Hilary makes collectable hand built, ceramic vessels.
Hilary practise responds to observed details in the landscape, with an impressionistic response to place and experience. Her current focus is the geology and topography of the Suffolk coast, a place she frequented, and been inspired by, for over twenty years. A place where the flat land meets big open skies, with a beguiling beauty all of its’ own.
Erosion is a constant theme of this exposed, ancient landscape. The elements constantly, battering, wearing, sculpting; leaving their mark.
Cliffs crumble at an alarming rate, producing an ever changing coastline. Peeling paint, and rust, adorn fishermen huts and boats. Unyielding flint has its’ edges smoothed, and wooden groynes decay into figurative forms, slowly worn by the flux and flow of the tide.
Clay becomes canvas, imperfections embraced, and found objects sometimes leave their trace. These stoneware vessels speak of the passing of time, of lived experience, epochs, fragility, and ever shifting form. Each piece is hand painted using multiple glazes, and a dribbled, peeling, white crackle glaze flows down from the rim of the vessel to complete the work, evoking the weathered landscape and chalky flint, so each piece is unique.
Hilary launched her career as a ceramic artist in 2012, her second career, following a life long ambition to be a potter, sparked at school, aged 13. In 2014 she was selected for One Year On at New Designers and for the Crafts Council Hothouse programme. Hilary is a Selected member of the Craft Potters Association and have work in several private collections.
Her studio is a small garden shed in North London.