Mary White - A Restrospective - 9th June to 2nd July 2011

Early on in her career Mary combined her enthusiasm for ceramics and calligraphy. As a potter she works with porcelain clay exploiting the paper like qualities of this material employing a potters' sensibility with her approach to form. An early opportunity to experiment with porcelain led Mary to develop her distinctive wide flanged bowls, extending the thin rims to breaking point. The organic quality to the broken edges found in many of her forms takes ideas from coastal landscape, layers of rock on the seashore, shells and waves rippling over the sand and the colours of the sea and the sky. Pieces often combine throwing and handbuilding , using the clay as thin as possible, almost like torn paper and assembling the clay in layers.



Her porcelain forms create a three-dimensional canvas for her delicate and exquisite calligraphy. Through a considered use of colour and the balance of areas of light and shade, Marys' calligraphy explores and creates dynamics and tensions between text and form.