Studio Days Spotlight: James

James is a member of our Next Step and Visioning groups. He has been attending our Studio Days since it started in July 2024.

James arrived at the studio and wanted to create a series of ceramic planes with ancient pottery techniques carved into them.

James said: ‘I wanted to combine ancient style pottery with a near modern plane design’.

To support his creative project, James got to work researching different ceramic periods including Greek black-figure, Lupita, Moche and Aztec pottery. James then made test tiles of these different pottery styles and then got to work on his first plane, the Sr71 Blackbird.

The Blackbird was a reconnaissance plane used by the US Armed Forces between 1966-1989. James created a sculpture of this plane from terracotta clay, covered it in red slip, and carved Greek figures into its sides.

James’ second plane was the De Havilland Mosquito. The De Havilland Mosquito was a wooden, twin-engine combat aircraft used by the RAF from 1940-1963. James sculpted this from speckled stoneware clay, painted it with red slip, and carved Lupita patterns into it.

Pyramid Studio Days take place on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays. Pyramid member artists can make use of our studio facilities during these days free of charge.

Pyramid Studio Days is part of Finding the Flex, a further development of our ongoing work, Irregular Art Schools. It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and is delivered in partnership with University of Leeds.