Nigel Edwards – Oxfordshire Artweeks

Nigel Edwards – portfolio

Nigel Edwards at work

Nigel Edwards: The local rural environment where I live is an important issue to me, and its influences are always somewhere to be seen in my work. For many years I have been inspired by the seminal works of William Morris and William De Morgan. I have an affinity with Morris’s philosophy and connect with his respect for geographical identity. William Morris greatly admired the White Horse monument at nearby Uffington, and made annual visits there. Creating my body of work entitled “White Horse Terrain”, I have taken Morris’s inspirational influence to consider the same geographic identity: the bucolic Oxfordshire countryside, where I have lived for the past 36 years, using the local historical iconic White Horse at Uffington Castle to celebrate the beauty of England’s green and pleasant land.

Nigel Edwards: My body of work “Autobiographical Coast” considers the beauty of the West Country where I was raised. I have employed various techniques and involved different genres, exploring functional forms through the language of sculpture, and developing glazes to encourage thoughts of rural coastlines and marine life. “Autobiographical lamp” bases are thrown on the wheel, the creative strategy of the design is to embody through sculptural and functional means, coastal environments and to reflect the period of my youth during the progressive era of the 1960’s and 70’s. The objects are decorated with a combination of Copper carbonate blue and “fat lava” type glazes.

Nigel Edwards: I had made previous oxide and glaze design test mug thrown in Special Fleck Stoneware clay body. The results were rewarding and reminiscent of work that I witnessed in the 60’s and 70’s of my youth. I had made previous oxide and glaze design test mug thrown in Special Fleck Stoneware clay body. The results were rewarding and redolent of work that I witnessed in the 60’s and 70’s of my youth, the form of the mugs together their unique gestural motifs are reminiscent of that great progressive period.

Nigel Edwards: Reflecting on the period of great progressive innovation and growth of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s , I have investigated aesthetics and techniques to exhibit a diverse and dynamic mimetic of star fields imparting technology, the space race, and this great period of proliferate creative diversity.

Contact the artist

https://www.nigeledwardsceramicartist.com
01367 820775
n.edwards0409@btinternet.com

Mobile Number 07944526824

Artist information

I worked in broadcast television for over 30 years as an editor, director, and independent producer. After retiring in 2015, I returned to fulltime education studying art and ceramics, at Cardiff Met. University where I gained a first class BA (Hons) in ceramics. I now live and work at my studio in the small Oxfordshire village of Fernham. I was bought up on the rural coast of Devon during the time of great social, economic, and technical change; the 1950’s 60’s and 70’s. Coastal geography and my local rural environment are important issues to me and these themes are always somewhere to be seen in my work.

Exhibition information

I will be exhibiting several bodies of work at my open studio exhibition: Autobiographical Coast. This work considers the beauty of the environment where I was raised, using clay bodies and mimetic glazes to convey the raw energy and dynamism of the coast. I have employed various techniques and involved different genres, exploring functional forms through the language of sculpture, to the development of glazes to encourage and engage with thoughts of rural coastlines and marine life. The result is a balance held between two forces, the power of the ocean and man’s relationship and impact on it through geometric and technical interventions. Starfield: Reflecting on the period of great progressive innovation and growth of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s , I have investigated aesthetics and techniques to exhibit a diverse and dynamic mimetic of star fields imparting technology, the space race, and this great period of creative diversity: the 1960’s and 70’s “White Horse Terrain: Geopgraphical Identity” This body of work is less retrospective; drawing inspiration from my contemporary life in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire. I have designed and incorporated sprigged and sculpted forms in relief to celebrate the ancient and iconic White Horse at Uffington. The Vale is the valley of the stream called the Ock, a stream which joins the Thames at Abingdon. Above the village of Uffington the gigantic figure of the white horse is cut into the turf of the hillside revealing the white chalky soil beneath. I have lived in a hamlet of the Vale in the shadow of White Horse Hill for over 30 years. Geography, environment, and a sense of place in a rural location is important to me and are qualities inherent in my work. Retrospective Aesthetic Mugs I had made previous oxide and glaze design test mugs thrown in Special Fleck Stoneware clay body. The results were rewarding and redolent of work that I witnessed in the 60’s and 70’s of my youth, the form of the mugs together their unique gestural motifs are reminiscent of that great progressive period.

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