News and comment from Sandy Brown's Studio will appear here.

Sandy Brown's Journal

click here to download 'Enter The Dance' (pdf 185kb)

Sandy Brown's major installation ritual: The Still Point and The Dance will be exhibited at:

July 1 to August 16 jointly at Crafts Study Centre and James Hockey Gallery, University College for the Creative Arts, Falkner Road, Farnham, Surrey.
01252 891450

Artists' talk in the gallery on July 3

Next Course Dates:

September 8th to 13th

(Studio days from 10am - 5pm approx)

More info

SANDY BROWN AWARD
Ritual: The Still Point and the Dance
Leading ceramic artist and potter Sandy Brown, whose work is exhibited in museums and galleries internationally has been given a major award of £26,000 from Arts Council England South West. This is the largest amount that has ever been given by them to an individual craftsperson.
This is to enable her to spend a year producing a large body of new work, an Installation entitled The Still Point and The Dance.

The Installation in two parts: the first is Ritual: The Still Point. This is a contemporary tea ceremony based on the Japanese tea ceremony, and is a form of meditation.. Sandy Brown will create a tea ceremony room, design and make all the utensils and perform the ritual as a meditation. Guests will be able to book to participate.

From the meditation and calm of The Still Point there comes energy and this energy will be expressed in the second part of the installation: The Dance. The Dance is an Installation of large-scale ceramic sculptures expressing the exuberance and energy which comes from The Still Point. The forms will be tall, abstract and colourful, with sculptures representing the female, male, fertility, fecundity and of course The Dance.
This is a most ambitious undertaking, creatively and technically, and it promises to be one of the most impressive exhibitions of ceramic sculpture this country has seen.
The Installation will now be open next year from June 1 to July 24 2006 as part of the ninth Appledore Visual Arts Festival and will then tour to other venues in the UK and abroad, including Galerie Marianne Heller in Heidelberg, Germany.

Sandy Brown became a potter when living in Japan for five years. Since returning to England over 30 years ago she has been influential in livening up the ceramics world with her bold dynamic forms, introducing strong colour, a robust handling of clay, and a sensuous lusty delight in the material. She has been cited as a major influence on European ceramics and has work in major public collections such as V&A, Crafts Council, and many others here and in Europe, USA and Australia. The monograph on her work published by Marston House appeared last year.
‘Since moving into my new large studio four years ago my work has expanded literally and creatively. I have become more ambitious both in scale and in content, and I have built a much bigger kiln capable of firing large pieces. This grant is enabling me to develop work which has been gestating for a few years; a statement about life, energy and about being female in the 21st century. Currently there is no-one I know of working on making an exhibition of large-scale ceramics, partly because of the large kiln needed, and because technically and creatively it is challenging. Also, the opportunity to show how passionate I am about the ritual usage of ceramics is highly important; we need rituals in our culture, and this is a way of bringing art into our daily lives.’