BIOGRAPHY

Sarah Walton produced salt glaze stoneware at her studio at Alciston between 1975 and 2019. She initially concentrated on thrown tableware, gaining recognition for its restrained authority, but in 1985, began developing large handbuilt and press-moulded forms for outdoors, notably birdbaths. She is particularly known for her series of birdbaths reminiscent of square boulders, set on timber bases. In those years she also experimented with making sizeable abstract sculpture, using her salt kiln to produce it. She also tried working with cast iron and lead.

In 2019 she went right down in scale and started to make small sculptures inspired by landscape. She continues to make birdbaths but in reduced numbers. All her work is now fired in electric kilns.

Her work can be bought from her studio in Sussex. To arrange a mutually suitable time to call in, she recommends that you email or telephone her beforehand on smwalton45@gmail.com or 07776238972.

Of her work, she writes:

"Lewes Station, Sussex, England: 1996
Yesterday I sat waiting for a train at a local station and watched one of the attendants as he signalled trains to depart. I've observed him over the years, the spring in his walk, the economy of his movements, his relaxed but attentive ways. He dismisses trains with sensuous ease and whistles while he sweeps the stairs at night. In a sense, he is a model for how I try to work now, and even for what I make too. I took him for ordinary until I saw he is so individual.

Born 1945
Grew up and was educated in London

1960-64
Chelsea Art School (Painting)

1966-71
Middlesex Hospital, London (SRN)

1971-73
Harrow Art School (Harrow Diploma in Studio Pottery)
Apprenticeships with David Leach and Zelda Mowat

In 1975
Set up her own studio at Alciston, Sussex.

Awards:

1975
Crafts Council Grant to establish a workshop

1978
South East Arts Bursary Award

1990
John Ruskin Craft Bursary

1993
South East Arts Major Award

1998
South East Arts Award

Work in Public Collections

Bell Collection, Clare College, Cambridge
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Crafts Council, London
Contemporary Arts Society, London
South East Arts Collection, Hove Museum, Sussex
Castle Museum, Nottingham
Crafts Centre, Northern Arts, Cleveland
Norwich Museum, Norfolk
City Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent
Newport Museum, Gwent, Wales
Arts Centre, University of South Wales, Aberystwyth
Paisley Museum, Scotland
Glasgow Museum, Scotland
Allen Gallery, Alton, Hampshire
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, USA
Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia
2 pieces at the Aberdeen Museum

Bibliography

- 'Salt-glaze', Crafts, 23 (1976), pp.12-3
- 'Nursing the Kiln', Crafts, 36 (1979)
- 'Salt and Form', Ceramics Monthly, 31:9 (1983)
- 'Sarah Walton - Saltglaze', CR, 104 (1987)
'CPA New Members', CR, 50 (1978)
CC (1980), p.64
CPA (1980), (1983), (1986), (1989), (1992), (1997), (2000), (2006), (2008), (2012)
Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, 'Domestic Pots - Domestic Potters', CR, 92 (1985)
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Sarah Walton, Ceramic Series 14, text by Sarah Walton (1986)
Margot Coatts, 'Sarah Walton', SP, 24 (1996)
Frankel (2000), pp.190-3
Cochrane (2001), pp.63-5
Hannah Wingrave, 'Sarah Walton', Ceramics in Society, 47 (2002)
Bonnie Kemske, 'Life Unfolding', CR, 256 (2012)