Sally and Alasdair Neil MacDonell

BIOGRAPHY: Sally MACDONELL
Sally Macdonell’s ceramic sculptures are full of spirit, often humorous, always enchanting.

Her porcelain figures are hand-modelled from slabs, coloured with copper oxides and engobes before a final smoking. This process enriches the surface with subtle, warm tones and patterns and has become an increasing dimension in Sally’s work in combination with small pewter details and the occasional use of mixed media. Curvaceous female figures are filled with life by capturing delightfully naïve expressions.

After studying for a Degree in Ceramics at Bath, she set up a studio with her husband, ceramicist Alasdair Neil Macdonell, in 1995. She continues to be fascinated by people and fire; exploring the human form in porcelain and stoneware clay and experimenting with the effects of smoke with her glazes.

Sally now exhibits throughout Britain, and in 1996, was given her first exhibition in America. Having received a Crafts Council Setting-up Grant, she plans to develop a range of larger sculptural figures. Sally’s work can be found in private collections in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, U.S.A. and across the UK.











I saw Sally and her sculptural ceramic art for the first time yesterday,I found them both captivating,enchanting,quirky and wonderful!
It is almost impossible to walk away from her work,it draws in a way that I can only describe as spellbinding.

http://www.macdonell-ceramics.co.uk/

Sally isn't the only ceramic artist in the family,her husband Neil also produces very striking pieces, the impessed decoration is mainly achieved using items that he finds lying around and about ,plastic food containers that have been run over by cars was one example given .

here are a couple of fairs where they will be standing,the Notts one is going to be very special I think

http://beverevivis.com/artists?artistID=659

Sally comes from Boston Lincolnshire but we don't get to enjoy her work in exhibitions around here as she now resides in Bath.

Mask plaque by Neil MacDonnell

Two small wall plaques by Alasdair Neil MacDonell:





P.S. Should we create 2 separate threads or add Alasdair Neil to the title?

Neil makes the plaques.
I have seen very similar pottery on a day trip to Rhodes so I was put off from buying Neil's work.

I must try to get a potter's mark

Sally's work just gets better and better

http://macdonell-ceramics.co.uk/about/podcast

I really really like these. I need to find the strangest one I can and mount it on the back of the loo door.

The stranger the better IMO

We have a couple of Alasdair's masks on my dads living room wall. They are stunning things. But according to my father who spoke to Sally earlier this year a thing of the past. He has evolved his style and what he is producing now looks very different. Of at least that is what my Dad believes she said.

My father and I went a bit mad at a recent auction and bought a large group of Alasdair's masks. Most will be hung in my fathers living room with the odd one sold off to help claw back the fortune spent. His work is in our opinion stunning. Stupidly I have not taken any pictures of the backs to show the mark but half of them are early unmarked ones the others carry his initials and the word Bath for ID. All I am told are over 17 years old and probably purchased in the 1990's or 80's.

Enjoy

Here are some more

They keep coming

Starting to feel embarrassed now but god I love some of these masks.

Some extra shots of my favourites

That Felix Dennis estate auction held by Bigwoods/Halls near Stratford had an absolutely fantastically ecletic mixture of one man's collecting frenzy.There was an awful lot of stuff in that catalogue. The estimate for this Mcdonnell lot was fairly steep,and at least five of them had condition issues. Nice pieces,which generally fitted in with the whole exotic nature of the giant collection.Hope you did not pay too much! There ere a couple of Sally Mcdonnell pieces somewhere there as well.