Sue Turner

I have lived and worked for over forty years within the landscape of the Upper Calder Valley, having taught, exhibited and practiced as a ceramic artist relating to this unique and challenging environment. I qualified from Leeds University with a first class honours degree in fine art ceramics in 2000. I also hold a teaching certificate and am a member of Northern Potters Association. My work has been exhibited in a wide range of arts and community venues and currently my partner and I run a community pottery, in Mytholmroyd, which offers studio space and support to twenty local ceramists.

The upland landscape around my home on the edge of Midgley Moor provides inspiration and daily walks in this environment have informed and enriched my work. I use a mix of traditional hand-building techniques and unconventional treatments which push the clays to the limits of their potential by the addition of grits, grogs and other raw materials. The combination of different recycled clay bodies react together during firing in unexpected ways and cracks, blisters and bubbles add to the surface of the forms during this process. Large vessels reflect imagined strata and the patchwork of the upland terrain hinting at the many issues which surround the history and future security of our living landscape. Recent work has highlighted the unique importance of local fungi and the contribution made to rural sustainability by the protection of vital upland peat bog.