In April 2023 I was invited to spend a month in the Tower Studio of The Hugo Burge Foundation. No brief, no expectation, just time away from the routines and familiarity of my ceramic studio, in a peaceful rural setting in the Scottish Borders. A blank curved wall in the circular tower offered a space to think and breathe. A place to pin written thoughts on post-it notes and sketches in pen, gouache and watercolour.


I felt safely held as uncertain, abstract, meditative explorations of pattern structures and colour shifts began to emerge. Exploring the why of ornament and pattern, not from a historical perspective but through process and production. The pleasure, joy, and magic of repeated gestures of mark-making, watching as motifs built up into whole surfaces, before breaking down into new configurations. Working intuitively and allowing the unique mistakes of my hand to play out across a drawing.


Back in my Edinburgh studio, drawings on paper are pushed into clay. New patterns, explored on canvases of chocolate black stoneware, using inscribed line, sprig moulded relief and layers of matt vitreous slip. These wall-based works sit on the point between two and three dimensions, reminding me of ideas from earlier bodies of work, Line & Form, Surface & Shape, exploring space and movement on a two-dimensional plane. The works feel new and experimental and I am excited to see where they go next.


The colour references are multiple. Lengthening days, fresh spring greens and unfolding seasonal flowers. Crewel work embroidery, Minton tiles, Burmantoft vases and De Morgan chargers from the Marchmont House collection. On paper, choices are made from the point of view of experimenting, exploring and looking. In clay, the decisions are intuitive and still feel elusive....


Of all the ways a human can spend their days, seeking out beauty and magic in materials feels vital and fragile, a huge privilege, a comfort and an act of slow defiance in the face of seismic changes.