From royalty to Rural Arts: the ‘rockstar ceramicist’ bringing wabi sabi to North Yorkshire

So it is something of a coup for Rural Arts’ creative producer Kate Redding to have secured three days of Appleby’s expertise for a series of workshops in Thirsk this September. She explained how the collaboration had come about:

“Our regular potters, the Arts Collective, came to us saying ‘we do ceramics all the time and there's always more to learn - can you get her (Rebecca) here?’ That’s how it started because they're all massive fans of hers.

“Rebecca is prestigious, renowned in the community - really she’s a rockstar!”

The rockstar tag doesn’t sit so easily with the unassuming artist from Chapel Allerton, Leeds who has been working in this field for 30 years.

“That’s hilarious,” she laughs, “I don’t feel like a rockstar but I am very passionate about what I do and I love to share that with others. I’ve developed various different surface techniques, whether it's textural or kind of flat colour. I like to give my all and I’m very excited to be at Rural Arts.”

The forms Appleby is best known for have a delicacy and appear as if they could disintegrate or fragment at any time. It’s a technique which has been much admired and led to Appleby being selected as one of the ten artists to take part in Award 2023 as part of the British Ceramic Biennial.

“I'm always trying to hybridise and balance the kind of organic, surface and texture with man-made," says Appleby. “It's a common theme and a lot of artists' work with that balancing of order with the antithesis of chaos and expression. That's really at the heart of everything that I do. The idea of wabi sabi, which is the Japanese aesthetic, is the beauty of imperfection.”

Appleby’s workshop for more advanced ceramicists is one of many pottery workshops coming up at The Courthouse venue. After starting at the beginning of May with a beginners session, the schedule of events ranges from ‘taste of’ classes for people curious about giving pottery a try to four and five week courses to get more in-depth.

“We're putting ceramics at the forefront of what we do,” said Redding “It's something that we do that’s really special and we've got some really skilled artists that really make it what it is.”

• The three day intensive introduction to surface decoration delivered by renowned artist Rebecca Appleby and focussing on qualities of mark making, colour, application and texture in clay takes place on Thursday 5th, Friday 6th, and Saturday 7th of September.

• Places can be booked at the Rural Arts website (www.ruralarts.org) and early booking is recommended.