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Animal Fantasies

Frances Woodley - Wales

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Frances Woodley studied at Cardiff College of Art in the 1970s and, unusually for the period, made figurative forms that disregarded the normal practices of studio pottery at that time. She combined ceramics with textiles and coloured the surfaces with enamel paints rather than fired glazes. Fantasy animal forms have been a major theme in her work in ceramics and in printmaking. She is now Head of Visual Art at the University of Glamorgan.

2. Goose Head, 1975 (20" high, base 12")
This is one of a pair made at the International Ceramic Symposium in Cardiff in 1975 and presented to the collection by the Welsh Arts Council in 1977 along with a number of pieces made at the event. The piece is modelled in white earthenware and then decorated with enamel paint, feathers, textiles and plastic flowers. The crowned head might suggest the grand image of a bust portrait of a King but the bright colours and 'tacky' materials are quite the opposite. Equally contradictory are the realistic feathers applied to this totally fanciful humanised bird. It is witty and ironic and, even 25 years on, still subversive in its approach to ceramics.

3. Lizard, 1975 (4.5" x 8")

This is a more straightforwardly representational piece made in hand-modelled glazed earthenware. It was also produced at the International Ceramic Symposium in Cardiff in 1975 and presented by the Welsh Arts Council in 1977.

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