ANNA LAMBERT New Work

Ceramicist Anna Lambert's work is deeply inspired by the dramatic landscape of the Airedale Valley. It is here that Anna makes her beautifully painted, hand-built earthenware ceramics to reflect her longstanding connection to the local environment and the progression of the seasons.

Anna's new work, which includes flared bowls, jugs, spoons and wall pieces, share a subdued palette of cool greys and greens. They are suffused with the dreamy, haunted colours that autumn and winter bring to her local landscape - the brooding moorland, bird-filled hedgerows, and the rejuvenating and peaceful atmosphere she finds in ancient apple orchards.

Using an extensive range of techniques for each piece, including altered clay slabs, modelling, slip and underglaze painting, Anna's hand-built forms reflect the constantly changing rural environment near her home. Her considerable talent as a painter is seen in the effective use of subtly-coloured slips over and under sgraffito etchings, used to great effect in the depiction of ghostly trees and misty Birchwood copses. This method is given added depth by the interaction of the chemical components in each of the many layers of slip.

At heart, she has always considered herself more 'maker' rather than 'artist', and this is still seen in her decorative and delicate new work - the neat- looking stacks of coordinating bowls, sets of twig-handled spoons and gnarled, thorny candlesticks.

In this show, which previews on 6th September, Anna will be bringing around 70 pieces of new work to the Contemporary Ceramics Centre, including twenty large vessels of around 50cm high. Most pieces are named after the location that inspired them.