About Liz
Background:
Aside from her Foundation year at Lincoln Art College in 1993 under the excellent tutelage of Roy Ridsdale, Liz is a self-taught artist, acquiring different skills and techniques at evening classes that she attended whilst working for conservation charity the Woodland Trust for the past 20 years (she really likes trees!) and latterly, an orangutan conservation organisation.
Liz made the leap permanently to three dimensions in 2019 having rediscovered her love of clay at a weekly pottery workshop at Steve Leaning’s End Room, unveiling a whole new world of joyful expression to pursue. As she honed my skills, some of her work found its way to a small gallery in Steyning, West Sussex, and quickly bounded onwards into many people’s homes. So much so that when Liz was furloughed in 2020, she filled her time with bags of clay and decided to invest in a kiln of her own. Since then, she has continued to learn and grow, acquiring greater familiarity with her chosen medium as she pushes past her limitations and continuously seeks new and better ways to convey her message of connection with nature.
You can find Liz’s work at one of the galleries listed below.
Artist’s Statement:
‘Connecting with nature through my art.’
I am a Lincolnshire-based ceramic sculptor creating artworks rooted in close observation of wildlife and the folklore that surrounds it. My practice centres on a connection to the natural world and reflects real encounters with wildlife. I never tire of the joy I feel in those moments when a wild animal allows me briefly into its world. That quiet sense of privilege, of shared presence, stays with me and is expressed through my art.
I work in stoneware clays to carve the illusion of fur, feather and leaf into a material that is solid and enduring, holding fleeting wild moments in clay. As a self-taught artist, I am constantly experimenting with the material and thrive on challenging myself to find new ways to capture the individuality of my subject through subtle gestures that suggest something just beyond the visible. Working in clay is compelling in its unpredictability and I love that unnerving and exciting moment when I open the kiln to discover how the oxides and glazes have interacted with the clay. The result is that every one of my sculptures is entirely unique.
My work invites viewers to slow down, to notice the world we coexist with nature in, and to remember that we are not separate from the natural world, but participants within its story.
Galleries
Gallery representation
- Dotty Gallery, Twyford, Leicesterhshire www.dottygallery.co.uk/
- Newark Art Gallery and Studio, Newark, Nottinghamshire
- Artysan Cotswolds, Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire
- Abbey Galleries, Pershore, Worcestershire
- Abbey Galleries, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire
- Union Street Gallery, Grantham, Lincolnshire
- Pending – Fitch and Fellows, Thame, Oxfordshire
Exhibitions
September 2010 |
| Grantham Art Club Annual Show, Guildhall Grantham |
November 2016 |
| ‘A Celebration of Life’. Life drawings in charcoal, collage and pastel. Guildhall Grantham |
October 2018 |
| ‘Loving the Landscape’. Paintings in charcoal, watercolour and pastels. Guildhall, Grantham |
November 2020 |
| ‘Art in Lockdown’. A variety of paintings, in oils, watercolours and pastels made during this year in ‘lockdown’. Guildhall Grantham |
September 2021 |
| ‘WILD!’ With Lisa Tank and Fiona Hodges, Sam Scorer Gallery, Lincoln |
October 2021 |
| ‘Natural Eye’. Society of Wildlife Artists annual show, Mall Galleries, London |
December 2022 |
| ‘WILD!’ Again. With Lisa Tank, Gallery at St Martin’s, Lincoln |
April 2023 |
| Sheffield Ceramics Festival |
October 2023 |
| Potfest in the Pens, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire |
December 2023 |
| Handmade for Christmas, Millennium Museum, Sheffield |
April 2024 |
| Sheffield Ceramics Festival |
August 2024 |
| FolkEast Festival Art Arcade, Suffolk |
December 2024 |
| Handmade for Christmas, Millennium Museum, Sheffield |
April 2025 |
| Creative Lincs Spring Show, Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire |
June 2025 |
| Lincolnshire Art Trail, Indigo Crow, Lincoln |
May 2025 |
| Mudfest, Cumbria |
May 2025 |
| Ceramics in Charnwood, Loughborough |
July 2025 |
| Thoresby Ceramics Fair, Thoresby Park, Nottinghamshire |
August 2025 |
| FolkEast Festival Art Arcade, Suffolk |
October 2025 |
| PotFest in the Pens, Penrith, Cumbria |
December 2025 |
| Handmade for Christmas, Millennium Museum, Sheffield |
Interested in a Liz McLelland original? Drop me a line to talk it through...
