Molly Attrill

Artist statement

Concepts
I have always made domestic pottery although over time the decoration has become the most distinctive aspect of my work. This decoration is predominantly representational - farmyard poultry and fish are favourite themes. I am now seeking to simplify the decoration and at the same time bring more pattern to the figurative designs. I am currently working around the theme of 'The Shipping Forecast' and am making some Perspex boxed wall pieces on this theme.

Influences
European earthenware; particularly Majolica, tin glaze traditions. Also modernism and the legacy of Bernard Leach. Key words; blue, narrative, figurative, representational.

Career path
I worked as an apprentice to Michael Leach (1973) before a full-time studio pottery course at Farnham under Henry Hammond (1974/77). I then worked as a throwing assistant to Ewart Uncles in South West France making wood fired stoneware. I also worked with Marsha Cox at Forks Road Pottery, Ontario, Canada. I taught in prison and adult education classes before setting up my own pottery at Mersley Farm, Newchurch in 1982 as a full-time living. In 1991/93 I did a part-time Postgraduate Diploma Course in Art History at Winchester School of Art and in 1997 I was awarded a Southern Arts Mid Career Bursary to develop Majolica decoration.

In 2002/03 I worked with Brother Alexander Tingay, monk of Quarr Abbey, in a mentoring initiative which was funded by Southern Arts. In 2007 I had to move my pottery from an old barn into a bright, modern new studio space nearby on the same farm.

My work has been featured in several publications including Seasons a Dutch lifestyle magazine (April 2007) and 20th Century British Decorative Tiles a survey by Chris Blanchet, published in the USA (2006).