The preternaturally lovely setting of Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Gardens (is there a more beautiful park in the world?) not only forms the backdrop of a real charmer of an exhibition, it is also right at the heart of the works of art on display, too.  For Clay in Bloom, an exhibition celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Scottish Potters Association, is essentially a response to a brief to ‘explore and explain the world of plants’ – the same raison d’être of the Botanic Gardens of Scotland.

Taking this simple earthy and elemental concept as the starting point to inspire surely the most earthy and elemental of crafts to create an exhibition is a good move by the SPA.  I mean, how easy would it have been to simply celebrate their spirited thirty years existence with a pat on the back look at their back catalogue?  With Clay in Bloom the SPA has instead chosen to look forward rather than back, and judging by the work on display it’s paid off in spade-fuls.  In short, the exhibition is a timely reminder that in this all singing and all dancing digital age, traditional skills are well and truly thriving in Scotland - blooming even.

The quality, range and diversity of the work on display is affirming, and judging by the response of a plethora of lively visitors on a balmy Sunday afternoon, captivating.  Forming something of a taster to the exhibition, Susan Nuttgens extraordinarily realistic giant conkers (almost like props from the set of The Borrowers) and Alan Gaff’s ‘Tree Cones Avenue’ sit seamlessly in-situ within the gardens proper – a touch that works incredibly well.  Gaff’s arrangement of stoneware fir cones is a representation, in microcosm, of the avenue of giant redwoods in Benmore Botanic Gardens, and it forms a fitting prelude to the pottery procession in the nearby exhibition hall.

In terms of the main body of the show, the fragility and delicacy of nature is embodied in works such as Simon Ward’ pure, transparent and blemish-free ‘Species’ series; and Veronica Newman’s ‘Now Blooms the Lily’, where porcelain and paper clay leaves seem to almost hold the promise that they might blow away at any point.  By contrast Miriam Reid’s stout and stalwart ‘Life’s a Beech’ brings out the strong, abstract forms of interlocking beech seeds encased within their shell; and Brian Cook Shand takes the Rhododendran - possibly one of the sturdiest of nature’s flowers – and boldly reinterprets the form into a series of big and beefy wheel thrown, high fired white stoneware bowls and plates, audacious in their scale and skilful in their rendering. 

Particularly striking is the conceptual piece by Midlothian based Philip Revell, which attempts to capture the surface of the bark of the birch tree in ‘Impressions of Silver Birch’.  The textured slabs form an intriguing and challenging interpretation of the alchemical processes at nature’s heart.  Similarly, Alice Buttress’s ‘Cycle of Life’ molten glass and stoneware clay pieces recall the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe, who herself strove to explore the very essence and life blood of nature.

On this note of mutuality between ceramics and painting it’s perhaps fitting to give the final word to Fiona Duckett, Chairman of the Scottish Potters Association, and a key exhibitor with ‘Autumn Treasure’ a series of unique ‘lustre glaze’ pieces.  Fiona explains that with ‘Clay in Bloom’, “we wanted to show the fantastic things that are made in ceramic in Scotland today - that so many people are unaware of.  Galleries tend not to have so many ceramic pieces in their collections as these tend to be slightly cheaper and therefore don’t make them as much money as say painting, for example.  In this way a prevailing culture has developed that seems not to cherish ceramic in the same way as painting, which results in a scenario whereby people who are happy to spend a few thousand pounds on a painting, will haggle with me over a thirty pound bowl!  I find that astounding as no less creativity has gone into my pieces than the painter’s.  It’s just a public perception, and I don’t know how we can change it?” 

I know how it might be changed - with more exhibitions like this.

Find out more about the events programme, The Scottish Potters Association and the background to the exhibition.

If you have any thoughts about Fiona's comments about ceramics in Scotland make them heard through our Crafts Discussion Forum.