Paul Wearing studied ceramics to postgraduate level in Cardiff where he has lived and worked ever since. Within his first year of professional practice Paul was awarded a Setting-up grant from the Arts Council of Wales enabling him to develop a body of work and achieve his first solo exhibition 'Beyond the Surface' at Oriel Lliw, Pontardawe Arts Centre in 2001. He has subsequently exhibited widely across the UK. In 2002 Paul was awarded Welsh Artist of the Year for the Crafts/Applied Arts category.
Textures that manifest naturally on surfaces within diverse urban and rural landscapes are fundamental to Paul's practice. 'I express my relationship to these through the glazed surface and ceramic sculptural vessel form. It is the correlation between the slower emerging life cycles of nature and the making process leading to alchemical developments within the kiln that underpins my work: a dialogue between the hand-made and manifestations of nature.'
The vessels are formed using two techniques. Press-moulding enables Paul to quickly form the base, whilst coiling, a slower method, allows flexibility and control over the vessel shape and size as it develops.
The rich surface texture is built up and transformed through the application of multiple layers of slips and glazes, showing evidence of brush marks and the chemical reactions of the glaze. In the kiln alchemy takes over, the heat-work fuses, melts, bubbles, blisters, shrinks and cracks the materials, exposing their volatile nature and returning to rock, unveiling their geological history in deep time.
Selected Exhibitions
'A Sense of Order' The Model House, Llantrisant
'Beyond the Surface' Oriel Lliw, Pontardawe
Tim Andrews Gallery, Woodbury
Cardiff Contemporary, Open Studios
Fireworks Now, Y Galeri, Caerphilly