The Ceramic Gardener

Frances Doherty graduated in 2001 after five years at college studying photography, plastics as well as ceramics. After graduating she took on a workshop space in Hove, subletting to other artists and craftspeople.

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Frances’s inspiration comes from flowers and plants we see all around us, in gardens, fields even cracks in the pavement. She is particularly drawn to the secret world inside these flowers, the patterns, textures that give a continuing sense of promise and renewal.

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She likes to play with scale often scaling her sculptures up so that we can imagine the size that a plant must appear to an insect…what it is that attracts and repels? 

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Frances works in stoneware, throwing the basic shape of the sculpture, then alters and models onto the piece. The pieces are high fired so that they can live in an interior or exterior environment. Glazes are chosen to compliment the form and often slightly crystalline or iridescent bringing each piece to life.

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Frances exhibits and sells her work at art fairs and galleries throughout the British Isles. In 2004 she won an award for Best Newcomer at BCTF (British Craft Trade Fair, Harrogate), and has written features for their magazine 'The Craftsman’. She took a post grad course in teaching and learning in HE, and has worked as part-time tutor at HMP Ford and Northbrook College, Brighton University.