PATRICIA SHONE 25 YEARS OF MAKING
1/ Argentina, 2017 oil on wooden panel 121 x 51 cm
1/ Argentina, 2017 oil on wooden panel 121 x 51 cm
PATRICIA SHONE 25 YEARS OF MAKING January 2024
16 Dundas Street | Edinburgh | EH3 6HZ | 0131 558 1200 | scottish-gallery.co.uk
PATRICIA SHONE 25 YEARS OF MAKING
The Scottish Gallery is delighted to present Patricia Shone’s 25 Years of Making, whose outstanding studio practice is inspired by the landscape of the Isle of Skye. I have been making pots here on the Isle of Skye for 25 years. My practice has developed in a kind of isolation both in location and in the uncommon methods I use. Skye is a hauntingly beautiful landscape where I can feel small and insignificant in the face of monumental natural forces. It is a feeling I rejoice in, when the only possible way to contain the enormity of love for life is to utterly surrender to it. My pots and vessels are hand formed - grounded by the controlled forms of functionality but freed from the constraints of function by the ruptured textured surfaces. The feel of raw clay in my hands is a prime motivation for making, it is a physical connection to the world around me; a visceral process, not always comfortable but always challenging and evolving. Clay is a broad and complex medium demanding practical solutions, which helps balance the introspection that can come from working alone. The techniques I use are contrary to the compressive methods associated with traditional clay practice. I stretch clay from
a single mass which extenuates the surfaces allowing the natural textures of the material to develop. I am looking for points of contact and balance between the maker and the material, neither having mastery over the other. The formation of clay derives from geological forces and climatic erosion. The origins of the material lie in the enduring rock beneath our feet. My firing processes replicate some of these monumental forces. Part of what I am trying to capture in my work is a physical sense of the continued erosion and weathering of the land and the rocks I live on. But my practice is also a deep personal expression and connection to the landscape and life I inhabit. And hopefully, of the human history of how clay connects one person to another, across land and civilisations, a bowl passed from one hand to another. The poem ‘Beck’ by Norman Nicholson has accompanied me for about ten years ever since hearing it on the radio in the studio. It puts into words a sense of the overwhelming forces that shape our world, the ongoing processes that are continually changing. It is reassuring in its epic narrative and minuscule detail. It expresses everything I hope to achieve in a pot. Patricia Shone
Patricia Shone, Port na Fhion, Isle of Skye, 2023
1/ Riven, Earth Jar 20, 2023 saggar fired stoneware H35 x Ø34 cm
2/ Caligarry, Open Earth Bowl, 2023 saggar fired stoneware H26 x Ø25 cm
3/ Ceann Locha, Open Earth Bowl, 2023 saggar fired stoneware H25 x Ø24 cm
1 Once Upon a Time, 2017 oil on wooden panel, 121 x 91 cm
1/ Argentina, 2017 oil on wooden panel 121 51 cm The xview from Patricia Shone’s studio towards Loch Nevis and Knoydart, 2023
Beck Not the beck only, Not just the water – The stones flow also, Slow As continental drift, As the growth of coral, As the climb Of a stalagmite. Motionless to the eye, Wide cataracts of rock Pour off the fellside, Throw up a spume Of gravel and scree To eddy and sink In the blink of a lifetime. The water abrades, Erodes; dissolves Limestones and chlorides; Organizes its haulage – Every drop loaded With a millionth of a milligramme of fell. The falling water Hangs steady as a stone; But the solid rock Is a whirlpool of commotion, As the fluid strata Crest the curl of time,
And top-heavy boulders Tip over headlong, An inch in a thousand years. A Niagara of chock-stones, Bucketing from the crags, Spouts down the gullies. Slate and sandstone Flake and deliquesce, And in a grey Alluvial sweat Ingleborough and Helvellyn Waste daily away. The pith of the pikes Oozes to the marshes, Slides along the sykes, Trickles through ditch and dub, Enters the endless Chain of water, The pull of the earth’s centre – An irresistible momentum, Never to be reversed, Never to be halted, Till the tallest fell Runs level with the lowland, And scree lies flat as shingle, And every valley is exalted, Every mountain and hill Flows slow. by Norman Nicholson
1/ Argentina, 2017 oil on wooden panel 121 x 51 cm
1/ Argentina, 2017 oil on wooden panel 121 x 51 cm
4/ Night Forest Flask, 2023 saggar fired stoneware H36 x W25 x D17 cm
5/ Rolling Erosion Bowl, 2023 saggar fired stoneware H18 x Ø17 cm
6/ Autumn Moonlight, Erosion Jar, 2023 saggar fired stoneware H18 x Ø16 cm
7/ Erosion Jar II, 2023 raku fired earthenware H18 x Ø19 cm
8/ Bleached Erosion Bowl, 2023 stoneware, unglazed interior H14 x Ø17 cm
9/ Ice Erosion Bowl, 2023 porcelain, unglazed interior H11 x Ø17 cm
1/ Argentina, 2017 oil on wooden panel 121 x 51 cm
10/ Erosion Jar, Kintsugi Rim, (detail opposite), 2023 raku fired earthenware, kintsugi H15 x Ø12 cm
