Carving character out of the clay

Roger Malone meets acclaimed sculptor Amanda Popham whose work is full of quirky imagination. Pictures: Roger Malone

Amanda Popham’s figures are wistful, occasionally disconcerting – but always enchanting beings. Some are shaped into jugs where pointy hats can double as spouts. Others might be quirky teapots formed out of faces, or sometimes statuesque figures, all with enigmatic expressions. Some stand alone, others are joined as one – hinting at friendship, family or mirror images. With her love of bold chessboard-like check, recurring patterns and long gowns, Amanda’s figures can suggest a fusion between medieval couture and the work of such Victorian artists as Sir John Tenniel who illustrated Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

“It’s a silly way to make a living,” says this internationally acclaimed earthenware sculptor, almost apologising for having spent a creative lifetime giving substance to such feel-good flights of imagination. “But I don’t get tired of it because there is always another idea. I work long days and quite hard, but quickly. And I push myself if I have a deadline.”

She has been particularly busy recently finishing a collection of 60 pieces for her solo exhibition at The Steam Gallery in Beer, which opens today.

This celebrated ceramicist works from her home, a house almost lost amid a mesh of long narrow lanes near the Devon-Dorset border. When she and her husband moved to the Westcountry some 30 years ago and bought the property it was a derelict corrugated bungalow.

“We could either afford a house or a garden. We couldn’t afford both – so I said I’d rather have a garden.”

The bungalow had been for sale for so long that Amanda recalls the “for sale” sign had been overgrown by brambles. They lived in a caravan for ten years while the bungalow was demolished and they built the house themselves. Here, from her studio of engaging clutter and creativity, Amanda can look out on the three-acre garden which has been planted with a variety of trees.

“People think of me wandering around the countryside for inspiration, which I don’t. When I’m not working I do a bit of gardening. I grow vegetables. I walk the dogs. I walk out the door and then come back in and go to work.”

In her studio she carefully carves the latest shape out of clay.

“They have posture and gesture. I’m pushing them so as not to make one just like the other one. It isn’t a range. They are all individuals,” she says. “I use a matt glaze because I like it. A shiny glaze, to me, is tableware.”

A short stroll up the garden is a shed housing three kilns. Beneath the trees can be spotted several Popham “escapees” – feral figures that for one reason or another have been released into the wild.

You sense, even if Amanda was not a full-time potter, she would still be a creative person.

“There is the pleasure of doing things. The joy of making things – it is not just creating pottery. I like cooking and making a garden, even deciding what to make for supper,” she says.

She is pleased with the three-acre garden beckoning just beyond the studio window. Down the years Amanda has enjoyed creating the wood.

“It is all coming along very nicely. It’s surprising how quickly trees will grow,” she says.

Meanwhile, growing on her work bench is a mounting gathering of new figures. The faces can be beguiling and amusing. They cover the gamut of human emotions which is probably why we find them so endearing. In a strange way they are very like us. One enigmatic soul might embrace another enigmatic soul, cuddle a cat for comfort – or ride a crocodile. In Amanda’s surreal ceramic world any fantasy can happen, the finished article ranging from gentle whimsy to the slightly dark.

“You can have the idea in your head and then you have the idea in your hand,” she says of the way she works.

Having created the figure she then “paint its dreams, hopes and fears”.

“The joy is having the ideas, so as soon as you have the idea you are cheered. The figures are ambiguous. They suggest different moods. The figures have evolved. My hands are cleverer. I do it all the time and, when I’m demonstrating, I just do it and people think it looks easy. But when they try it they realise it is difficult.”

Leaving school at 16, Amanda worked on a farm for a while. She then enrolled at Bradford College of Art with the intention of becoming an illustrator. Fortunately someone suggested she applied to Portsmouth where she could do ceramics. This led to an MA at the Royal College of Art.

“I started making things and people wanted to buy them,” she says. “It was amazing that the pieces communicated to people like they did. People really wanted to have them. The guy next door wanted one. My landlord wasn’t even a collector, but he saw something in it and wanted one.”

It was while at the Royal College that in 1979 Amanda began selling work at Liberty in Regent Street.

“They would order 30 head and shoulder jugs. We’d do subjects like Shakespeare’s birthday and bridal things. Working closely with the buyer I learned about deadlines and selling. It was a collaboration. I had to make them and they were buying so it wasn’t sale or return.”

In 2000 the department closed and Amanda turned her attention to selling through galleries.

“The figures I make are not contrived. I work on something until I’m happy. But defining happiness is when the piece interests me. It is like stories when you quite like it if you don’t know what happens,” she says. “Sometimes people tell me what the pieces are about – when they do that is lovely.”

Amanda spent three months in Japan in 1995, having won the prestigious Japanese design INAX prize.

“I gained confidence. I’m not very good at going on holiday, but going there and working, and cycling from my flat to the studio, was just brilliant. When you see something very exciting it makes you want to make things.”

She has been making things for more than 40 years and doesn’t know how she gets the ideas.

Some are inspired by medieval allegories and symbolism, by nursery rhymes and everyday themes.

“Some come from mythology and religion. You can trace every bit of imagery back to somewhere. Every culture has its imaginative things,” she says. “Religion pervades society. I read the Bible occasionally, but only for the language and stories. It’s a great influence on our society whether we like it or not. My figures are a lot to do with relationships. People relate to each other and what is there.”

Self-contained, and absorbed in the work she creates, Amanda is content to remain immersed in her world of ceramics and is always looking forward to the next idea.

“I’m quite solitary. But I have worked with three children growing up.

“Now they all come back bringing their babies and it is pandemonium and I go into mum mode again,” she says. “Because I’m busy and love what I do I’m solitary but not lonely. If you are happy in your own company you aren’t lonely.”

It’s a silly way to make a living but I don’t get tired of it

Amanda Popham’s solo exhibition is at Steam Gallery in Beer from today until November 16.