Paul Wearing

Paul Wearing, who is based in Cardiff, produces very distinctive hand-built stoneware and porcelain vessels. These are of very original form, and their surfaces are richly textured, built up through layers of slips and glazes which when fired create rich blistering and varied coloration. His pots evoke the patinas and strata of natural things, the colours of rocks and stones, of objects excavated from the earth. They have overtones of long discarded tools, of ritual artefacts and markers in the landscape, their fabric perhaps changed and enhanced by time and weather. There is a distinctive clarity about his shapes, both his variously shaped cylinders and his unusual ellipse pieces with their tilts and other deviations. Paul studied ceramics at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, and is a co-director of Fireworks Clay Studios in that city.

David Whiting