Sarah Dunstan works from the Gaolyard Studios situated in St. Ives, Cornwall renowned for its thriving artistic community. The studios were established by the potter John Bedding in 1999. It’s an ideal environment to work in for the 9 potters whose studios link to a communal area where numerous cups of coffee, knowledge and kilns are shared.

The process.

I collect images, such as the shape of the railing in a hidden doorway in St.Ives or writing on an antique glass bottle. I use my sketchbook to draw and paint these impressions but also as a scrapbook. Feathers, fabric and packaging are glued in next to photos. These photos are fragmented memories of places I’ve visited, a close up detail of a Greek sign perhaps, or advertising on a French café wall.

With the clay rolled out in front of me, I start to play. I might begin with a block of colour then introduce an area of decoration that moves across the surface breaking out of one area and travelling around what will become a 3 dimensional piece. Like a painter, I work over the surface until it appears to be ‘right’. When the work is constructed I get a surprise, hopefully a good one, and the composition that felt right as a flat plane does something new when it becomes a vessel.