Paul Wearing's hand-built sculptural vessels are inspired by our interconnectedness with nature’s seasons and cycles. He is drawn to the vessel as symbolic form echoing the built environment in which he lives and to contrasting textures resulting from energetic forces of growth and decay which interact, disrupt and transform the sense of order. It is these events that Paul finds resonate within ceramic techniques and processes where such textures can be rendered through reactive glazes. His relationship with ceramic materials is thus profoundly rooted within the challenge of rendering expression through their innate qualities.
Within Paul's glazing process he embraces contrasts of control and chance. Surfaces are rendered through layered brushwork, set to react within oxidised firings. Slips and glazes containing selective volatile materials bring blistering, cratering and crawling surface disruption. Glazing and firing processes are repeated until optimum expression through depth and complexity of surface colour, tone and texture is achieved.
