£145.00
Beautiful stoneware shallow oval bowl by Laurel Keeley with detailed sgraffito gold fish, foliage and abstract design The whole form is decorated including underside.
35 x 26 x 6cm
Renowned ceramic artist Laurel Keeley (b. 1952) specialises in textures stoneware and porcelain using expressive sgraffito, slips and inlaid oxides. Based in Devon, her signature work combines hand-thrown or built forms with graphic, narrative surfaces.
Laurel was born in Essex, studying at Exeter University and later in Toronto. Pivoting from academic research, she pursued a long-held ambition to work with clay, completing post graduate studies in Fine Art Ceramics at Exeter College of Art under Brian Southwell and Lawson Rudge.
Her first pottery was in Cheriton Fitzpaine, Devon (late 1970s), followed by studios in Exeter’s West Quarter and Newton St. Cyres (2018). Laurel is a founding member of South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts (SWAc).
The Sgraffito Process
Laurel applies layers of smooth coloured slips, porcelain or glazes over textures stoneware forms. She then uses knife edges, wooden tools and fingers to incise or scratch through top layers.
Themes
Laurel’s sgraffito and inlaid metal oxide line work reflect organic landscapes, geometric crop rows, river networks and coastal motifs such as shoals of fish.
