Carolyn Genders

Artist Statement

Concepts Landscape in all its forms continues to be Carolyn's principle source of inspiration, and her new series of work, Wealden Garden is inspired by the intimate landscape of the garden. The exuberance and colour of an English country garden in spring, where the play of light and shadow across plants suggests ever-changing abstract and sculptural compositions, is captured in this work. Her rapid sketches are not a direct translation from source, rather a noting of atmosphere, mood, rhythm and texture. These marks and gestures on paper are the starting point for studio work. When working, Carolyn responds to the material, moving around the form, making marks of depth and variation, scratching and scraping though layers of slip, revealing the clay and emphasising the dryness of the engobe or the softness of the burnished slip: the silky surface emerging as polished as a sea worn pebble. Sculptural pieces and vessel forms are finely balanced to convey nuance of shape and mass. The interior of each vessel reveals and influences the exterior form, similarly with the surface treatment. With expressive brushstrokes that continue the painterly application of colour on the interior, Carolyn weaves continually changing abstracted imagery around the form, creating a never ending three dimensional aspect to each piece. Career path Qualifications: 1986 Post Graduate Diploma, Ceramics, Goldsmiths College, London 1979 BA Hons, Wood, Metal, Ceramics, Plastics, Brighton Polytechnic Teaching Experience: 2001-2005 Visiting Lecturer, Northbrook College, Worthing, Sussex 1999-present Visiting Lecturer, Christchurch College, Canterbury, Kent 1999-present Short Course Tutor, West Dean College, Sussex Areas of work: Secondary education Exhibiting Lecturing Practice-based research Private commissions Workshops Collections: Adolf Egner Collection, Cologne Museum Fine Arts Society, Glasgow Robert Pinchen Collection, Leeds Museum