Francesca King
Francesca is an established artist working in clay to produce beautiful handmade tiles, jewellery and portraits.
She achieved a BA with honours in 3d design glass with ceramics at Sunderland University, and she followed up on this years later to gain an MA in Fine art at York St.John University. She has a diverse knowledge of art and design, including ceramics, glass, printmaking, painting, drawing, digital media, photography and silhouette animation. Additionally she has several teaching qualifications. Recently Francesca won the first prize in the international Eleanor Worthington Disability Prize.
Francesca currently specialises in silhouette portraiture linked to storytelling, to create sculptural ceramic wall cameos. The work focuses on the beauty of the portrait in profile and the containment of personality in the shaping of the ceramic piece. Each form is sculpted and shaped by layers of clay, oxide and velvet under glaze to reveal landscapes, objects, creatures and characters. The portraits are a colourful feast for the eyes and a place to begin a story, especially when the light shines.
“I see the clay as a drawing tool, getting back into the studio to make the next piece which combines the Agate coloured clay mix with natural fauna and using the contouring construction has me excited!”
Francesca regularly exhibits with York Open Studios and the Northern Potters Association and has had exhibitions with several York galleries. Her public commissions include a leaded light window at Burton Agnes School near Driffield and another at Welton School Hull, along with stained glass windows in St Pius X Church Grimsby, and another at Blessed Sacrament Church Leicester.
Francesca’s many private commissions include her silhouette portraits, each being very personal pieces, with the unique personality and life story of the sitter.
She achieved a BA with honours in 3d design glass with ceramics at Sunderland University, and she followed up on this years later to gain an MA in Fine art at York St.John University. She has a diverse knowledge of art and design, including ceramics, glass, printmaking, painting, drawing, digital media, photography and silhouette animation. Additionally she has several teaching qualifications. Recently Francesca won the first prize in the international Eleanor Worthington Disability Prize.
Francesca currently specialises in silhouette portraiture linked to storytelling, to create sculptural ceramic wall cameos. The work focuses on the beauty of the portrait in profile and the containment of personality in the shaping of the ceramic piece. Each form is sculpted and shaped by layers of clay, oxide and velvet under glaze to reveal landscapes, objects, creatures and characters. The portraits are a colourful feast for the eyes and a place to begin a story, especially when the light shines.
“I see the clay as a drawing tool, getting back into the studio to make the next piece which combines the Agate coloured clay mix with natural fauna and using the contouring construction has me excited!”
Francesca regularly exhibits with York Open Studios and the Northern Potters Association and has had exhibitions with several York galleries. Her public commissions include a leaded light window at Burton Agnes School near Driffield and another at Welton School Hull, along with stained glass windows in St Pius X Church Grimsby, and another at Blessed Sacrament Church Leicester.
Francesca’s many private commissions include her silhouette portraits, each being very personal pieces, with the unique personality and life story of the sitter.
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