Celia Dowson
Celia Dowson is a London based artist working in ceramics and cast glass. Informed by
movement in nature her work reflects the colours, the changing light, and mystery of the
natural world.
Fascinated by industrial processes, she adapts traditional modelling and casting techniques
to create objects that reflect on their process. Techniques used in both the making of
glass and ceramics are crossed applied so that unique surface finishes are achieved.
Colour, and subtleties in hue and gradation are developed to create perspective and
movement though her work.
Which material(s) did you use from Golden Earth Studio? How did you incorporate it into your work?
How did the origin of the material tie in with your philosophy?
Within my practice I explore the interplay of fluidity, material flow and form in cast glass and ceramics. I draw inspiration from my observation of the natural landscape, its movements, textural and transformative qualities. This is also a reflective practice which incorporates the study of colour, tone and gradation echoed through materiality and embedded within the objects I make.
The Wimbledon clay project has been a way to work directly with materials from the landscape, I have worked like this with clay sourced from my home on the Norfolk Suffolk border, where the space which I am drawing inspiration from becomes directly integrated within my work and talks of temporality within material contexts and landscape.
Overall Through these qualities my work hopes to create a contemplative space to reflect upon the rhythms of the atmosphere, and our innate connection to the objects we use and spaces we inhabit.
In what aspects did the material inform your final piece?
The material has been used to create a tonal gradation through integrating the natural clay with a white porcelain in varying percentages.
This allows for a range of tones to be achieved from dark and rich to creamy and light.
This palette can then be integrated within a vessel creating movement around and through the piece through processes and tool adaptation I have developed in my practice.
The final result creates a subtle perspective of an earth topography, echoing the transformative depth of materials and landscape.