Elspeth Rose - A Canine Cartoon Affair of the Ceramic Kind

Elspeth Rose

Illustrator, Ceramics

Yorkshire, UK

Mediums: Ceramic, acrylic, digital

Style: Cartoon

Favourite Quote: "Everything gets so difficult if you want to own things. You have to carry them around and watch over them. I just look at them — and then when I continue on my way I can remember them in my head. I prefer that to dragging a suitcase." Snufkin, Moomin

Favorite Book: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman

Favourite Movies: Elf, Brother Bear

I started playing with ceramics at school when I was sent to art class instead of detention, I loved the shapes and feel of the objects we created but especially enjoyed the decoration after they'd been fired. The challenge of painting on different surfaces and creating designs which spread across an entire object became something of an obsession, I wanted to see how small I could work and how much detail I could include whilst keeping the story of the object legible.

Can you tell us about jobs you have worked?

I've tried various jobs from working as a cinema to selling curtains but they've never lasted long, I can't go a day without picking up a pen or paintbrush and get ideas which keep me up at night. I want the viewers of my art to be pulled into the story, to pick up and feel an object which is one of a kind, textured and full of colour and life.

Elspeth Rose painted teapot

What influences you?

I'm heavily influenced by sighthounds, their dramatic outlines and delicate manners and movements are striking and transfer so nicely into works of art. Early on I was just painting their outlines and kept my work simple but as time has gone on I've experimented with various scenes and stories I wish to convey, I feel as though they've led me through my own self discovery and now, as I step away from, I am discovering the world through a new set of eyes. The curves, the movement and the beauty in the simplest of things and of the most vast.

Can you tell us about experiences with promoting your ceramics?

Work can be slow and at times hard going, conveying to people that each piece is hand painted and one of a kind has proved hard as they're so use to seeing things created on a mass scale in shops and on the high-street. I'm slowly building up a name for myself and have started working at shows to promote the work create, when people can see and feel what is before them they interact with the artwork in such a great, positive way. Answering questions and swapping ideas and shared inspiration is always something worth doing, people remember a smile and story, they remember what they've experienced and the next time they see you they come back for more. By becoming a date in their diary for shows and events you stamp your name for people to remember, the more shows you take part in the more lines your name has circling it.

Elspeth Rose ceramic

What are your future plans?

Over the next year I am hoping to play with various classic novel ideas through my ceramics, telling their various stories through an array of ceramics but especially teapots. The idea of a good book and a cup of tea fuelling the idea to create items which become as much as a part of your life as the novels you love.