“Just as individual words make up a sentence, so my handmade tiles become a visual poem. Piece by piece, step by step. Each ceramic component relates to and affects those around it.”
After studying English Literature & Art History at University, Caroline Egleston pursued her own creative journey, drawn to the fresh and colourful brushwork patterns of Italian tin-glazed earthenware. During a two-year ceramics diploma at Faenza, near Bologna, she could absorb the visual stimulation of Italian colour and pattern and, on returning to the UK, she set up her ceramic workshop, creating painterly tile scapes for interior and exterior spaces.
The workshop, Piccolpasso, means ‘little step’ - a gentle life philosophy. But also, in the 16th century, Cipriano Piccolpasso wrote about ceramic practice - translated into English by the late Alan Caiger Smith.
“A playful mix of brushwork and textured tiles is underpinned by the rhythmic grid of the grouted shapes. Central to my practice is the creation of these brushwork tiles which bring a personal immediacy to my work.
The act of placing the brush on the unfired glaze surface is an exciting commitment which captures spontaneity, then fixed by firing. My brushstrokes are layered, glaze on glaze, and are often gestural and experimental, like a writer exploring language for connection.”
Exhibitions
Exhibitions
