Nottingham Contemporary

Hi Beth, Let’s start off with an introduction. Can you introduce yourself and describe your work?

Hello there. I am Beth Morrison and I make and draw things. I graduated about 100 years ago from Middlesex with a Ba in Jewellery Design!

Have you always been creative? Do you remember the first time you put pencil to paper?

I can remember being a big fan of making a house in a shoe box or a tiny garden in a baking tray with an up turned jam jar lid pond. I lost pretty much an entire school year, aged 8 making a bedroom for my duck shaped pencil sharpener inside my desk. It was pretty epic.

I love the playful nature of your work. Do you have any art and design heroes?

I have always really enjoyed books and their illustrations. I loved a book called 'Humbert' by John Burningham growing up, about a dustman's horse having to stand in for the Lord Mayor's show parade. It's full of the most amazing textures and urban and interiors detailing. I also am a sucker for an underdog story. Now, I love the illustrations of Beatrice Alemagna for similar reasons along with folk and outsider art.

You're based in the lovely county of Norfolk. Does the Norfolk surroundings and landscape impact or influence your creative output?

Yes, I suppose it must do. It's pretty flat out here and the landscape is peppered with some lovely trees and the odd pylon which I am also partial to.

When did you start working with clay?

I started doing a pottery class as a treat when my youngest kid started school and absolutely loved it. It felt such a great way to turn my drawings 3D.

Your latest pottery endeavours have focused on an incredible collection of ceramic trees? What draws you to the tree as a subject?

I started making trees as a way, at first, to bring a little book I had written for my kids about the unknown, to life. The characters lived in a forest, and I started to recreate that, and it just sort of grew from there.

Are the forms based on trees you encounter or are they imagined forms?

I was really inspired by the tiny plastic trees you get with a miniature farm and the beautiful tin trees for model railways. I enjoy their flat, cut out like forms. Now I am always on the lookout for an interesting tree out and about for inspiration. There were some great one-sided windblown trees I noticed on a recent trip to Cornwall.

Can you talk us through your creative process? Do you start with a sketch? Do you have a dedicated studio space you like to work from? Which materials do you enjoy working with the most?

I made a sketchbook originally filled with trees. Some from photos I had taken and some from books. I enjoyed using ink to try and simplify their forms as much as possible to make it easier to translate in clay. I experimented with pencils and gouache to see what simple textures I could make to express the details of leaves and branches. I am lucky enough to have a shed in my garden to do drawing and clay work. I share a little space up the road with my husband, who is a blacksmith, for the firing and glazing.

You’re also a storyteller and illustrator. Do you still enjoy putting pencil to paper and creating imaginary worlds?

I haven't been doing so much of that recently, although I do still really enjoy drawing in my sketch book. I need to do more of that. I used to illustrate a mad little story about a boy who dressed up as a squirrel for kid’s comic Okido. It was kind of brilliant to have to come up with a new adventure every month and get it to fit on 4 pages.

If we made our way to your neck of the woods in Norfolk, what 3 creatives or businesses should we check out?

Stiffkey Stores is a lovely little spot to walk to and get a coffee and pastry and buy some amazing cards or knick-knacks. My lovely friend Dianne Randle makes some beautiful fluffy felt vessels and am I allowed to shout out my husband Toby Winterbourn who makes creatures and massive flowers out of metal?

Interview by Retail Buyer Lucy Martin.

Shop Beth Morrison's ceramics online or in-store at Shop Contemporary.