Heather Armstrong

Until recently I have dedicated my time to my family and to my career as a medical doctor. On realising that my children had become largely independent, I decided to pursue new challenges and indulged myself by undertaking some exploration and education into creative activities. While discovering reward in many artistic disciplines it is ceramic art that allows me to work with a professionally engrained need for control and precision while letting the materials I work with exert their own influence on the outcome.

My ceramic pieces are hand built by coil and slab techniques using a variety of clay bodies. Surface decoration is achieved by smoke firing in a container (metal dustbin!) Surface marks are made by the action of smoke on a low fired ceramic surface. Colour arises as the largely unpredictable product of burning different materials to make the smoke. I love the energy and warmth that this technique brings to the work.

It is the natural world which moves me – it’s the big stuff; the mountains, the sea, the rocks, the rivers and glaciers. It’s the energy in the wind and the water. It’s the colour and flow of the seasons. Each piece of work I produce has the natural world at its core. All are the result of my own experimentation in body, form, texture and finish. The one recurring
theme is the exploration of the juxtaposition of contrasting textures.