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Artist's
Statement:
I make
country pots. This is not because of the impossibilities of running
such a venture in an urban area, with the chopping of wood and the
smoke of the kiln, but because the countryside is an intrinsic element
within the fabric of my work.
If I worked in a city, so many aspects of my own nature would be
different. I could not imagine that my work would resolve itself
in the same way. At Hollyford, all the senses are stirred by the
natural environment.
The workshop is situated at the end of a rough farm track, overlooking
a shallow valley, its far side, rising fields topped by a small
deciduous woodland.
In the summer, the brambles and nettles grow thick about the workshop
walls. Campion and pennywort, foxglove and hemlock fill the verges
and the hedgerow. The small oak tree beside the workshop bares leaves
with tones of pale pink and yellow and a vast range of greens, from
deep bottle to a vivid lime.
As the seasons change, the rainfall increases and huge muddy puddles
surround the workshop. The array of earthenware colours in a Devon
autumn is breathtaking as green of ferns and leaves become an infinite
tonal range of fiery brown and yellow.
Winter brings more rain and more mud and the woodland opposite cuts
harsh lines against the sky with bare branches. The sky is vast
in the countryside, without interruption from buildings. The terrain
of the woodland floor is laid bare.
The wood-burner is roaring and the workshop is warm enough to work
in shirt sleeves. The days are short and it becomes impossible to
find my way around outside in the dark; and at night time in the
middle of the Devon countryside it can be very, very dark. The greens
are deep and cold, but the red soil in the fields is alive with
sweeping lines combed by the plough.
For me
all of Doug's pots contain a real sense of place, they are uniquely
of the English countryside and have strong resonance's of a time
of tranquil peace and of the bucolic.
DB
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