Nicolette Bennett

Ceramics

My interest in ceramics started in college, one of my tutors worked figuratively, the way in which the clay was manipulated fascinated me and so I started playing with clay eventually coiling pots and using the wheel, but, I found this creative outlet did not suit me and at the time animation through plasticine with things like creature comforts was taking off.

The structure of all things interested me so I started working figuratively, somewhat misguided as I didn't know how to direct my enthusiasm, but loved playing with cracks on surfaces, the gritty quality clay could create.

I started researching not just figurative ceramicists but sculptors as well, I found a broad range of styles using a variety of clays and became  familiar with oxides and glazes, how they could accentuate surfaces and eventually I developed a style of my own.

My work is initially based on my family and individual characters, I wanted to portray this through their interests and what they did rather than what they looked like, so I thought about scenes and props, an example is an interest in music portrayed by a figure listening to headphones. Some influence came from different ceramicists such as Virginia Dowe-Edwards for her fluency with, and ability to be able to manipulate clay and Claire Curneen as I liked the way she portrayed faces with a void where an expression should be, I wanted people to concentrate on what was going on in the scene rather than who it was meant to be or the gender or race.

My preferred clays are crank and handbuild because of the raised texture and I use copper oxide to colour my work for the contrast it creates. My work is no bigger than 43cm in diameter, 21cm wide and 27cm high