Sladers Yard
Contemporary British Art, Furniture and Craft.
Licensed Café and Live Evening Events
Of Myths and Moons
paintings by Frances Hatch
sculpture & drawings by Clare Trenchard
ceramics by Akiko Hirai
furniture by Petter Southall
Saturday 24 June until Sunday 3 September
This summer Sladers Yard brings together the life and energy of Clare Trenchard’s sculpture
and drawings with Frances Hatch’s atmospheric moonlit landscapes, the ethereally beautiful
ceramics of Akiko Hirai and Petter Southall’s dreamy furniture.
Clare Trenchard studied sculpture at Chelsea School of Art and now lives and works near
Bridport in Dorset. Her sculptures are modelled mainly from life in clay, plaster or wax and
cast in bronze or bronze resin. She makes large dynamic drawings and collages on canvas as
well as smaller drawings and paintings on paper. Her animals, whether in sculpture or on
paper, capture the essence and feel of their subject. Dogs, goats, ostriches, horses and
wolves, all exude such character and purpose that one instinctively reacts as if they were real.
With her Haremen however she takes a step further, tapping into a kind of mythic life force,
powerful, sexy and jubilant. This show also includes her diary-like sketchbook drawings of
people asleep on trains, people waiting in the oncology department. With this major
exhibition, Clare is reaching her full confidence, daring to challenge and delight.
Frances Hatch says the moon has ‘called me out to paint as it rises and sets all along
the Chesil over this last year.’ In this show she offers moonlight mixed with the
earths of each place where she has painted creating an extraordinarily intense and
beautiful body of work. Frances paints en plein air armed simply with paper and a
portable toolkit containing some gouache, water colour or acrylic paint and a binding
medium for the rocks and material she finds in the environment around her.
Frances Hatch studied visual art at Cambridge, Aberystwyth and Goldsmiths and has
an MA in printmaking from Wimbledon College of Art. Her work has been won
prizes, awards and accolades particularly recently. This collection of work is probably
the strongest she has produced yet.
Akiko Hirai came to the UK from Japan to study first at the University of
Westminster then at Central St. Martins. She now practises her ceramic art in Stoke
Newington, London. From the start she has been heralded as a unique talent. Her
intensely handmade tableware has the purity of salt. Deeply textured, glazed in soft
white, matt black and natural colours, her forms are those of workware, simple and
satisfying. She chooses very rough dark clay often glazing it with white, forming a
veil between the rough forms underneath and the smooth calm of the exterior. Her
range is extensive. Fine pieces of porcelain join Moon Jars and deeply glazed platters.
Award-winning designer craftsman, Petter Southall has been making his distinctive furniture
at his studio outside Bridport since 1991. With a highly skilled team of craftsmen and
apprentices, he makes his designs by hand using an innovative combination of boat-building
and fine cabinet-making techniques. Petter’s designs have a distinctive Scandinavian
confidence and simplicity. He works in unique and beautiful pieces of oak, ash, elm and
other Northern European hardwoods, often using wood sourced from the local area. He
specialises in steam bending thick solid boards into the arches, twists, curves and rings so
striking in his designs. Finished with natural oils and tactile textures, his furniture is made to
be used, bringing pleasure every day to the home, work place or public space. Petter’s
workshop is near Bridport and his showroom is at Sladers Yard, the Georgian warehouse
he has converted into a leading art gallery and licensed café.
For more information please contact Anna Powell at Sladers Yard, Contemporary British Art,
Furniture & Craft, West Bay Bridport Dorset DT6 4EL t: 01308 459511
e: gallery@sladersyard.co.uk Open: Monday to Saturday 10am – 4pm, Sundays 12 – 4pm
www.sladersyard.co.uk