landscape, birds’ eggs, the sky and seashore. As Morandi said, “What interests me most is expressing what is in nature, in the visible world”.