About - sarahjenkinsceramics.me

Sarah Jenkins

“Here, there is something indefinable, where astonishment forces us to abandon all search for the known. Thus begins a journey of the gaze and, as far as l’m concerned, a fascination for a world that preserves the magic of the unknown.”

The photographer Fao Walden said this about my work, I said it was the best thing anyone has said about my work, a wonderful comment, hard for me to imagine better.

I make studio ceramics. Landscape is pivotal to my work, expressed in an oblique way. A distillation of my responses to mud and weather, transient moments of sun and season and the clay in my hand.

Like the changing weather, my approach constantly shifts as I explore shapes, colours, textures and markings. Enduring themes emerge and repeat as I move between making small pots, sculptures and large vessels, with all that entails: clay recycling; making the form; mark-making; tests; glazing; multiple firings; failure and mess.

See and buy my work

From time to time there are pieces available for sale on this website, look out for the “available” button, which will allow you to buy that piece direct from my studio.

My work is on sale at selected galleries:

Bircham gallery,
Holt, North Norfolk

Contemporary Ceramics Centre,
Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3BF (opposite the British Museum).

My work is also featured elsewhere, currently at XVII BIENAL Internacional Cerâmica Artística in Portugal. I occasionally exhibit at other galleries and can be found in a couple of permanent collections.

Use the contact form to get in touch and find out more.

Find me on Instagram Sarah Jenkins Ceramics where I regularly post images of my work.

During Higher Education I studied Fine Art and became interested in ceramics. My education included a diploma by Independent study, where I focused on ceramics. I lived in London for many years making ceramics sporadically, earning a living in the building trade as a plasterer and decorator.

I moved back to my roots in north Essex several years ago, working as a dedicated artist, making ceramics and exhibiting in galleries across the UK and beyond.

I live and work in north Essex, my studio is surrounded by farmland.

All my work is inspired by landscape. I use a combination of basic slips, glazes and oxides that are matt and earthy. I build pieces by hand, sometimes assembling slabs, and sometimes starting by coiling.

Each stage takes time and has its own meaning. Mark-making demands that I stay in the moment. Pieces are usually fired several times before they are completed.

Sculptural work

Most of my sculptural work to-date is slab-built. I aim to distil the expanse of landscape into a concentrated structure, evocative of walks and details seen, a memory of weather and texture.

Vessels
I like the word vessel and the association with boats as a container and mode of travel. For these large pots I mostly err towards simple timeless forms. These pots remind me of ancient ceramics I loved to see in museums when I was young.

Be aware that my pieces are not watertight, the vessels are sacred and ceremonial, not intended as containers for flowers or food.

Small pots
I have come to find these as an important way to bring new shapes and colours to life. I have the same intentions with them as the larger pots.

Other work
Other work includes framed wall pieces. In the past I have made slip-cast lampshades, one of which is in the collection of The Museum de Carouge in Geneva.

This is my studio. In the snow. Nestled in the valley. A converted garage, surrounded by the gently rolling hills of north Essex countryside.

There was a time when my work referenced landscape more directly.

Landscape is still pivotal, but now in a more internal, abstracted and oblique way. The clay structure is the earthy foundation, the surface marks, colours and textures are transient moments of weather, light and season.

I am constantly on a quest for the right resonating frequency, a human response, describing nature and the rightness of it – a search for truth.

The finished works have been described as having contrasting appearances. Some, with glazes and brighter colours on the external surface, look very different to the slip-finished matt, un-glazed pieces, where contrasting slips highlight the surface textures.

Despite the differences, there’s an underlying consistency of intent, a continued connection to landscape. I follow my inspiration, always building by hand, finding different paths to the same goal, although there are different responses, with all approaches, using clay and celebrating landscape in its broadest sense.