Dennis Farrell

We have all recently been through one of the strangest, and for many, the most difficult and uncertain time of our lives. To be ‘locked down by law’, preventing us from going to our favourite places is something we thought we’d never have to confront in our lifetime.
Whilst we could only gaze from our windows, or at best shop for essentials, the natural world continued to do what it does without us being there. The silence was audible, the land was released from the stress of human intervention.
The work in the exhibition comments on our memories of ‘being there’ and our feelings of yearning to be somewhere in the landscape, recalling our favourite places wherever they may be. However, the natural world could take advantage of this undisturbed moment in time to do its thing without our gaze.
Most clay forms are produced by hand-built techniques using red earthenware blended with black stoneware crank clays; a few forms were produced using a white earthenware clay. White engobe is applied to the clay surface, sometimes being drawn through when wet. Brushed coloured engobes and underglaze colour are then worked together on the leather hard clay surface like paint on canvas. After a first firing, further underglaze colour may be added before forms are brushed with transparent glazes and fired to 1120 ̊C.

Dennis Farrell lives and works near Much Wenlock in Shropshire. He exhibits nationally and internationally and has work in both private and public collections