JAN HITE

Jan is based in Haslemere, Surrey and works with white clay to produce sculptures and vessels exploring form and its place in space. Simple shapes with apertures, and possibly free moving additions, explore geometry and balance. Circular pieces ‘float’ from their plinths whilst square forms utilize repeated proportions.

After a career in business, starting as a computer programmer in the mid-sixties, she returned to art some 25 years ago with sculptures from a life model. Although still producing figurative sculptures she has moved much more towards the abstract form.

Sculptural Forms

A chance discovery of a white-firing clay with amazing handbuilding attributes means that she is constantly seeing how far she can take this material. All her pieces are developmental, one form generates ideas for further work. Her most frequent thought is: “I wonder if that could work?”

Glazed vessel forms

She frequently produces a vessel/pot piece, but it has NO PRACTICAL VALUE, it will not hold water and could never be used a vase. She thinks of these as sculptures in the shape of a pot.

Raku

As a member of Wey Ceramics Society, she was enthusiastic when they decided to acquire a RAKU kiln but was not personally interested in raku firing. She now has her own raku kiln and explores combining various raku techniques within one piece. She also enjoys the conviviality of the raku process and always love the communal oooh when a piece is extracted from the kiln at 1000⁰ AND SURVIVES. She has called some of these pieces ‘wabi sabi’ which is a Japanese aesthetic sometimes described as one of appreciating beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature.

Firing Temperatures

The low fired white sculptures have only been fired to 1040⁰. Although this keeps them as light coloured as possible it does mean that they are not frost proof and are unsuitable to display outdoors.

Alba by Jan Hite Ceramica Sculpture on Stained Wooden Plinth  £195