Ceramicist Ann Lee joins up with painters Valerie Armstrong and Colin Slee for their third year running in Artspace Woodbridge.

The Mind’s Eye 2024

tulip pot 20 x 18 cm. Ann Lee

Ann Lee

My work reflects the versatility and pleasure of making ceramics. Exploration is what interests me, rather than the practice of making one thing on repeat. My favourite process is hand building.  Each  centimetre demands close physical and visual contact with the vessel.  I pinch, coil, throw and use improvised moulds, the conventional clay or plaster ones or any object from which I can take an impression or use as a ‘slump’.

How to finish the work is an essential dilemma.  I approach the  surface as a blank canvas using glazes and ceramic colours to enhance the form. The results are often surprising, a gift of constant discovery in making ceramics.

Instagram: @potterybyannielee

sanctuary valerie armstrong

Valerie Armstrong

Valerie creates her paintings intuitively, building up layers of information in paint, collage, glaze, and mixed media. Her present work is strongly informed by a past career as an art therapist as she explores the stories within dreams and memories for her subject matter.

This is how she describes her process: “my paintings begin with spontaneous play or experimentation, using collage, mark making and textures; as the painting begins to reveal itself, the layering process becomes like a dance. Gradually the history below is revealed as a mysterious suggestion of what might be and what might have been. Finally, as the process nears completion, the pace slows, colours become more refined and the marks, more thoughtful. With music as my muse, I allow the subconscious to direct, and visual stories to emerge; sometimes surprisingly, always truthfully.” 

Instagram: @valeriearmstrong_artist

fishing village colin slee

COLIN SLEE

Colin was born in Torquay, Devon in 1946, and attended the Newton Abbott College of Art from 1961 to 1964. He worked as a graphic designer for advertising agencies in Exeter and Bristol until 1982 after which he ran his own design studio for 14 years. In 1996 he moved to Suffolk to continue a career as a fulltime artist.

Colin’s aim is to create an expressive response to the UK environment and to portray an atmospheric and emotional sense of place. During his time in Suffolk, he has been selected to exhibit in group exhibitions in the Home Counties and in the Mall Galleries, London. He currently exhibits regularly with The Suffolk Group of Artists, Ipswich Art Society and at selected local venues.

E mail: colinsleeinscapes@gmail.com