STEPHANIE JOHNSON

Stephanie Johnson, ceramic artist based in southwest France practice focusses on hand building with native clay, porcelain and stoneware clays, and works on handmade paper using ink made from foraged materials.

Regularly photographing the landscape and environment around her studio in France, since 2002, these studies now inform her ceramics and works on paper. Following a pause of twenty years, Stephanie has now returned to her practice and completed an MA in Ceramics in January 2021. After completing a degree in ceramics and glass (1979-1982) at Leicester Polytechnic, I continued to produce sculptural ceramics whilst teaching pottery in London for some years.

Reflecting on home, place and habitat her practice focuses on the landscapes and environment where she lives in SW France. Her surroundings are both wild and tamed – farm, field and woodland.

Since moving to France she has used photography to study and document the undulating formation of the land and the traces made by human intervention. Focusing deep into the landscape searching for line, form and detail created by the integration of human work and natural landforms. These studies, in turn, inform her mark making in clay and on paper.

 Stephanie works with a variety of materials, methods and techniques connecting her practice directly with the environment. Originally, the pond in her garden was a clay pit where clay was taken to build her house, at a time when materials were locally sourced and prepared on site. It has become increasingly important to Stephanie to align with this ethic and she searches for locally found materials to use within her practice.

Digging and preparing clay from the pond and experiment to gain a workable clay body, integrating porcelain and recycled stoneware clays she has collected over the years. The clays are randomly mixed, aiming to produce a subtle, earthy palette. Stephanie makes inks and paper from foraged and recycled materials for the creation of works on paper, incorporating clay, pigments and natural fibres to aid strength and add colour and texture.