Elizabeth Murphy (b. 1979) is a ceramic artist based in Oxfordshire with a unique approach towards ceramics. Referencing ancient archetypes, her hand built and thrown stoneware vessels reveal the poetry of traditional forms through textural interventions. 

Working in an improvisational and expressionistic style with meandering and woven texture, the vessel form is revealed, obscured, embraced and transformed by the applied surface decoration giving each piece a sense of movement. Glaze plays an important part adding extra depth to the surface revealing aspects of the texture and form. Each vessel is an investigation where no surface is the same and no two works are alike as each piece seems to lead on to another inquiry in different clay bodies, texture and glaze combinations. 

Sea Surface Full Of Clouds I

Wallace Stevens

In that November off Tehuantepec,
The slopping of the sea grew still one night
And in the morning summer hued the deck

And made one think of rosy chocolate
And gilt umbrellas. Paradisal green
Gave suavity to the perplexed machine

Of ocean, which like limpid water lay.
Who, then, in that ambrosial latitude
Out of the light evolved the morning blooms,

Who, then, evolved the sea-blooms from the clouds
Diffusing balm in that Pacific calm?
C'etait mon enfant, mon bijou, mon ame.

The sea-clouds whitened far below the calm
And moved, as blooms move, in the swimming green
And in its watery radiance, while the hue

Of heaven in an antique reflection rolled
Round those flotillas. And sometimes the sea
Poured brilliant iris on the glistening blue.

Recipient of the English Riviera Summer Open 2025 // Honourable Mention Award

Stoneware, Oxide and Glaze

17x44cm