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View Image Gallery Items for SaleAilsa Nicholson(Full member)

Tel: +44 (0)1947 811477   Email:   Web: www.axisweb.org/artist/ailsanicholson  

Artists Statement

Ailsa graduated from Cardiff University in 1999 with a first class hons degree in Ceramics. Her work experiments with a wide variety of decorative wheel thrown pieces and handbuilt sculptures which concentrate on form rather than function and explore both negative and positive space and the movement suggested within those spaces.  Clay is never weighed and work is always cut freehand to ensure each piece’s individuality. 

Ailsa also makes larger scale abstract sculptures inspired largely by her fascination with the secret world of microbiology.  This vast and bizarre world offers an inexhaustible supply of imagery, which complements the subtle metaphoric associations she wishes to make

Recent work explores the throwing and carving of clay and celebrating the colour of the clay itself, finishing with a clear glaze and smoke firing with salts and oxides.   The use of dichroic glass fused to the raw ceramic gives the pieces an individual and jewel like quality.

Much of Ailsa’s work is experimental as she thrives on the technical challenges involved in the process of ceramics.  The thought and technical process is as inspiring as the forms themselves, and her work is constantly moving and changing as she pushes the boundaries and the possibilities of clay.

Current Work

My current work includes one off wheel thrown abstract sculpture, handbuilt smoke fired sculptures and decorative wheel thrown vessels.
The price of my work is variable, from the smoke Fired Sculptures, Cut Vessels and Lava Bowls being from around GB£50 to GB£100 to major sculptural pieces which are from about GB£600 to over GB£1000 depending on the individual sculpture.

Work generally available from:
Apple Gallery, 3 Wharf Street, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 1NN
Artlegacy, Odiham, Hook, Hants
Chapel Gallery, 111 High Street, Riseley, Bedford, Bedfordshire
The Stockdale Gallery, Bridge Street, Whitby, N.Yorks
The Turnstone Gallery, Sandsend, Nr. Whitby, N.Yorks
The Grosmont Gallery, Grosmont, Nr. Whitby, N. Yorks
Wave Gallery, Robin Hoods Bay, N.Yorks
The Gallery, Masham, Cumbria
The Ropewalk, Barton-on-Humber, Hull
The Green Man, Pickering, N.Yorks
Godfrey & Watt, Harrogate, N.Yorks

Technical Information

The one off abstract sculptures are wheel thrown, sliced into sections and reassembled, other works are either wheel thrown or handbuilt.

All pieces are bisque fired to 1000 deg.C in an electric kiln and glazed with lead based 1060 deg.C glazes. 850 deg.C lithium and lead based glazes are also used and subsequently smoke fired in bracken and straw parcels.

History

1965 - Born Hampton, Middlesex
1983 - 1992 - Lived, worked and travelled abroad
1993 - 1995 - Open University Psychology degree (p/t whilst working as a counsellor)
1994 - 1996 - Attended Pottery evening classes
1996 - 1999 - - B.A. (Hons) Ceramics - First Class Hons - University of Wales Institute Cardiff
1999 - Set up Studio in Whitby North Yorkshire

Exhibitions

Selected Group Shows
2007 - Art in Clay, Hatfield House
2007 - Spring Show, Chapel Gallery, Riseley, Bedford
2006 - Brighton Art Fair, Brighton
2006 - Art in Clay - Hatfield House, Hatfield
2005 - Yorkshire Coast Open Studios
2001 - Artlegacy Gallery, Odiham, Hants
1999 - Art in Clay - Hatfield House, Hatfield
1999 - Cardiff University, Howard Gardens, Cardiff
1998 - Sacred and Profane Exhibition, Cardiff City Museum

Profile Image

Ceramics by Ailsa Nicholson at Studiopottery.co.uk - home Ailsa in her studio, 2006

View Image Gallery Selected Images

Ceramics by Ailsa Nicholson at Studiopottery.co.uk - Cut Series, 2006. Wheel thrown and cut freehand. Various sizes Height 15cm to 55cm. Ceramics by Ailsa Nicholson at Studiopottery.co.uk - 2008 - Balloon Seeds - handbuilt and carved, unglazed with beeswax finish. Height 28cm.
Ceramics by Ailsa Nicholson at Studiopottery.co.uk - Double Edged, 2006. Wheel thrown, sectioned and reassembed Height 39cm, Width 49cm, Depth 18cm. Ceramics by Ailsa Nicholson at Studiopottery.co.uk - 2008 - Carved Forms - Wheel thrown and hand carved- glazed and smoke fired. Height 32cm.
Ceramics by Ailsa Nicholson at Studiopottery.co.uk - 2011. White inside out sculpture. White inside out sculpture 2011 Height 20cm Width 15cm Deep 18cm. Ceramics by Ailsa Nicholson at Studiopottery.co.uk - 2011. White inside out sculpture, Wheel thrown form turned inside out with fused dichroic glass H 20cm L19cm D 20cm

Contact Details

Studio Address: 24 Iburndale Lane, Sleights, Whitby, North Yorkshire, UK, YO22 5DP.
View in Google Maps

Telephone: +44 (0)1947 811477
Email:
Web-site: www.axisweb.org/artist/ailsanicholson

Availability: Visitors welcome but please telephone first (no public liability insurance at workshop)

Last Updated: 2012-08-31

Work styles:

Earthenware
Thrown
Handbuilt
Vases & Bowls
Sculptural
Figurative
Smoke
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