EAAF in lockdown
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery is currently closed and EAAF events have been suspended as we follow the Government’s advice to reduce the spread of Covid-19 (Coronavirus). Our work continues as we stay in touch with our members by email, profile our artist members through EAAF Presents and provide scholarships at Norwich University of the Arts. We are very grateful for our members’ support and look forward to the time when we can visit exhibitions and gather together again. Amanda Geitner, Director
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery is currently closed and EAAF events have been suspended as we follow the Government’s advice to reduce the spread of Covid-19 (Coronavirus). Our work continues as we stay in touch with our members by email, profile our artist members through EAAF Presents and provide scholarships at Norwich University of the Arts. We are very grateful for our members’ support and look forward to the time when we can visit exhibitions and gather together again. Amanda Geitner, Director
During lockdown, East Anglian Art Fund has been profiling artists from the region - this week ceramicist Alison Henry
Alison Henry : infinite variety of forms
Alison Henry was born on the Isle of Wight, but most of her life has been spent living in cities across the UK - Birmingham, Manchester, London, Bristol and Norwich. Moving to North Norfolk in 2015 she found her responses to the countryside and the shift to a rural environment had an impact on the development of her sculpture, so we asked Alison about her current work –
I work mainly in clay and my work is inspired by the infinite variety of forms and patterns in nature, my starting point often being an everyday fragment from the natural world - such as a seed pod, a piece of dried plant material, a wasp's nest – and I explore the patterns, rhythm and movement which are revealed as I look closer and delve deeper.
What keeps you up at night?
It used to be worries about the day job, but having retired from that in January this year, it's now mainly my elderly cat Baggins snoring.
What is your favourite part of your practice?
My preferred way of working is to build a basic structure in clay, with or without an armature, leave it a day or two to harden slightly and then start the process of carving into the clay, gradually whittling away till the form emerges. It's at that stage that I get fully absorbed and when interesting things start to happen ... at least sometimes anyway.
Which artist/artists inspire you most?
It's so difficult to choose but I would say from the past, Auguste Rodin, Barbara Hepworth and Elizabeth Frink, as well as the makers of many of the small animal sculptures in the Sainsbury Collection (in particular those from Ecuador 1000-100 BC), and from the present, Bridget McCrum and Jo Naden (a close friend and my first ever sculpture evening class teacher) - all sculptors with a powerful sense of form and beauty.
If you could step inside an artwork for a day which would it be & why?
I hope this is permitted, but I love illustrations of children's books and especially those of E H Shepard because of their mixture of understated mischief and innocence. So I'd like to step inside one of Shepard's illustrations - either safe in Badger's house in the Wild Wood with Mole and Rat after a sumptuous supper, or playing Poohsticks on the bridge over the river with Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit and Roo, watching a disgruntled Eeyore float by.
To find out more about Alison Henry's work CLICK HERE
I work mainly in clay and my work is inspired by the infinite variety of forms and patterns in nature, my starting point often being an everyday fragment from the natural world - such as a seed pod, a piece of dried plant material, a wasp's nest – and I explore the patterns, rhythm and movement which are revealed as I look closer and delve deeper.
What keeps you up at night?
It used to be worries about the day job, but having retired from that in January this year, it's now mainly my elderly cat Baggins snoring.
What is your favourite part of your practice?
My preferred way of working is to build a basic structure in clay, with or without an armature, leave it a day or two to harden slightly and then start the process of carving into the clay, gradually whittling away till the form emerges. It's at that stage that I get fully absorbed and when interesting things start to happen ... at least sometimes anyway.
Which artist/artists inspire you most?
It's so difficult to choose but I would say from the past, Auguste Rodin, Barbara Hepworth and Elizabeth Frink, as well as the makers of many of the small animal sculptures in the Sainsbury Collection (in particular those from Ecuador 1000-100 BC), and from the present, Bridget McCrum and Jo Naden (a close friend and my first ever sculpture evening class teacher) - all sculptors with a powerful sense of form and beauty.
If you could step inside an artwork for a day which would it be & why?
I hope this is permitted, but I love illustrations of children's books and especially those of E H Shepard because of their mixture of understated mischief and innocence. So I'd like to step inside one of Shepard's illustrations - either safe in Badger's house in the Wild Wood with Mole and Rat after a sumptuous supper, or playing Poohsticks on the bridge over the river with Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit and Roo, watching a disgruntled Eeyore float by.
To find out more about Alison Henry's work CLICK HERE