Flux & Poise

Llantarnam Grange is delighted to announce the opening of Flux & Poise, a solo exhibition of ceramic works from award winning ceramic artist, Paul Wearing. Stemming from his Arts Council of Wales funded project Material Matters, the body of work reveals key developments in his practice since July 2019 when resident at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. During this time he researched the drama of the west Wales landscape, which has now been realised for Flux & Poise.

The inspiration for Paul’s hand-built sculptural vessels remains our interrelationship with nature’s seasons and cycles. He is drawn to the vessel as symbolic form echoing the built environment and to contrasting textures resulting from energetic forces of growth and decay which interact and transform the sense of order.

The Material Matters project enabled Paul to make developments in both form and surface by introducing asymmetry and pushing his use of glaze materials and techniques to new levels. Porcelain was introduced as an additional material contrasting with the grogged stoneware Paul has used for the past two decades.

Embracing contrasts of control and chance within the glazing process, Paul renders the surface through brushed layers of slips and glazes reacting within oxidised firing processes. Varying the thickness of the glaze layers and using selective volatile materials brings surface disruption through blistering, cratering and crawling. Glazing and firing processes are repeated until optimum depth and complexity of surface appears.

Paul Wearing is a member of the vibrant Fireworks Clay Studios cooperative in Cardiff. He joined in 2007, was Chair from 2008 to 2013, and now currently one of the Directors. Paul is a Selected Member of the Craft Potters Association and was elected to its Governing Council in 2018. He studied ceramics to post graduate level and now exhibits and delivers workshops and talks across the UK and internationally.