Large Stoneware Relief, 2005

Paul Philp (b. 1941)
White Stoneware Relief
English, 2005

Hand-built stoneware
Impressed with the artist’s stamp

The irregular, heavily worked surface is built up in layered tones of white, cream, sand and brown. Deep impressions and fissures give it the appearance of weathered stone or an archaeological fragment.

Philp has spent more than five decades developing a highly individual ceramic practice centered around hand-built forms and complex, layered firing techniques. Working outside the constraints of the potter’s wheel, he constructs each work slowly and intuitively, applying thin layers of material over multiple firings to achieve surfaces of considerable depth and subtlety. His work often evokes archaeological fragments or ancient architectural remains while resisting direct narrative interpretation.

Philp has said that he wants to make pieces that look as though they have been “discovered rather than made,” adding:

“I have in mind rugged eroded surfaces, megaliths, fossils, ancient encrusted marbles and something of the quality of early Japanese ceramics—Shigaraki and Iga ware.”

Born in 1941, Philp studied ceramics at Cardiff Art School and later devoted many years to the restoration of Llansôr Mill in Monmouthshire using traditional building methods and reclaimed materials. Since returning fully to ceramics, he has produced a body of work distinguished by its meditative quality, technical sophistication, and deeply tactile surfaces. Philp’s work is represented in numerous important collections, including the Musée des Beaux Arts, Montréal; the Cité de la Céramique, Sèvres; and the Musée Ariana, Geneva.