Living in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, Gary enjoys creating ceramic sculptures. With a passion for walking in the mountains and along the magnificent Welsh coastline, he also experiments with elements and textures straight from the surrounding landscapes. He also gains inspiration from influential artists like Salvador Dali, Roy Lichtenstein, and Tamara de Lempicka to create expressive, thought-provoking ceramic figures. The use of stoneware clays, bright colours, bold textures, and repetitive patterns have become a strong aspect of his unique characters.
Gary is a self-taught ceramicist that enjoys the freedom of sculpting - not being confined to the edges of a canvas, and the wide possibilities that working with clay allows for. He describes his sculpting process as spontaneous with little planning in hopes that his art captures a snapshot of the moment.
“From an early age I had always enjoyed making things and in the 70’s before the mobile phone and 200 channels on the TV, an empty cornflake box, sticky tape and some paint was all you needed. That, or I would be in my fathers shed ruining his nicely sharpened wood working chisels.
Art and craft have always been an important aspect of my life and in 2010 I enrolled on a Pottery evening course at our local college. Modelling with clay seemed like a natural thing to do and I found the expressiveness that you could achieve working in 3D very enjoyable. I then wanted to know more, so I started reading and watching educational videos and going on further courses to pursue my new hobby.
If I wasn’t doing this, I was usually out walking or running in the beautiful countryside here in North Wales. Then, in 2021 after everything that we had all been through with Covid during the previous year, I was presented with another major setback and was diagnosed with incurable Neuroendocrine cancer. I was unable to work for two years and then decided to retire. Not being able to work was a huge change and I needed something to do that would help me to process and focus my emotions. My own life had turned into a surreal one.
During this period, I rediscovered clay and started making sculptures with little expressive faces that undoubtedly reflected the mood that I was in. I am influenced by my love of abstract and surrealist art, and I try to find individuality and expression in my sculptural figures. I would say that striving to find different and unique ideas is one of the challenging aspects for all artists and that’s one of my motivational factors. Some of the artists that have inspired me are Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Tamara de Lempicka, Salvador Dalí and Edward Hopper. I prefer art that makes you really stop and ask, ’What’s it all about, what’s the message and what’s going on in the mind of the artist.’
I’m always striving to find individuality and expressiveness in my pieces and tend to be quite spontaneous with my ideas. I often start building when an idea comes into my head with little planning and sketching, which is not necessarily a good thing, but it does capture my state of mind at the time. I like using heavily grogged stoneware clays as I like my work to be tactile so that people want to pick it up and touch it. Bright colours, repetitive patterns, textures, expression, and references to nature are often included in my work.”
