An exhibition of paintings and prints be Katrin Moye & Hannah Sawtell

Hannah Sawtell and Katrin Moye share similar approaches to the creative process, using personal associations with everyday domestic paraphenalia to inform their use of pattern and colour in their work. Both are at the stage of their lives where having a young, growing family dominates their daily routines and they have embraced this phase of heightened domesticity in their creative lives, recording and celebrating those everyday moments and familiar objects in their work.

Katrin Moye is an award winning ceramicist, specialising in highly decorative domestic ceramics which are hand thrown in white earthenware clay, with decorations  hand applied with coloured slips and underglazes, using  a variety of methods – paper cut resists, trailing, sponging and painting.  She has recently been awarded  a substantial grant from Arts Council England to spend a period of time on creative research and development, and has undertaken a new direction into 2d work as a result.  These new paintings and prints comprise of still life studies of her own ceramics plus those in her collection at home made by other contemporary studio potters, such as Ken Eardley and Irina Sibrijns.  Also present in this work are items in daily use in Katrin’s home, such as vintage china, patterned fabrics and flowers and foliage from her garden.

Hannah Sawtell observes the relationship between locality and community. Schools, shops and houses are given reason and meaning by the people who use and live in them; -Hannah seeks to celebrate this connection through her artwork. Hannah has consistently enjoyed the challenge of capturing the look and feel of her immediate surroundings with a pencil and sheet of paper. Over many years, moments in time have been recorded in sketchbooks; her current artwork is a continuation of this process. Colour is used to add particular definition to selected areas of the drawing, but with an appreciation of the line of the pen and the white space surrounding it remaining intact. The palette is sourced from non-conventional materials found either in the home environment or from charity and second hand shops.