“Here, there is something indefinable, where astonishment forces us to abandon all search for the known. Thus begins a journey of the gaze and, as far as l’m concerned, a fascination for a world that preserves the magic of the unknown.”
Photographer Fao Wardson commenting on my work.
Sarah is a prize-winning ceramic artist. She came to ceramics after studying fine art. Partly self-taught, she also studied with accomplished professionals over many years. She became a full time ceramic artist over 15 years ago and exhibits and sells work internationally. She uses some unconventional techniques to make her distinctive pieces.
Sarah’s work continues to mature. She values innate responses to the mysterious and unknown. Daily walks through the landscape around her studio continue to inform her work.
Seeing something indistinct, maybe on the horizon or close at hand: an unexplained colour, a pleasing shape. For a moment, appreciated in the abstract, then with the inevitable process of recognising the ordinary object, pale blue flint, animal tracks, the gate in the distance, part of a toy, a piece of agricultural machinery – the experience is transformed. This juxtaposition is also welcome, the abstracted and the defined. We could say Sarah is dealing with the liminal.
Sarah describes her work:
“Landscape is pivotal, expressed obliquely. A distillation of responses to mud and weather, transient moments of sun and season and the clay in my hand. As I explore shapes, colours, textures and markings, enduring themes emerge and repeat.”
See and buy my work
From time to time there are pieces available for sale on this website, see “available” , which will allow you to buy that piece direct from my studio.
My work is on sale at selected galleries:
Bircham gallery
Holt, North Norfolk
Contemporary Ceramics Centre
Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3BF (opposite the British Museum).
Current exhibitions
Gallery 57
24th October – 20th December 2026
57 Tarrant Street, Arundel, West Sussex BN18 9DJ
Bircham gallery
3rd October – 4th November with Anna Perlin
Coming up
Contemporary Ceramics Centre
12th August – 4th September 2027
63 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury London WC1B 3BF
Use the contact form to get in touch and find out more.
Find me on Instagram Sarah Jenkins Ceramics where I regularly post images of my work.
More about Sarah:
“During Higher Education I studied Fine Art and became interested in ceramics. My education included a diploma by Independent study, where I focused on ceramics. I lived in London for many years making ceramics sporadically, earning a living in the building trade as a plasterer and decorator.
I moved back to my roots in north Essex several years ago, working as a dedicated artist, making ceramics and exhibiting in galleries across the UK and beyond.
I live and work in north Essex, my studio is surrounded by farmland.
All my work is inspired by landscape. I use a combination of basic slips, glazes and oxides that are matt and earthy. I build pieces by hand, sometimes assembling slabs, and sometimes starting by coiling.
Each stage takes time and has its own meaning. Mark-making demands that I stay in the moment. Pieces are usually fired several times before they are completed.
Sculptural work
Most of my sculptural work to-date is slab-built. I aim to distil the expanse of landscape into a concentrated structure, evocative of walks, memories of weather and texture.
Vessels
I like the word vessel, the association with boats as a mode of travel and the broader possibilities of being a container. For these large pots I mostly work towards simple timeless forms. I am inspired by memories of ancient ceramics I loved to see in museums when I was young.
Be aware that most of my pieces are not watertight, the vessels are sacred and ceremonial, not intended or suitable for flowers or food.
Small pots
I have come to find these smaller pots an important way to bring new shapes and colours to life. I have the same intentions with them as the larger vessels. Each one is a unique creation individually crafted.
More work
My work also includes framed wall-mounted pieces. In the past I have made prize-winning slip-cast lampshades, one of which is in the collection of The Museum de Carouge in Geneva.
More about my work…
I am constantly on a quest for the right resonating frequency, describing nature and the rightness of it, a search for truth.
This means my work keeps evolving and changing. Across all the different pieces and types of work, there’s an underlying consistency of intent, a continued connection to landscape. I follow my inspiration, always building by hand, finding different paths to the same goals. Although different responses mean there is variety, common to all approaches is the shared thread: hand-building; using clay and celebrating landscape in its broadest sense.
