This project began with the subject of formal and botanic gardens; and an interest in the structuring and ordering of nature and collecting and classifying the organic. As lockdown restrictions came into place early on in the project, the photographs/sketches/notes gathered in early 2020 in the Royal Botanic Gardens took on more significance as a snapshot of those moments, pinning down specific visits and seasons. I also began to draw my own house plants during prolonged stays at home, focusing on this almost miniature world away from the outside. The repetition of drawing became important, as a way to move the project forward and as a way to distract from the bigger issues. Ironically the original interest was in how we try to contain and control the organic, and yet we became the ones contained whilst the gardens continued to grow. Most of my drawings concentrated on the closeup of leaves, rather than as I originally anticipated of the wider garden space, and often those fallen and layered on the ground.
The process of creative development is as much part of the work as the finished work itself. In a sense the finished artwork is ‘merely’ the conclusion; its about the route to this and where it evolves along the way. The forms chosen are uncomplicated, and allow the surface to develop and show to its maximum. They are intended to be very familiar, domestic in reference, and build on the history of the vessel as narrative. The vessels are handbuilt, and have multiple surface layers built up through painting, low-tech printing, glazes and decals. The images are fixed in place but like with previous work it is looking at things that are evolving or changing or temporary, transient and rendering them permanent.

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