The development of my work into ceramics, colour and spatial perception began with a Masters degree at Cardiff in 2003. The work explores the ways in which spaces within landscape appear altered depending on the ever-changing colours of season, weather, time and farming. The bowls act as a canvas for paintings that distil specific landscape scenes, perceptibly altering the size, depth and shape of the form by the applied colour. The forms can be made to seem wider or narrower, deeper or shallower, heavier or lighter, or they may appear to undulate, bend, move or hover by the juxtaposition of finer lines. The viewing of both inner and outer surfaces together enables me to exploit colour connections and visual play from one side to another, emphasising or flattening the dimensionality of the form.

Following the Masters I undertook a PhD 2006, in order to develop the ideas with more emphasis upon spatial colour phenomena on a three-dimensional form. As part of the research-based practice I returned to the basics of colour theory and tested out ideas on the conical form. I found that colours behave differently when viewed across three-dimensional space than on a two-dimensional surface, particularly on the inner bowl form where illusions can appear much stronger. The illusory spatial colour phenomena were then used on forms to suggest specific landscape scenes, such as Table Mountain in South Wales and The Rigi in Switzerland, as colour arrangements allude to spaces and atmospheres found therein.

The research has enabled me to develop a vocabulary of spatial colour knowledge specific to the three-dimensional bowl form, in which I have learnt to manipulate and articulate three-dimensional space to a much greater effect. I now integrate the findings from my Masters degree and PhD with colourways from landscape scenes and seasons, for which my intuitive response to colour and form, remain key objectives for my practice. Please see Works for descriptions of individual collections...

Since then I have exhibited both nationally and internationally. I have won several awards including 1st Prize in the Vessel, Form, Decor category in the Westerwald Prize, Germany in 2009; Welsh Artist of the Year for the Applied Arts in 2006; and an Honourable Mention in the 3rd World Ceramic Biennale in Korea in 2005. I have also received several awards from the Arts Council of Wales, including the Creative Wales award in 2014.