Barry Stedman British, b. 1965

‘Most of my work is made with red earthenware clay, and is usually wheel thrown and altered or constructed from soft slabs and then painted with coloured slips, stains and oxides. I enjoy working with simple vessel forms, exploring and developing exciting relationships between colour, texture and form. I try to spend time drawing and painting outside which helps to inform my ideas, often influenced by the shapes, colours, light and atmosphere in the places that surround me at the time.’

Barry Stedman’s ceramics are that of a painter – influenced by his drawings, sketches and paintings of nature. He prefers to work with strong, simple forms, often in series, exploring a particular theme thrown up by a place, a drawing or a memory. The qualities of texture, energy of applied glazes and variety of colour from lightly applied subtle layers to vibrant splashes give his work a joyful, vibrant feel. Thrown on the wheel, his pots are manipulated into irregular, but simple shapes, and low fired to enhance the colour.

Barry Stedman was born in Watford in 1965. In 2009, he gained a BA (Hons) Ceramics from the University of Westminster, Harrow Campus with a First Class Honours. He then spent a year as an assistant at Edmund de Waal’s studio in London.