sea shanty

Anna Warchus - Ceramic Artist

Anna studied ceramics at the Royal College of Art, worked in potteries in London and Oxford and taught Art in secondary schools. She now has her own studio practice where she creates ceramic sculptures that incorporate themes and motifs associated with the sea and the sea’s relationship with land. 

Anna’s forms shift between symmetry on the wheel and organic development as she combines the processes of working with clay moulds, slabs and wheel-thrown pieces. Surfaces are rubbed with recycled clay dust and sand and daubed with earth-coloured slips. Details are honed by scratching, printing and the firing process.

You can buy Anna’s ceramics from the Oriel Q Online Shop. Just click on the link below for more information and prices

Sea Shanty

This is a moment for sea shanties so it is opportune to show my ceramic sea shanty.

It began in 2018 as individual clay bells hanging and chiming from trees in NT Stackpole Walled Garden during Pembrokeshire’s celebration of the ‘year of the sea’, and became a brightly coloured notably silent cluster in 2019.

The transformation was a tricky one. The original pots may have been speedily wheel thrown and biscuit fired, but casting from each an increasingly smaller replica was laborious.

Using fired clay instead of plaster moulds meant carefully prising the cast out with occasional sticking and shedding. They had nicks and slight fissures and few were perfect. Ultimately the group remaining from Stackpole were turned on their heads and stuck to a spherical frame and became ‘Sea Shanty’ a cry from the heart…. that could no longer be heard.

In the making of this extended family of related objects I was tested in my practical abilities and challenged to focus on familial and hierarchical legacy.

Anna’s Bio

Education

1991-1993 Post Graduate in Education (Art & Design & Technology). Institute of Education, University of London
1986-1988 Royal College of Art, London
1983-1986 BA Hons (First Class) Ceramics, Wolverhampton, West Midlands
1982-1983 York College of Arts & Technology, North Yorkshire

Artist’s Statement

My figure and fortress, bathers and boat themes continue developing, inspired by the myths and landscape of Wales, the castles and coastline, and the work of artists who have been similarly influenced.
My ceramic sculptures are each hand-built in groups of two or three and crossed- referenced with similar imagery to hold a story and sit as objects for reflection.
Earthenware clay slabs are rolled, cut and formed before drawings or prints are applied to the surface. Layers of slip and sand reveal glimpses of figures or distorted shadows balancing on ledges and horizons. With ladders, windows and arches, each individual structure is like a stage set with its own particular drama.