One of the four February artists visiting my studio was Sally Clay. After she had painted a regular oval plate Sally chose to paint this spherical vase. I had thrown it for her some time ago and, like the plates, it was bone-dry. On the whole these visiting painters tend to ignore the shape of the plate or the rim and take colour across these boundaries. So when dealing with a 3-dimensional form Sally was uncomfortable with the fact that a pattern emerged. In the pottery world we’re told to decorate to ‘fit the form’. Perhaps it has to do with repeat designs for production versus one-of-a-kind canvases. I’m delighted to have these issues come up for discussion.

Sally used earthy colours for her plate, perhaps thinking of her recent time in Mexico.