My work has evolved over the years, as I have learned how to handle the clay allowing it to develop its textures as I control the form. The connection between the natural world and my work lies in the inherent properties of clay; it is the stuff that mountains are made of. When I am handling clay, I feel the connections of my physical self and my inner life to the world around me. Patricia Shone
11/ Reaching Erosion Jar I, 2023 raku fired earthenware H22 x Ø20 cm
12/ Reaching Erosion Jar II, 2023 raku fired earthenware H21 x Ø20 cm
1/ Argentina, 2017 oil on wooden panel 121 x 51 cm
13/ Rig Erosion Jar, 2023 saggar fired stoneware H19 x Ø18 cm
My practice is a personal expression of connection to the landscape I inhabit and hopefully, of the human history of how clay connects one person to another, across land and civilisations, a bowl passed from one hand to another. Patricia Shone
14/ Stilled Orbit, Pair of Earth Jars, 2023 raku fired earthenware H33 x Ø34 cm each
Beginning with a solid mass of clay the pieces are entirely hand formed by texturing then stretching. I start with an idea of the basic shape I’m aiming for, but the clay dictates the process, much depends on its grain and its softness. Patricia Shone
15/ Bottle, 2023 saggar fired stoneware H24 x Ø11 cm 16/ Cup, 2023 saggar fired stoneware H10 x Ø10 cm
17/ Erosion Cup, 2023 saggar fired stoneware H9 x Ø10 cm
18/ Township Cups, 2023 wood fired stoneware H10 x Ø10 cm
I search for balance between uncontrolled spontaneity and the formality of form and function. It’s very exciting. With each piece I am watching to see on which side of that fine line it falls. It can change each day depending on mood, the state of the clay, or the body of work I’m developing. I look at the piece I’m working on and feel a physical discomfort when a piece is not right. It’s a search for the spiritual element in the reality of existence, a sense of an inner content framed by a physical body, and the striving to experience life beyond the limits of the physical. For me, an empty pot is a vessel with limitless potential to contain. Patricia Shone
19/ Township Cup, Kinloch, 2023 raku fired earthenware H10 x Ø10 cm
1/ Argentina, 2017 oil on wooden panel 121 x 51 cm
PATRICIA SHONE b.1962
Patricia Shone was born in Greenock, Scotland but grew up in South Devon. After studying ceramics in London, a love of food led her to work as a chef in London and Italy. Eventuallly this led her to the Isle of Skye where she returned to potting and has had an established studio for nearly thirty years. Shone’s work is held in a number of prestigious collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
I have always preferred hand building which comes naturally to me but I was inspired by learning from Shozo Michikawa how to use the energy of the wheel to produce textures and forms. Then, whilst suffering from a shoulder injury, and unable to throw, I developed my own, slower, hand forming techniques which I continue to use.
Education
Selected Awards
1985
2019
Emmanuel Cooper Award, Craft Potters’ Charitable Trust
2012
Creative Scotland Makers Award, Professional Development
2012
Craft & Design Selected Gold Award: Ceramics
2010
HiArts Makers Award, Creative Development
2006
An Tuireann & Scottish Arts Council Makers Award, Professional Practice
2003
Talisker Prize for the Applied Arts, Skye & Lochalsh Open
BA (hons) 3Ddesign (ceramics), Central School of Art, London
Selected Exhibitions 2024
25 Years of Making, The Scottish Gallery
2023
New Ceramics, Beaux Arts Bath
2022
Contemporary Raku, Contemporary Ceramics Centre, London
2020
Textures of the Land, The Scottish Gallery
2019
Collect, represented by Craft Scotland, London
2018
Homo Faber: Best of Europe, Venice
2017
American Craft Council Show Baltimore, represented by Craft Scotland
Patricia Shone
Selected Public Collections Victoria and Albert Museum, London Pallant House, Chichester Ceramini Contemporary Ceramics Museum, Turkey
Patricia Shone near her home in Ardvasar, Isle of Skye, 2023
PATRICIA SHONE 25 YEARS OF MAKING
Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition: Patricia Shone 25 Years of Making 6 - 27 January 2024 Exhibition can be viewed online at: scottish-gallery.co.uk/25yearsofmaking ISBN: 978-1-912900-79-4 Printed by Pureprint Group Designed and produced by The Scottish Gallery Photography: Shannon Tofts Poem: ‘Beck’ from Collected Poems by Norman Nicholson (Faber & Faber) reproduced by permission of David Higham Associates. All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.
Cover: Riven, Earth Jar 20 (cat 1), 2023, saggar fired stoneware, H35 x Ø34 cm Inside front cover: Lidded Gilded Howf Jar (cat 20), 2023, saggar fired stoneware, H15 x Ø10 cm Inside back cover: Erosion Jar, Kintsugi Rim (cat 10), 2023, raku fired earthenware, kintsugi, H15 x Ø12 cm Back cover: Township Cup, Kinloch (cat 19), 2023, raku fired earthenware, H10 x Ø10 cm
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1/ Argentina, 2017 oil on wooden panel 121 x 51 cm