My work is an extension of my garden ...
The flowers that I plant inspire my work and my work feeds back into the way I think about my garden. Along with a love of gardening, I have always been inspired by the decorative arts and fine craftsmanship. By combining these interests I began making one-of-a-kind botanical studies, and it has been a never ending, creative challenge ever since.
I never think of the flowers that I make as competing with nature, and I don’t try to make them scientific studies. Rather, I try to capture the spirit of the flower and to make each one as natural as possible. So many botanically accurate floral sculptures that are reproduced from molds, look cold and lifeless. It is challenging to try to make delicate flowers with fluttery petals look soft and alive when the clay fires stiff and lifeless.
My method involves three stages. The first is the molding of the clay.
Next comes the firing, at very high temperatures and last, the painting.
Working with the wet clay is the most fun and creative part for me because I have to imagine the flowers in all their moods. I try to be as adventurous as possible, making tall flowers and loose arrangements but there are physical limits created by the characteristics of the clay itself and the stresses of high temperature firing. Almost everything that I have learned is by trial and error and there have been many pieces lost in the kiln.
Even as I am working with the wet clay I think about color which is the third step. The colors of the flowers are in my head as I am making them and this perception often determines how I place each in relation to the other.
When I began, years ago, fruits and vegetables were my subjects. I found that there were so many rich and amazing colors and gradations of tones in apples and pears and melons, etc. Gradually, I began adding flowers to go along with the fruits – morning glories in a big basket filled with cherries or violets and primroses with pears. It all seemed to work but gradually, the flowers took over and that is where I am today.
Of course there is a rich history of botanical painting and sculpture going back to the 17th century and before, which I treasure, but it is still my own garden and the English cottage gardens that have inspired me the most.
