Hilary Coole is a contemporary ceramic artist producing vessels and functional ware using the process of hand built, slip decorated stoneware slabs. She studied for a degree at Carmarthen School of Art and was awarded a 1st and the accolade of student of the year in 2015. A lifelong career as a graphic designer, coupled with an interest in surface pattern design have influenced her current body of work.
The thematic focus of Hilary’s work is specifically inspired by her mother’s clothing that featured vibrant 1950s patterns which are captured in her work from both her memories of her mother and old family photographs.
Hilary’s starting point was investigating ideas about belonging, home and a sense of place. This reflective thinking flowed into investigating the form and pattern of her mother’s garments translated into clay. She uses slips, paper resist and sgraffito onto the clay then constructs vessels from these highly decorated slabs.
She works from her home studio in the heart of rural Carmarthenshire and exhibits her work in galleries throughout Wales and England, at Art Fairs and is involved in her local Open Studios event.
Hilary’s intention is to evoke the fun, emotion and utopian aims of the 1950s in contrast to post war austerity. The work she produces is a colourful, sculptural and contemporary interpretation of an influential era in her life.
