East Dorset Potters

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Elaine King

Contemporary high-fired earthenware

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Path and Inspiration

Under the tutorage of the prestigious ceramicists Colin Pearson, Janice Tchalenko and Ewen Henderson, Elaine King graduated in Ceramics at Camberwell School of Art (London) in the late 1970’s, after which she had a lengthy career teaching Ceramics and Art & Design before establishing her studio and developing her contemporary ceramic designs early in 2021. Her work is displayed in several galleries nationally and collected worldwide.

Process and Practice

Nature is a common influence in the lives of artists, and the same is true for Elaine and her deep connection to nature, trees in particular. Elaine constantly strives to make work that communicates a sense of balance and complexity through texture, colour, and form. Inspired by the surrounding lush woodland and forests of East Dorset, her work is mainly hand-built, sculptural and functional, earthenware pieces in white stoneware clay, hand-painted using a palette of oxides, slips, and under-glaze colours.  

More recently Elaine has developed a new body of work, refining through altered slabs of clay adding texture through slip, and peeled and torn clay. Each piece is individually decorated with hand-painted accents and images developed through observations made in typically English habitats, including forests, woodlands, and fruit groves, with strong accents based on silver birch trees.