ANNE WEBB

Anne, a native of Canada, has been working in clay since the early 1990s.  She has a BA in Sociology and, before discovering clay, her early career out of school, was in retail and corporate banking. 

 Anne is mostly self-taught when it comes to clay, but credits her introduction to pottery to Toronto potter, John Jarvis. She was later invited to work for a stint in the studio of the late Marilyn Farrell, of King's Landing, New Brunswick, but has also gained knowledge through pottery related publications, workshops and conferences, fellow potters, the blogosphere, etc., as well as exploration and experimentation in other art and craft mediums, such as drawing and printmaking.

Anne chooses to work mainly on the potter’s wheel, in both high-fire stoneware and porcelain. Her work features both figurative and abstract decorative elements inspired by her surroundings here on the  Gulf Coast and proximity to the water.  Techniques she uses are 'sgraffito', bas relief incising or carving, and loose, stylized brushwork. She finds carving into the clay particularly gratifying, in that it not only gives surface texture, but designs take on a life of their own and seem to evolve by virtue of the carving process; No two designs are ever identical. Handmade pottery for her, is all about the process and the human connection so she has deliberately chosen not to hide the  evidence of the process, believing that the visual and tactile nature of the designed surfaces  enhances that human connection between the maker and the user.