Liz Williams Ceramics

Grant worked with liz photographing her work from 2006 to 2016.

Liz williams ceramics. Liz williams education panel subversive clay i am going to speak about my own experience as a ceramic student and how i discovered my own thread which made working with clay the meaningful centre of my life. Her use of clay and her distinctive approach to sculpting the figure made her. The figure in clay. The history of figurative sculpture in ceramics is marked both by its antiquity and the inherent limitations of the material.

My wife liz williams who has died of bowel cancer aged 73 retired from medicine in her 50s she had been a successful gp at the university of birmingham to take a degree in fine art. Titled recuerdos which may be translated as meaning memories memorabilia or even remembrances this work called on experiences she had accumulated during a study tour. She is also the author of the inspector chen series and of the historical survey of magic in the british isles and beyond miracles of our own making. Unsurprisingly williams influences ranged from an interest in magic realism and surrealism.

My first ceramics teacher was milton moon and he brought to the experience dedication and passion and as a teacher demanded commitment it. It also includes essays by catherine speck damon moon and wendy walker. There are some 70 full page images of liz s ceramic taken by grant as well as his photographs of her beautiful home and studio taken. Throughout her long career williams worked in relative solitude in her adelaide home studio travelling overseas frequently to undertake residencies and to research artistic and ceramic traditions.

Ceramicist liz williams used the traditional and time honoured method of coiling to create her elegantly stylised figures. Liz williams sawa 2016 japan hand built ceramic glaze 30 cm this same exhibition also showcased a remarkable figure japanese school girl which encapsulated so many aspects of the artist s conversation with folk ceramic traditions inflected with an acerbic sense of individual humanity not unlike the best of charles blackman s. Liz williams born 1965 is a british science fiction writer historian and occultist. Body language features 70 full page colour images of williams ceramics and her home studio by leading photographer grant hancock.

Her craftsmanship and fine attention to detail is evident in their highly considered finish and resoundingly handmade qualities. Both this novel and her next empire of bones 2002 were nominated for the philip k. This is an edited version of an article originally published in ceramics art and perception issue 73 in 2008. Body language reveals for the first time the remarkable achievement of australian ceramicist liz williams.